I wonder if he'd have an easier time as a architect/IT-planning consultant. Clients may perceive less financial risk and grey hair might actually be an asset. I'm acutely aware of my ticking career clock after reading several of these stories in the last year.
64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
21–30 of 315 posts
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#22I have experienced this myself. I am going on 50. I am actually looking for work now. And I have kept up and I am using modern tech stacks. http://geoffreycallaghan.com
fyi, this may work better if you say where you are. I looked and am assuming NJ from the 908 cell.
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#23I feel for this guy. Ageism is completely real and mostly missing from D&I initiatives. However there is a 2nd lesson to be learned here. Why in the world does he not have any savings at 64? The article is scant on details, but does mention he was in the computer industry from his 20s, and raised his son, say, until roughly his 40s. That leaves 20 prime years of earning power w/o savings? Something is amiss. To me th…
"If you're in the IT space, live way below your means." That translates to: "If you're in a high paying, in demand field, save more aggressively than if you're in a low paying field with limited opportunities" Honestly, those in the IT field should be able to get away with saving a bit below recommended levels, in part because pay is higher, in part because demand is growing with no signs of slowing down. It's all th…
You don't have to save as aggressively as the people working towards FIRE (financially independent, retire early) but given that the future is unknown, and that the industry does have ageism - saving as hard as you can from the day you graduate isn't a bad thing.
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#24It's tragic and I wish younger devs could have even a small understanding of how pernicious this phenomenon is. No, you won't escape it because you're awesome, or because you love learning new things etc etc.
I'm lucky: I switched into a role where deep domain experience is essential, I did a PhD, I'm one of the top experts in a growing field - I'm more or less insulated from this. Indeed, now I hire people and I'm actually one of the perpetrators of it. We get resumes, I look at them, and inevitably many of the younger people are both (a) cheaper and (b) more on-target with their skill sets. Then there is a much more subtle and non-explicit discrimination on top of that which involves a presumption that an experienced person will not be "happy" working in what they would perceive as a junior level role. That they would find another position and leave. So they honestly can't win - if they don't have the skills they don't get hired, if they do, it is presumed they are too experienced to be happy in the job.
There must be a massive wave of ageing developers that is coming that is 10x the size of what we have seen so far. Something will have to change somewhere, hopefully it will help us all discard some of these discriminatory practices.
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#25I have experienced this myself. I am going on 50. I am actually looking for work now. And I have kept up and I am using modern tech stacks. http://geoffreycallaghan.com
You should totally check out the whoishiring threads. They are packed with job listings (lots of remote too).
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#26I'm only in my 50s, but this is very relateable. Did a couple dozen interviews a year or two ago before finally getting a bite. Somewhat amazingly, even passed the hiring committee at a FANG, only to get swatted down by a rare strike from the executive level. In one interview, was asked to produce a class that could serialize and deserialize a list of numbers, to/from a string of chars. Sure, it's not that hard. Took…
i'm not really understanding the tech sector. There's often the criticism that we keep reinventing solutions to old problems. And here you are, with presumably 30 years of experience, and no one wants to take a chance?
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#27I feel for this guy. Ageism is completely real and mostly missing from D&I initiatives. However there is a 2nd lesson to be learned here. Why in the world does he not have any savings at 64? The article is scant on details, but does mention he was in the computer industry from his 20s, and raised his son, say, until roughly his 40s. That leaves 20 prime years of earning power w/o savings? Something is amiss. To me th…
"If you're in the IT space, live way below your means." That translates to: "If you're in a high paying, in demand field, save more aggressively than if you're in a low paying field with limited opportunities" Honestly, those in the IT field should be able to get away with saving a bit below recommended levels, in part because pay is higher, in part because demand is growing with no signs of slowing down. It's all th…
I very much agree with this. We save >>50% of take-home in large part because I'm paranoid/convinced that this gravy train is going to make an unceremonious crash in the future.
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#28I feel for this guy. Ageism is completely real and mostly missing from D&I initiatives. However there is a 2nd lesson to be learned here. Why in the world does he not have any savings at 64? The article is scant on details, but does mention he was in the computer industry from his 20s, and raised his son, say, until roughly his 40s. That leaves 20 prime years of earning power w/o savings? Something is amiss. To me th…
I don't like this blaming of people for not having foresight. You can do everything right and still lose it all.
Let's say he started a 401K in his 20s and slid the meter all the way to right (riskier investments). He would have encountered:
- 1980 recession, the one that got Reagan elected.
- 1990 recession, the one that got Clinton elected.
- 2001 recession, this one mainly affected tech workers.
- 2008 recession, this is the major one.
The GFC in 2008 have left a lot of older workers in the lurch. Many are now coming up on retirement and they were heavily invested in the stocks and not so much bonds. In my case my parents have lost $80k in their 401K. They have only just recovered.
And that example is just 401k, IRA. We won't even get into other matters such as health, divorce, property, lawsuits, failed businesses.
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#29I feel like there is less of a stigma for older contractors. Might be a good idea if you’re getting older in a tech career to shift from full time to contract work?
Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant
#30I feel for this guy. Ageism is completely real and mostly missing from D&I initiatives. However there is a 2nd lesson to be learned here. Why in the world does he not have any savings at 64? The article is scant on details, but does mention he was in the computer industry from his 20s, and raised his son, say, until roughly his 40s. That leaves 20 prime years of earning power w/o savings? Something is amiss. To me th…
I don't like this blaming of people for not having foresight. You can do everything right and still lose it all. Let's say he started a 401K in his 20s and slid the meter all the way to right (riskier investments). He would have encountered: - 1980 recession, the one that got Reagan elected. - 1990 recession, the one that got Clinton elected. - 2001 recession, this one mainly affected tech workers. - 2008 recession,…
It wasn't until 2010 that pre-existing conditions were allowed in health insurance.