how important is age in careers? when's the best time to have a break?

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

For the last 5 years (ie age 30-35) or so I have taken things a bit easy on the career path. I'm in a good position job wise, but have totally missed out on the extras - the networking, and getting involved in various really interesting ventures that I'm becoming increasingly aware that my childless colleagues are doing. I feel a couple of steps behind where I would like to be. so q is - does it matter? can you up the pace to the same effect in your mid/late-30s? ( did i just say "late 30s?) If you are going to take a slightly easy 5 years does it make a difference when you take them? Do you miss the boat by not making your mark when younger? does doing it all young mark you out as particularly exceptional? does trying to do it later mark you out as a wannbe/alsoran?

In answer to your questions, I think is much harder to up the pace in your mid-late 30s because the people has already preconceived ideas about people who has taken it easy at certain points in their life.

Market is full of very competitive graduates who seem to have the energy and desire to make a mark fast. I did quite a good start after graduation and I can say that although I never had to ask for interview during that time (I got the offers comming), since I stoped and got older (I'm 36) I feel that break and my age are continuosly pushing me down to go back to where I was.

I guess one of the main problems is to have the next generation getting to key position before you do, they will be a bit "concerned" about bossing around somebody older than them while at the same time thinking you were probably not that bright to get as far as they did by the same age

Ageism is a burden, even when I'm 36, but then, most people in my area do make their mark by the time they are 28.

Sorry they were not good news, but probably a change of company may free you from the preconceived ideas of people in your same company, or even a change in position or responsability. Would that help?

I work in a small and very specialised industry (for want of a better word), and I know that within my own organisation I am reasonably highly-respected, I know that I am generally thought of as one of the Good Ones. My main problem is that outside my own organisation I am a bit of an unknown. I haven't developed the contacts that others have. On the one hand I do need to move (which would in itself help remedy that) but spreading my wings a bit is harder without the contacts, iyswim

I think you are in a very good position, probaby not the ideal one but you can make up for the lack of contacts by using an agent. Thanks gosd for the internet, the reduced person to person contact has opened other avenues to make up for the lack of contacts.

cheeky bump am really interested in other's opinions on this

I think it probably varies a bit from one field to another. I have a friend in the civil service (quite senior) who has done much the same as you, but from about 33 to 40. She is aware now that younger people are beginning to steam past her, but doesn't think she's left it too late to tackle that and re-establish herself.

In my own field (I'm an academic, in a humanities subject), we would look at the relationship between age and what you might call 'trajectory' - so we would think more highly of someone of 38 who, after a quiet period, was zipping along and had strong future plans, than a 32 year old who seemed to be ambling.

Seems like you're pretty good at what you do - could you slack off a bit on the core activities, in order to do more networking etc? i.e. just do enough to get by at the bread-and-butter stuff, so you can polish up the extras?

HTH - and good luck.

One of the many things I have learnt having been off on maternity is that organisations have very stange memories. There is one woman who was well respected had three children one after the other and was ion work a total of about 8 months over that period of time. However, after a year of beiong back it was as if she had never been away.

I can think of others who have gone slow for a while and then picked up the pace in thier late 30's. They have experience on thier side and thier performance is what won them thier new roles.

I know there are some industries that are youth based but in the one I work it is more about your attitude and performance in the job.

I would say it does not make a difference. It would of course be interesting to hear from different ages, I suspect we don't have many 50+ people commenting on this web site.

I think it depends very much on your field, how competitive it is and what the usual working patterns are. Also what you want and expect from your career.

I used to have a (full-time, permanent, ie. v. rare) post as a lecturer in a not-terribly-distinguished university, but with good PhD, good contacts and excellent prospects. So there I am, aged 28 with an eighteen month old dd1, and it slowly dawns on me that to make it big in the academic field you have to a) be prepared to move posts right across the country every few years b) spend a lot of time bidding for research funding, doing research, writing it up and presenting papers. And this is in addition to doing the day job of lecturing, teaching, preparing and taking a lot of crap from the powers that be. For this you get to earn somewhere in the region of the national average wage. Rather belatedly I realised that this career was rather less than the sum of its parts, and that the parts couldn't all be added anyway.

Now, ten years later, I do consultancy work in a very specialised subsection of the field I used to lecture in. There are fewer than half a dozen people in the country doing this work, so I can mainly work on my own terms. The workload is more interesting, more varied and means I can be there for the children (which is actually more important, not less as they get to school age). I also earn approximately double what I did as a lecturer, and could increase it if I had the time to put in extra hours (which I don't atm).

From one angle, I'm on the Mummy track. My publications record is pretty pitiful, I don't go to many conferences or schmooze. Ironically, if I were to apply for a lectureship I wouldn't stand a chance against all the bright young things with shiny PhDs fresh from the conference track. But on all other counts, my current situation wins hands down on my previous one.

Moral: carve out a niche for yourself where you get to set some of the rules. It must be exceptionally difficult to compete as a mother on level terms with ambitious childless late twenty-somethings. But if you are v. good at doing what you do, and there aren't hundreds of other people who could do it just as well, then I don't think doing some time on the Mummy track needs to be a career killer.