Honda to scrap retirement age for software engineers

Life time employment and seniority, is that something new in Japan?

Oh the irony, software engineering is the realm of a young person's mind. Keeping the senior engineers will simply keep the higher salaries with low quality code. Basic code should be "written" by AI algos anyway. Honda falling farther and farther behind. Put my 15 years in at Honda Research so a bit sad.

Oh the irony, software engineering is the realm of a young person's mind. Keeping the senior engineers will simply keep the higher salaries with low quality code. Basic code should be "written" by AI algos anyway. Honda falling farther and farther behind. Put my 15 years in at Honda Research so a bit sad.

You need both the young talent right out of university and the grizzled veterans who have been there and done that. I just retired from a software intensive R&D environment and don't think the older engineers are somehow out of date. They are not ! The new engineers bring the latest knowledge to the table but they have no experience in the simulation labs, no experience in a test and evaluation environment and that is where experience comes in. They come in brimming with ideas but lack an understanding of how to make it all happen. The old hands know. They know how to avoid many mistakes saving time and money in development. The old hands understand what has to be accomplished to bring an idea someone has to fruition as a usable product. The old timers know how to implement and from my experience they are happy to integrate the new tech and new ideas the young grads bring to the table.

About time !

why should perfectly capable people in companies be forced to retire at 65, while we have these incompetent oyaji politicians still hanging around in their 80’s

Promising news. I sometimes think early retirements at 62 or 65 have been negative for Japan's tech, manufacturing and engineering industries. These people were around in the 1970s and 1980s as many of Japan's industries headed to the top. It's a shame to lose that expertise.

Theres no reason many can't work into their 70s and 80s.

What happens to people with failing health problems at 65, and they have had enough of working? Will they loose out on pension rights if they step down? Will the co medical care stop? Why can't they officially retire at 65, how about his as a suggestion, still remain on the Co books as an advisor, this way the retirees can come and go as they feel fit to do so, yet still give vital skills and information that he co requires

You need both the young talent right out of university and the grizzled veterans who have been there and done that. I just retired from a software intensive R&D environment and don't think the older engineers are somehow out of date. They are not ! The new engineers bring the latest knowledge to the table but they have no experience in the simulation labs, no experience in a test and evaluation environment and that is where experience comes in. They come in brimming with ideas but lack an understanding of how to make it all happen. The old hands know. They know how to avoid many mistakes saving time and money in development. The old hands understand what has to be accomplished to bring an idea someone has to fruition as a usable product. The old timers know how to implement and from my experience they are happy to integrate the new tech and new ideas the young grads bring to the table.

And that is where you are precisely wrong.

Step one of raising the age to get your pension cause “people can still work until 70, see?”

words are fun, but execution is very difficult

old hands don't know what they don't know.

I just retired from a software intensive R&D environment..

So you are now a senior software developer with decades of experience and before that, clergy expert, city development expert, wild life preservation expert, both helo and fighter aircraft pilot plus aviation expert, chemicals expert, military officer, EV expert, trucker... amazing, what else is missing...

I would also suggest Honda beef up its CYBER-SECURITY, especially when it comes to R & D and innovative tech. Because, you-know-who, (cough - ccp parasites- cough) will steal it.

Also, do stringent background checks on whomever you employ. Not all may be Japanese,even if they have Japanese names. They might be serving the communist leeches.

So you are now a senior software developer with decades of experience and before that, clergy expert, city development expert, wild life preservation expert, both helo and fighter aircraft pilot plus aviation expert, chemicals expert, military officer, EV expert, trucker... amazing, what else is missing...

I have had a long and varied life in an out of the military,flying for the military and commercial operators, and a too long sojourn in transportation, but the last 17 years were in an R&D environment working with software and hardware engineers married to an electrical engineer with a specialty in control systems analysis. Our dinner conversations are not like yours ! The last six years working specifically with a software program I cannot name here that has moved into the Agile environment, which is really interesting stuff and very different from how we approached software before. And we have 50 and 60 year olds that are on top of this innovating with the new hires. I know in my own case I am a heck of a lot better at my job now than I was when I started. All those mistakes from my younger days and the lessons learned made me a lot more productive later in my career. But you have to age and get to that point to see it.

old hands don't know what they don't know.

The heck we don't! The new hires would bust our balls. Fact is we all have requirements for ongoing training on the latest tech. And if you are good leader, which is what you become as you work your way up, you listen to you new people and learn from them. That has always been my way of leading. Leadership by walking around. Talk to your people. Pick their brains and learn. Don't imagine you know it all because you don't. If you think you do then you in trouble and so is your organization. Always have an open door and an open ear. We work collaboratively young and old and learn from each other. Our organization is very successful that way.

But you, hire the young while they still know everything.

You need both the young talent right out of university and the grizzled veterans who have been there and done that. I just retired from a software intensive R&D environment and don't think the older engineers are somehow out of date. They are not ! The new engineers bring the latest knowledge to the table but they have no experience in the simulation labs, no experience in a test and evaluation environment and that is where experience comes in. They come in brimming with ideas but lack an understanding of how to make it all happen. The old hands know. They know how to avoid many mistakes saving time and money in development. The old hands understand what has to be accomplished to bring an idea someone has to fruition as a usable product. The old timers know how to implement and from my experience they are happy to integrate the new tech and new ideas the young grads bring to the table.

And that is where you are precisely wrong.

Sorry, didn't mean to be so blunt. Just my experience is that a 65 year old "coder" typically brings nothing to the table except "don't" mentality. They also inhibit risk taking and creativity in the intense world of cutting edge coding.