I'm 58 and have been continuously employed as a software engineer since my 20's. Even now I can find new jobs. I have watched friends & colleagues wind up in the situation of being unemployed (e.g. due to being laid off and being unable to find new work). Generally this was due to them getting complacent, staying at one place too long, and not keeping skills current. I've consciously avoided falling into this trap by continuously learning, changing jobs when no longer growing in my current job, and preferring start-ups (which tend to be new development using new technology). While this has kept me employed over the years, it does exact a toll. Sometimes I think if I had gone into another field (medicine, law, academia) I'd be coasting toward retirement now instead of working burn-out hours at a software start-up. The question in my mind is increasingly not "can I keep my career going?", but instead "is it worth it?". Sigh. Not sure what advice to give anyone, but the above is my experience FWIW.
