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I never really noticed when I was younger, but now that I'm getting older and my career is not taking off like I thought I notice not many older people in the corporate world.
So you see many people aged 25-45 in the corporate world.
But how about the older people who don't make manager level?
And how about if they try to find another job? I don't see many positions that say they want someone with 20 years of experience. 10 years and under seems to be the sweet spot.
There are no jobs asking for the 30 years experience I have and when I apply to any position I'm qualified for nothing happens. I get that I'm not ever going to make what I used to but I have to make something! I am on my 2nd layoff since 2009 and the only chance I have is to gain some freelance jobs; this is not paying the bills!
there are some jobs with high stress with high mortality rate that want smart mature people, welfare dept is full of them. if you drop dead they dont have to pay the pension.
I, too, am curious about your question. What you notice is true, sadly. Older people are considered throwaway. I'm in my early 40s and in IT, an industry openly hostile to older workers. What's funny is that I know more about IT than any kid even 10 years out of college. I spend extraordinary amounts of time keeping up with my industry, but I am finding trouble finding work. I removed my military history from my resume because it severely dates me and shows I'm in my 40s.
I, for one, don't plan on working at a certain large retailer at minimum wage. I suspect this is where many go. I've seen it.
I work as a trainer for a very large Management Consulting Company with offices all over America and most of our employees have a college degree and everyone works in a professional office setting. In my travels to offices all over America I have a chance to observe our staff and new employees. We have almost no employees over 50 years old who are not in management. Almost every new employee hired is 25 to 40 years old. The only people over 50 are senior management types who survived countless downsizings over the years. Most older non management types are pushed out when they reach about 40.
What a sad state of affairs that the employees of a major company are only valuable for 15 years of their lives.
I see people that old in the corporate world. Just not in non-manager positions. Which makes sense to me. Those positions are lower paid and require less experience.
Quite a few of us go into business for ourselves, especially in creative fields like writing. There comes a point where you have to choose: Get into management or the business side of things and get away from your art, or answer to a boss for another 25 years.
They all got laid off during the last round, and aren't even being considered right now. It doesn't help that our current administration gives a tax break to those who employ people 26 and under.
As to the poster who said that they should be managers at that age, SERIOUSLY? That is a very narrow view... and shows a lack of understanding of many areas of business. Consider a company, divided up into 5 divisions. Each division employs 20-30 employees. If all those current employees are in their 20s/30s, in 20/30 years - will they ALL be managers? Of course not. And not everyone could/should be a boss. That is another naive point of view. Those points of view seem to permeate our still 'youth obsessed' culture.
The tax break is partly why in my last job, the one of us who was laid off first was NOT the one who knew how to use the fax, the copier, the scanner, answer the phone in a professional way, etc. I do not know how that ended up for them in the long run, but in the short term, she was paying someone my age from another office/company in the same building to send out those documents for her.
I see lots of people 50+ at client sites in individual contributor roles. Not every job needs to be management. One comment -- not to stir the pot -- is that experience beyond 10 years is generally NOT valued. And, in fact, the less sophisticated employers who don't build a reasonable pay approach and keep paying for experience are the same ones that wind up having to downsize their workforces based on pay -- usually letting go of the older employees.
If the basic assumption that 30 years' experience is 10 years experience done over 3x and pay levels reflect that, the pay system can retain workers regardless of "years of exp." Does it really, really take 30 years of doing something to know all the ins & outs of a career? When I help my clients in market pricing jobs, I build pay schemes that price senior level jobs around 8+ years experience max at midpoint and let the new pay range (lo to high) capture the reasonable rates for all the incumbents. Exceptions, of course, are always made for highly specialized technical/analytical roles, but they are the exception not the norm. I have 30 years, too, in my field. But I would not get paid much more than a 10-year analyst in my field if I worked in the corporate world as a peer to another doing the same job.
I, too, am curious about your question. What you notice is true, sadly. Older people are considered throwaway. I'm in my early 40s and in IT, an industry openly hostile to older workers. What's funny is that I know more about IT than any kid even 10 years out of college. I spend extraordinary amounts of time keeping up with my industry, but I am finding trouble finding work. I removed my military history from my resume because it severely dates me and shows I'm in my 40s.
I, for one, don't plan on working at a certain large retailer at minimum wage. I suspect this is where many go. I've seen it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yzette
Quite a few of us go into business for ourselves, especially in creative fields like writing. There comes a point where you have to choose: Get into management or the business side of things and get away from your art, or answer to a boss for another 25 years.
Oops. I was responding to being over 40. I'm not 50-65--yet!
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What a great question!
