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Old 02-11-2017, 04:10 PM
 
Location: La Jolla, CA
7,284 posts, read 16,612,066 times
Reputation: 11675

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There is a lot of it.

Much of it is more related to cost discrimination though. I have seen brilliant young employees blow entire systems up because they are [expletive deleted] clueless, even though they have a credential that says they deserve the job they have.

Some of it is going to ease up a little bit as there is a top heavy employment marketplace right now and a lot of senior tech people are pretty freakin' old. I have been at some conferences and been one of the younger guys.
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Old 02-11-2017, 08:10 PM
 
6,345 posts, read 8,072,009 times
Reputation: 8784
I wouldn't worry so much about age discrimination, as I would about offshoring.

We have over 6,000 employees at my employer. Almost all of the project managers are women in their 40's and 50's. They have no direct reports.

On the other hand, I see the software engineering team as mostly H1Bs. I can't tell their age. They aren't shy about saying they moved to America from India to work.
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Old 02-11-2017, 11:42 PM
 
Location: Arizona
12,845 posts, read 7,059,801 times
Reputation: 9845
I work for a utility and when I started I was the younger guy 30 years old 1999 everyone around me was older 50 plus it was like you said bunch of older guys who still maintaining a mainframe, and 15 year old software, but in the last 5-7 years most of those guys retired some even died now I'm 47 look around in my IT network support group I'm the 2nd oldest one guy is 50 both of us make $$ toward the top of the team but we don't put in 15 hours a day I can get my work done in 8-9 hours day. I work with 2 younger guys who sit at their desk 12-13 hours a day lot of time on their phones texting or youtube. Recently my supervisor who I thought was doing a great job got let go now we are being told our group isn't so great with the exception of the 2 guys who stay late into the night we were told upper management pulled badge records figure out how long we were at our desk. Upper management has no clue what we do they know enough to plug a ethernet cable in a wall jack. I'm suspecting the older guy and me will end up laid off the younger cheaper generation who like working 15 hours a day will stay along with low paid 20 year olds who just joined our group. It makes me upset because I spent a lot of time getting those younger guys up to speed learning our network while those 2 guys who stay all night working would not train anyone just tell you give me the IP address i'll take care of it. My supervisor was letting the team run on autopilot because he had been tasked to take over another team for 8 months while they filled that position. Now they fire him and tell us we suck and I'm suspecting their layoffs aren't over. Just seems like IT is cut throat now teams don't work together it's all about what 1 guy can do.
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Old 02-11-2017, 11:58 PM
 
10,719 posts, read 20,228,272 times
Reputation: 10019
Age discrimination is rampant in all parts of the corporate world regardless if it's technology based. The reality is people's production falls while their incomes rise as age. Older people have greater outside commitments and increased salary demands due to families. Companies increasingly realize this and "cut the fat" if you will. If they can pay a 20 year old to do the same job as someone in their 40's or 50's and pay them less, then guess who they are firing...yup the older guy.

The old model of people retiring with companies and getting pensions and other retired benefits is over. If you are older, I would strongly consider buying a business. You may need it
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Old 02-12-2017, 02:35 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles CA
1,637 posts, read 1,339,390 times
Reputation: 1055
Quote:
Originally Posted by kell490 View Post
I work for a utility and when I started I was the younger guy 30 years old 1999 everyone around me was older 50 plus it was like you said bunch of older guys who still maintaining a mainframe, and 15 year old software, but in the last 5-7 years most of those guys retired some even died now I'm 47 look around in my IT network support group I'm the 2nd oldest one guy is 50 both of us make $$ toward the top of the team but we don't put in 15 hours a day I can get my work done in 8-9 hours day. I work with 2 younger guys who sit at their desk 12-13 hours a day lot of time on their phones texting or youtube. Recently my supervisor who I thought was doing a great job got let go now we are being told our group isn't so great with the exception of the 2 guys who stay late into the night we were told upper management pulled badge records figure out how long we were at our desk. Upper management has no clue what we do they know enough to plug a ethernet cable in a wall jack. I'm suspecting the older guy and me will end up laid off the younger cheaper generation who like working 15 hours a day will stay along with low paid 20 year olds who just joined our group. It makes me upset because I spent a lot of time getting those younger guys up to speed learning our network while those 2 guys who stay all night working would not train anyone just tell you give me the IP address i'll take care of it. My supervisor was letting the team run on autopilot because he had been tasked to take over another team for 8 months while they filled that position. Now they fire him and tell us we suck and I'm suspecting their layoffs aren't over. Just seems like IT is cut throat now teams don't work together it's all about what 1 guy can do.
I really don't get why theres a lot of hate in IT on city data forum when everyone else faces the same problem in every field no matter what you do for a livinv

You just work for a crappy place
The key is Find a better place to work where IT is treated like a human being not a robot.

Where I work at its nothing like that
Put in 8 hours
Work together as a team ( tech support, desktop support etc)
And go home for the day
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Old 02-12-2017, 05:59 AM
 
Location: Live in NY, work in CT
11,252 posts, read 18,752,289 times
Reputation: 5078
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioToCO View Post
I'd say if you possess a unique set of skills that are the result of your long experience, you should be fine. However, it's pretty clear that age is not helping when you are looking for a job. I'd say 50 is a "magic number".
I'm 40 and have been working in Information Systems for the past 16 years. I've worked with some great network admins who were 50+, but that was in Higher Ed, and majority of them had held those positions for the past 20 years or so. I would be cautious if I were you. Definitely don't leave your current job until you have another one lined up.
This!

I was in an IT role for a single company from my mid 20s until my early 40s and got "pushed out" and had a hard time recovering, to the point where after a year of only getting occasional "contract" jobs I pursued a career change into teaching math and computers (which while not as easy to get into as they make it to be, is friendlier to older workers, not completely, but a lot more than IT). My own change has had a lot of "fits and starts" and I may be looking into something else soon (I will be 50 in a few months so I have to "think fast"), but for everyone like me I equally know some middle aged ex-IT'ers who pulled it off. As noted, if you have a unique set of skills ("computer security" is a good example) it's much easier to stay employed and change jobs post-40 in the IT world.

My brother-in-law went through the same thing in his early 40s and had just a hard time. He tried a career change in being the crew for a local theatre and started his own photography business. After a couple of years of mixed success he got lucky as his wife is a HS science teacher and got them to fill him for an opening to be the "IT guy" for her school district. However, even though he's been there 4 years now, he still does his photography biz p/t as much as he can (he just turned 50 if you're curious).

On the other hand, I have a cousin who is approaching 40 who just succeed switching jobs between Fortune 500 employers in IT. I don't know if being a she made that easier or harder for her.

Good luck!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kell490 View Post
I work for a utility and when I started I was the younger guy 30 years old 1999 everyone around me was older 50 plus it was like you said bunch of older guys who still maintaining a mainframe, and 15 year old software, but in the last 5-7 years most of those guys retired some even died now I'm 47 look around in my IT network support group I'm the 2nd oldest one guy is 50 both of us make $$ toward the top of the team but we don't put in 15 hours a day I can get my work done in 8-9 hours day. I work with 2 younger guys who sit at their desk 12-13 hours a day lot of time on their phones texting or youtube. Recently my supervisor who I thought was doing a great job got let go now we are being told our group isn't so great with the exception of the 2 guys who stay late into the night we were told upper management pulled badge records figure out how long we were at our desk. Upper management has no clue what we do they know enough to plug a ethernet cable in a wall jack. I'm suspecting the older guy and me will end up laid off the younger cheaper generation who like working 15 hours a day will stay along with low paid 20 year olds who just joined our group. It makes me upset because I spent a lot of time getting those younger guys up to speed learning our network while those 2 guys who stay all night working would not train anyone just tell you give me the IP address i'll take care of it. My supervisor was letting the team run on autopilot because he had been tasked to take over another team for 8 months while they filled that position. Now they fire him and tell us we suck and I'm suspecting their layoffs aren't over. Just seems like IT is cut throat now teams don't work together it's all about what 1 guy can do.
Yeah, that was an issue for me too, I was quite efficient in 8-9 hours, but a younger guy under me would work a lot longer (and get a lot less done) and helped do me in as he replaced me and they didn't replace his job. But now he's in his late 30s (I was let go 8 years ago) and he actually found me on Facebook and told me they just did the same thing to him. Karma....
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Old 02-12-2017, 06:30 AM
 
Location: Arizona
12,845 posts, read 7,059,801 times
Reputation: 9845
I guess I have to say the younger guy was me about 5 years ago the entire team of older guys I worked with got laid off except me (RE-bid) but those guys were 60 plus we're happy to get packages now seems over 50 is bad news. If it happens i'll just find somewhere else to work I think also has to do with regulated industries like utilities were good place to be during recession but not now IT dept constant pressure from above to lower cost. Ill probably try to find a government job seems to be safer for older generation less pay but I'm okay with that over long run rather not worry about it every year we constant re-orgs. I'm not going to volunteer any of my knowledge unless I'm told to it doesn't pay to help others struggling ill have to be cut throat as well. Every promotion I have seen in the last 6 months were younger late 20s mostly mid 30's employees I guess mid 30's best years to peak then by 48 your done either go into management or start looking to find something else. The problems started after older generation upper management who all had been with the company for 20 plus years got let go due to 3-4 new CIO's came and went each one brought his own guys from other companies. We laugh because it was a running joke upper management had 18-36 month turn around most were gone or the entire upper management was gone every 18 months. That is what we have now this new group at the top has no idea who knows what because they have no history with anyone. They will let guys go or let them quit to higher paying job in another company we are like what did you do that for? Then they figure out that guy was doing all this work and they have to hire 2 high paid sr techs to replace one guy.

Last edited by kell490; 02-12-2017 at 06:55 AM..
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Old 02-12-2017, 06:30 AM
 
Location: USA
6,230 posts, read 6,893,948 times
Reputation: 10773
If you keep your skills bleeding edge there should not be a problem.
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Old 02-12-2017, 06:31 AM
 
Location: USA
6,230 posts, read 6,893,948 times
Reputation: 10773
Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmoStars View Post
I really don't get why theres a lot of hate in IT on city data forum when everyone else faces the same problem in every field no matter what you do for a livinv

You just work for a crappy place
The key is Find a better place to work where IT is treated like a human being not a robot.

Where I work at its nothing like that
Put in 8 hours
Work together as a team ( tech support, desktop support etc)
And go home for the day
You work in government, which is an entirely different ball game from the private sector.
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Old 02-12-2017, 06:35 AM
 
2,696 posts, read 3,755,148 times
Reputation: 3080
Age discrimination is there and it goes on most anywhere. I do think the fact that older workers usually earn more is another reason. Companies cut people all the time to hire cheaper works to save money.

As another poster said, very large computer companies such as IBM or AT&T regularly hire older workers. But then dinosaurs such as IBM outsource like there is no tomorrow. From what I have observed, the scrappy IT startups tend to hire on the younger workers. Hiring managers discriminate for loads of reason, age is just one factor.

I know some older people who do quite well in IT while others really struggle as they age to find long-term jobs. There are a lot of factors to look at, but I know things can be tough for an IT job seeker over 50.
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