Do you worry you will get too old to do your job?

[sherbetpips]

I have been on the same career path for the last 20 years and have progressed through to a good (although not senior exec) level. My worry is that it is a sales/marketing job and it doesn't seem an older persons career. Where do old account managers go? Everyone seems to be early 30's to late 40's at most at my level. I keep getting quite panicky at night about how I can diversify my career but I don't want to yet as I love what I do. Does anyone else feel there career has an age limit (models and football players need not comment)...

cretaceous I know of only one contractor who is over 60. He is a tester and I don't think he has problem with finding contracts. But I agree with you competition is just as bad for contracting.

And I would have thought the public sector is less ageist.

cretaceous Strangely I've had almost exactly the same experience this week. A recent grad was chosen over myself and others with more experience as had "recent experience" of wider range of jobs. In effect I was slammed for staying in same job for 10 years. Yet other employers and agencies have flagged it as a positive. However I do worry I am now seen as too old for my industry and I have got the impression that having kids has gone against me a few times.

(Toddles off to look at Aldi's recruitment site...)

This worries me
But I have worked hard to get better qualified and now as a nursery manager at least I have a chair to sit down on in my office
I've worked with nursery nurse in their 50s and they struggled. I can't imagine still doing that at 68

Yes, I think there are two issues:
a) It's harder to do certain jobs as you get older. My dp is in IT, and he says he finds it harder to grasp new stuff now he's in his 50s, and he'd like to "downsize" to a less demanding job as well. While experience is good and favours older workers, in many jobs there's always new stuff to learn, which favours younger people. Of course, for manual jobs, it's a similar issue.

b) It's harder to get a new job as you get older, as people don't want to employ you, even if you can do the work. Therefore, if you lose you job in your 50s, it's a real struggle.

TLT This was a government funded institute, rather than public sector, so perhaps straight public sector would be ok...

sportinguista Have you just turned 50? I think that's when the age thing hits... It's when the recruiter sees O-levels not GCSEs.

PS our Aldi employs all youngsters from Eastern Europe.

This topic has been on my mind for a bit. I am a social worker working for a police department. I love my job and feel that I am very good at my position. It is not physically demanding but emotionally exhausting. I have been focusing on pain and crisis for the past twenty five years and probably have to work at least another fifteen years.

I do think we are going to see a gap in the quantity of skilled and experienced professionals over the next 10 years or so - we have had 8 years of companies not recruiting graduates, doing minimal amounts of skills development, fewer opportunity for advancement. Which means that companies won't have the luxury of sidelining those who are older unless they want to take the consequences of that experience gap.

I think the best advice around employability as we get older is the same as what I've seen on here for women with young children who want flexibility but to stay employable - go niche or specialist. Of no use if the future challenge of your job is physical strength though.

My worry is mainly that I'm getting too old to change jobs. I like what I do but I don't love it. I'm stuck where I am due to a combination of circumstances, mainly to do with child care and wanting to spend time with my children while they're still young.

But I don't want to stay where I am forever and will have to retrain to do something else. And then will have to start from scratch, low salary, no experience. Just the thought of it makes me cringe.

I'm not that worried about it here in the UK, as I'm a solicitor and as long as my mind still functions I can still do my job. I work in-house and the majority of us in my current team are aged between 38 - 50. The youngest are late 20s. If I wanted to I could probably tick along here for many years.

I've just been offered a Head of Legal position in another organisation which I believe values longevity, given that their CEO is in his late 60s and has been in that role for well over 20 years. So far, so good...

But DH and I are hoping to move to South Africa (his home country) in 5 to 10 years (probably more like 10 now that I've been offered this new job, which is my dream job). Over there ageism is rife. You are required to put your age AND a photo of yourself on your CV. I know many strong and capable women in their 50s and 60s who struggle to get anything except very poorly paid menial work.

Plus they don't recognise my legal qualification so I think I'll be unemployable there once I get past 50.

I may therefore end up opening a recruitment and staffing agency for people in their 50s and 60s!

To depress us all further, I'm at a company management conference where several HR presentations have extolled the virtues of x division of the company having young staff. Nothing's been said about teams with experienced, long-standing staff members...

I do freelance for a London creative agency. I have no idea where people go. Or actually is it just women that drop out .

Then again it's a lot to do with long hours and mid pay - harder post dc.

I'm feeling this now. But not that I will give up working: working will give me up. Early 50's, fit and full of energy. Made redundant late last year. Kids have left home so actually I'm free to devote more time to work than over the last 2 decades. And even though I've 'botoxed my cv' (date-free, focused on achievements over the past 15 years), and have relevant, international experience (financial services) I know I'm at a disadvantage in an interview. All the interviewees are younger than me, mostly men, and their unconscious bias against older women seeps out. Considering retraining. Anyone want to start a business with me, hiring only women over 50? (I'm sure we can find a legal loophole...).

Dh and I were publicans for 25 years. Dh didn't want to be doing that in his 60s and we were in danger of becoming dinosaurs in the trade. Reluctant to embrace new ideas and beginning to lack energy.
I have retrained as a carer for the elderly. Been doing it just over a year and loving it. Hope I can continue til I am nearly 70 (retirement age is 67).

It reminds me of that line in desperate housewives where Lynette goes back to work in marketing and the 25 year olds laugh that after 35 they take you out the back and shoot you. It's funny if you watch it.

I was young at the time when I watched it but I always remembered it. Marketing / design / advertising etc is bad. Full of senior men though, and the odd woman - how many are HR? I suppose client services too. Got to look around more for older female creatives / strategy and owners although I know a few.

TLT - curious how you've never met a 50+ software engineer, have worked with plenty! There's been a very different age profile in different teams I've worked in, so can see that it might vary a lot.

I have seen a lot of contractors "go perm" as they get fed up of travelling, but also I suspect quite a few of the more successful ones just retire earlier. I don't think there's any real reason (other than age discrimination) why IT shouldn't be suitable into your seventies - look at Grace Hopper who didn't even get started until her forties, continued into her eighties and made significant contributions to the field of computing to boot.

slightly it's strange isn't it? I have worked at two places as a software developer. The first is filled with 30-40 year olds, mostly with young family. My current place is filled with new graduates, all early 20s and flatting together. It's so strange hearing X moved in with Y and A used to be flatmate with B but now with C.

My small IT dept is 30s/40s just now but new staff are all young. I am struggling as I need to massively up skill to get a chance at a job elsewhere and am up against young grads who pick it up a million times quicker than me. I'm stuck because I've gone down the wrong road re. computer languages and it's so hard to learn all the new stuff, esp. as I'm part-time. Really totally can't imagine doing this at 65, would need to be constantly learning between now and then and I don't have the energy. I feel as if I was mis-sold the fulfilling career with a family thing.

People move up in their careers by becoming the managers of the people in the roles they used to do. Obviously not everyone has the skills to do that - but for anyone who is thinking of up-skilling I think the management skills route is the way to go rather than, for example, trying to get to grips with new computer languages. To manage a team of software developers you need to understand the development process, have experience of being at the chalk face of software development and have good management skills. You need to know when you're being bullshitted by a man child about timeframes and what is possible - you don't need to be able to do the coding IMO.

I didn't go into software - I went the lecturing / teaching route, but now in my 60th year my job is more about management and recruitment. I expect to be doing this until I retire at 66.

I'm sure you are right, Loiner. The trouble is, there's only one manager for umpteen others. And often the manager isn't an ex software developer, or over 50.

loiner like cretaceous says there aren't many managers. A software team lead is a senior developer that still writes code. But also does estimates and plan the work. It's how it's organised now in all the teams I see that practices agile/scrum. With this organisation, you only need a single manager at the scrum of scrum level.

I mean a team lead is what you probably refer to as the 'manager'. You manage the scrum team, divvy up the work, make sure the team members aren't talking bullshit when giving you time estimates, liaise with the analysts and suggests what's possible. But in a team, this isn't really a full time position, so the lead is also a developer on the team. You just allocate yourself about 50% of development time.

Yup. I worry. I'm in the City. Physically, I could do the job at 68 as I'm desk bound, but the manic hours and stress levels mean this is viewed as a young person's game. Burnout (aka nervous breakdowns) are very common. The City is no respecter of age and experience and older workers (think, 50) are managed out on vague "performance" grounds. Almost no one here leaves the job because they are "retiring" - they are put out to pasture (or hung out to dry) much, much sooner

you're not being very ambitious are you? Of course there are not as many managers as people they manage - and I do mean managers not team leaders (though being a team leader would be a step towards becoming a manager). This was the kind of thing I was thinking of (www.fieldglass.com/company/careers?gnk=job&gni=8a3b93ee4ac73346014ae9334ee2741a&gns=Indeed)
How about doing an MBA or a related PG qualification part-time? If you want to have the skills to be well employed in your 50's and 60's then you need to identify where you want to be and how to get there.

www.fieldglass.com/company/careers?gnk=job&gni=8a3b93ee4ac73346014ae9334ee2741a&gns=Indeed

loiner you are definitely right about not being ambitious.

I wonder if a lot more people will end up on long term sick, in their 60's, or paid off! Raising the retirement age may backfire but who knows what Government we will have!