My experience also says no. The two issues I'm facing are:
1. Due to technology churn, after a couple years of experience, your experience loses its market value faster than you can get new experience.
2. At 40, I'm starting to feel age discrimination. When you go on an interview and everyone else is <25, you see that you "aren't a good cultural fit". Younger programmers have started talking down to me like my experience is irrelevant. Then they ask me to debug their code for them.
As a programmer, you can make good money from 25-35. After that, it's starting to look like it's over.
My experience also says no. The two issues I'm facing are:
1. Due to technology churn, after a couple years of experience, your experience loses its market value faster than you can get new experience.
2. At 40, I'm starting to feel age discrimination. When you go on an interview and everyone else is <25, you see that you "aren't a good cultural fit". Younger programmers have started talking down to me like my experience is irrelevant. Then they ask me to debug their code for them.
As a programmer, you can make good money from 25-35. After that, it's starting to look like it's over.