I have been surprised/hurt at the lack of these opportunities. I make myself very available to interns, sometimes, we stumble on great discussions, but they insist on doing it all on their own. People closer to my cohort often reach out for mentoring. I don’t know if it’s an ageism thing, or I’m just an asshole and I can’t see it, or what. I’ve decided to quit trying so hard to “give to the following generation”. I’m glad to share, but it’s not worth my own sense of “not mattering anymore.”

Other industries definitely have it better in regards to mentorship and passing the torch on so to speak. I've not once seen an apprenticeship style program for software developers, even though it's the perfect industry for it. There's not really a graceful ageing out process for the industry either. It seems the only pathways are moving up into management. At that point, often your software engineering knowledge gets put to the side, and new developers don't get access to it.

I've worked a few times with people I thought were just leadership jockeys their whole career, and then it turns out they were actually software developers for 20 years prior to that. They had all pretty much washed their hands of software, and their attitude was "Well, what would I know now. Not really my scene anymore.". That's a lot of experience thrown out the window.