I hit the 40 year mark as a full-time professional software developer this year, although I was programming for about 9 years before that.
While I have some technical observations and opinion that have served me well, I would like to take this opportunity to express a non-technical opinion here.
The software industry has become extremely youth-oriented with conspicuous ageist policies. This is a problem as wisdom is ignored or dismissed only to be rediscovered and repackaged commercially time after time, but how does it affect you?
The answer is that you need to plan early for your retirement. With the short job duration and explicit age discrimination in hiring you're probably going to be forced out of the industry before the tradition age. Plan for it.
While I have some technical observations and opinion that have served me well, I would like to take this opportunity to express a non-technical opinion here.
The software industry has become extremely youth-oriented with conspicuous ageist policies. This is a problem as wisdom is ignored or dismissed only to be rediscovered and repackaged commercially time after time, but how does it affect you?
The answer is that you need to plan early for your retirement. With the short job duration and explicit age discrimination in hiring you're probably going to be forced out of the industry before the tradition age. Plan for it.