I'm 48, and I haven't encountered ageism yet. I haven't seen it, among good technical people. The hard part is that by the time you're in your late 40s, you've probably peaked out on advancement. Even if you go into management (which isn't really "advancement"), you're just going to ceiling out there instead.
I've seen a lot of people around that age strike out on their own and start new businesses. I think that would be the "advancement" path for those who are interested in that.
That's exactly where I'm at. Building a startup from 20 years of accumulated experience in enterprise. I see a massive pain point and no tool that really addresses it - just a bunch of hacks and workarounds that everyone uses.
I like a lot of things about enterprise development, but I dislike a bunch of things, too. If this all works, I get to create a startup environment and total control (much more pleasant working conditions) and the potential for more substantial reward, but I can keep working on problems I like to work on.
Good technical people appreciate others who are of equal or greater skill. And I've noticed older (no offense to you folks; I'm speaking relatively) people tend to abhor office politics and the like. Things got done because they needed to get done, not to further some hidden, convoluted, agenda.
Most of the people in the upper tiers got there in their early to mid 30s.
I think it's because generally as you get older, you realise that winning office politics points doesn't really give you any reward. Any small moment of gain is fleeting, and you exchange that for destructive behaviour.
It's not to say that older people can't be petty, just that proactively engaging in politics seems to be seen as not particularly worth it. My frame of reference is that I've just turned 40 - I will probably feel differently again in 10 years :)
Once you reach a certain salary as an engineer the only way to make more money is to go in as an owner either as an early hire in a startup or as a founder. You can also get stock options and wait for your company to get bought. Other than that it's pretty much all down hill.
