Empty nest now, When is it too old to Apply for Full time work in IT

[Tigerzmum]

I have been applying for new IT contracts and have had one or two interviews in lockdown, most jobs are to be working from home.... but was just wondering, when do most people think one is too old to consider a realistic chance of being offered a full-time position? 50? 55? 60, 65, 70? Considering the retirement age has been lifted to 67.

It's impossible to generalise: all our technical vacancies are extremely skill specific. There are almost always several vacancies so anyone with the right skill set would be given serious consideration. If they fitted in and had good references, I wouldn't expect age to make any odds.

For the record, I'm over 60

As in many other work places, we are offered a bounty for introducing new people. What kind of role might interest you ?

Are you already using all your contacts ? Do you have a strong profile on Linked In?

@Tigerzmum

I have been applying for new IT contracts and have had one or two interviews in lockdown, most jobs are to be working from home.... but was just wondering, when do most people think one is too old to consider a realistic chance of being offered a full-time position? 50? 55? 60, 65, 70? Considering the retirement age has been lifted to 67.

Employers need to abide by the Equality Act 2010, therefore age being one of the protected characteristics enshrined in that legal framework, it should be wholly based on skills, experience and suitability for the post, not what year is on their birth certificate.

A candidate can protect themselves from unconscious bias by masking things like their school and university dates, and focus the content of their CV on the qualifications they've gained, where they've worked and the role duties they've performed that will convince a recruiter to give them an interview.

Depends on what tech skillset it is that you have and what you're looking for.
I know when it comes to the more hardcore tech skills it gets quite age/sex/race agnostic and becomes more about whether you can deliver.
Where I am it's actually the norm to only work at a company for a couple of years, this kind of removes the element of "will they retire after 3 years in the job" which I think is the presumption that is made by age.

My biggest issue though is skills - I had to keep up to date, I had to train myself in my spare time and have an online profile with GIT and blog posts in order to compete. Again, I think this helps because there isn't a culture of being trained by the employer so they don't have those

Not sure if I found this better or worse, it's not easy competing against people who code for fun or Run Standards organisations in their spare time!

Having said that, I know which Candidate I'd choose 😅

If you are more techie avoid going for institutional organisations and go for more tech - start ups, small consultancies, IT departments, rather than working in a non-IT department. These seem to be better.
Focus on your technical skills, especially after a break and get some blog posts or code out there online for them to Google you. If you have a common name make it more searchable with your .middle name or a nickname. Also take a couple of underpriced freelance projects or work for free for a mate if there is a recent gap in your CV

Good luck!

I think the key thing is being able to demonstrate the ability to learn new skills. Things change so quickly any potential employer will want to see you can pick up new stuff quickly. So do some online courses and work on a personal project to show this. I was asked this at every interview I attended when I was job hunting a couple of years ago. There are quite a few 'older' employees in my company. Good luck!

Btw I got my current job when I was 41. Compared to the graduates I feel ancient!

Thank you all for taking the time to respond; Your support for an unknown person is much appreciated, specifically in response to this topic, it is very encouraging. Yes, age should not be of a concern, it should be what skills and value-add one can render, no matter what aspect of diversity one is.