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I'm in IT having a discussion with a friend last night we are in our late 40's my wife and I have been talking about moving out of state to different climate. My friend said I should not leave my company in IT business he is seeing older people having a tough time getting good jobs. He says if you're over 40 and not in managment you're going to have a tough time finding work. I'm a network administrator, but I can see it I'm the oldest guy in my group at 47 most of my co-workers are in their mid 30's to late 20's. My friend who is a SR IT person at a state job where his job is safe until he retires but he has been on hiring committees seeing how older candidates not getting the jobs unless it's for a manager position or low level job like PC tech. I have never wanted managment I find technology much more fun than dealing with personal, or office politics. Now I'm little nervous about leaving my company for unknown world out there. I'm comfortable where I'm at been working there for 15 years made many friends that's important to me find I use my network of friends at work to make my job more successful. Going into a new group of people without those connections I would be on my own.
I am only 23, but have worked in an IT environment for about 18 months. The people I have worked with are good mix in demographic terms - from mid 20s to mid 50s, with the latter holding down a middle-management post in Service Management.
Before i left the company last month, I did ask him if he ever felt the need to move on elsewhere; but he said that he would find it tough in such a competitive world. And that the skills he has would probably seem a little outdated to other IT companies. But he holds a valuable role currently, and that is probably what is keeping him where he is.
IT is evolving incredibly fast these days; and I would say you have to adapt & learn just as quickly in order to stay ahead of the game. Perhaps the younger generation are more up for this challenge; whereas the older generation probably feel a little jaded after 'x' number of years in the industry.
I would also guess it depends on how dynamic the company your working for is. Our company was stuck in a rut using really old legacy hardware and out-of-support operating systems (Windows Server 2003; AD2003), which probably suited the longer-serving guys who knew such applications; but for myself I found it really hard going using such ancient and troublesome software. Which is one reason why I left.
More dynamic companies will always try to keep up with the latest flavours: Cloud, HyperV, ESXi, AX etc Which is perhaps what interests the younger generation (hope this isn't a generalisation!)
But at the back of my mind you can have all the skills under your belt regardless of age-band, if you're a cost-burden you might just see your job outsourced overseas.
I understand what you saying I'm far from a guy who likes old technology I'm always wanting to stay on cutting edge, but still be reliable. I can see myself working for a data center I want to be where the latest technology is being used.
If your resume shows you're keeping up-to-date, you'll be OK. A lot of "age discrimination" comes from people who pigeonhole themselves and are experts in yesterday but haven't bothered to keep up with today, and so will be less useful tomorrow.
I have been in IT a long time. I do consulting so I switch jobs often and go into various IT departments for mostly well known Fortune 500 companies. Based on what I see, I do NOT see age discrimination. In fact, many companies have mostly older workers(40 and over) in their IT departments. And the new hires are often middle aged and older too.
Experience in various technical specialties is king - and most workers must have recent/cutting edge technology(regardless of their age). Many middle aged and older workers DO keep up with current technical trends. This is especially true for consultants because they see what's in-demand to keep them employed long term and they take the effort to learn/get experience in new technoligies.
I have noticed that some of the smaller tech companies tend to have much younger technical workers overall compared to larger companies. These smaller outfits sometimes try to be trendy workplaces with cool buzzwords. In these cases HR and managers could also be youngish. In this case, yes, age discrimination is more likely. If the HR person or hiring manager is 28 years old, they are going to look at someone that is 48 as old. If the HR person and hiring manager is in their 40s or 50s, they aren't going to care if the applicant is older.
Please note that the type of work I do in IT is very specialized and requires many years of experience and lots of knowledge and they don't do hand holding at all in the jobs. It's sink or swim and I have seen a few workers sink and get fired quickly. However, usually the managers know how to pick the correct candidate and they mostly hire experts that can hit the ground running and perform work at a very fast pace. This is why there likely aren't that many younger workers in some IT specialties- because the younger worker hasn't reached the point yet where they are experienced enough to swim with the sharks.
Last edited by sware2cod; 02-11-2017 at 12:06 PM..
I'm 70, work in IT at a major international bank, and there are several people my age still working in IT there. One of my goals for this year is PMP certification (I'm already ITIL certified) - but I've told them I'm leaving to retire in a few months because I've reached the point where I don't want to do this any more (after nearly 40 years in software development, software quality assurance consulting, and now several years in IT). I'll still work part time, but it will be in a different field. So I'd call it semi-retirement.
If you keep your skills up to date and make sure you are offering what today's companies want, you'll find a job. Maybe not at every company, but the jobs are out there. I'm constantly getting calls and messages from recruiters. In my experience, many of the guys who have problems finding jobs past 40 in IT tend to be those who don't keep their skills up to date, don't think they have to because they're "experienced", and have been in the same role for too long to be competitive. I've actually heard older guys in a job networking meeting say these things back after the economic problems in 2008. A lot of it's fear of having to change, I think.
Yes, there's age discrimination - and companies or departments that specialize in hiring the young hipsters. Frankly, I wouldn't want to work in that kind of an organization anyway.
I'm in IT having a discussion with a friend last night we are in our late 40's my wife and I have been talking about moving out of state to different climate. My friend said I should not leave my company in IT business he is seeing older people having a tough time getting good jobs. He says if you're over 40 and not in managment you're going to have a tough time finding work. I'm a network administrator, but I can see it I'm the oldest guy in my group at 47 most of my co-workers are in their mid 30's to late 20's. My friend who is a SR IT person at a state job where his job is safe until he retires but he has been on hiring committees seeing how older candidates not getting the jobs unless it's for a manager position or low level job like PC tech. I have never wanted managment I find technology much more fun than dealing with personal, or office politics. Now I'm little nervous about leaving my company for unknown world out there. I'm comfortable where I'm at been working there for 15 years made many friends that's important to me find I use my network of friends at work to make my job more successful. Going into a new group of people without those connections I would be on my own.
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.
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