Sounds like you're proving my point for me. If this guy started working 30 years ago doing COBOL at IBM, he's smart enough, but this is just all he knows, this is how his colleagues and peers were, they worked and went home. That's the culture he was steeped in. Internet kids forget that there is a huge world of computing outside of websites. All this guy needs is to be shown that there's another way. But as far as he knows, he's doing everything right, and can't understand why he can't get a job, while everyone's complaining they can't hire. You think a H1B will be any better than him?
Who said anything about H1Bs? The only thing you and the OP seem capable of doing is whining about age, when that has nothing to do with anything, and making asinine assumptions about the way other people hire.
We're not hiring H1Bs. We're not discriminating based on age. We're hiring talented, knowledgable people in a knowledge-based economy.
You don't want to educate yourself, upgrade your skills in your own time, keep your own knowledge of the industry current? That's perfectly fine. You want a job that lets you re-use the same knowledge for 30 plus years with no need for effort on your own time to keep you relevant to a changing marketplace? That's fine too. Go stamp out license plates or resurface roadways.
But don't whine about how this industry is so mean to you because of your age. The only thing that's being discriminated against here is your unwillingness to put in the effort to keep up with the changing needs of the people looking to pay money for the right knowledge.
You want a job that lets you re-use the same knowledge for 30 plus years with no need for effort on your own time to keep you relevant to a changing marketplace?
You don't get it. For most old COBOL geezers, that's just how they've always worked, they don't know any different - and neither would you in their shoes. All their peers and their managers are that way, that's normal to them, just as blogging and GitHub is normal for us. Show 'em there's another way and they'll take to it like a duck to water.
But don't whine about how this industry is so mean to you because of your age.
I'm in my mid 30s, and haven't encountered ageism myself. But I am aware that it is a huge problem, and when I'm hiring, I don't overlook these guys, because they don't have the latest buzzwords on their CV, and 90% of the time, I make a good call. A few are like you say, stagnant. Most just need their eyes opening a little.
