Contractor knacker yard

[SueEllen]

O levels (Ordinary and Advanced) and CSEs were a rigorous form examination which once existed, before everybody started copying their "course work" off Google and exams were replaced by just giving everybody a massive candy floss.

I was just calling you an

[darmstadt]

A heck of a lot of developers here over 50, in fact a lot of the dev contractors are over 50. There are 3 of us in the office and all are over 50 and the majority of us here are developing the new hardware and software that the younger guys use. Experience counts but luckily most of us are passing it on to the younger people here as well.

[permidom]

A heck of a lot of developers here over 50, in fact a lot of the dev contractors are over 50. There are 3 of us in the office and all are over 50 and the majority of us here are developing the new hardware and software that the younger guys use. Experience counts but luckily most of us are passing it on to the younger people here as well.

Nice to hear that.

[unixman]

I was just calling you an

How dare you madam. How dare you. Yes indeed

What did I come in here for again?

[eek]

How dare you madam. How dare you. Yes indeed

What did I come in here for again?

An insult (this is general after all)

[LondonManc]

How dare you madam. How dare you. Yes indeed

What did I come in here for again?

A cure for Alzheimers?

[expat]

How dare you madam. How dare you. Yes indeed

What did I come in here for again?

To have some young twat wipe your arse for you?

[nomadd]

Weird thread.

52 here. Still code heavily (amongst other architect and design duties.) Still contracting (coming up to 27 years unbroken run.)

Still keep up-to-date with all the latest languages/tools/tech. - then teach it to the permie "kids" in the office. It's a rinse-repeat cycle that's stuffed a few million quid through my company accounts over the years, so I can't complain. Will continue with that model until it stops working (at which point, I will.)

Never really come up against any ageism beyond a few jokes in the office. TBH, most folks in IT are getting older, so I actually see it as less of an issue now than it was 10 years ago. YMMV.

Ps. I have no idea what a "GCSE" is.

[Evil Hangover]

Weird thread.

+1

Look alive at work. Can be tough if you're glued to you PC. No one wants to (or needs to) work with needy 'when I was a lad' grumps

[Stan.goodvibes]

Weird thread.

52 here. Still code heavily (amongst other architect and design duties.) Still contracting (coming up to 27 years unbroken run.)

Still keep up-to-date with all the latest languages/tools/tech. - then teach it to the permie "kids" in the office. It's a rinse-repeat cycle that's stuffed a few million quid through my company accounts over the years, so I can't complain. Will continue with that model until it stops working (at which point, I will.)

Never really come up against any ageism beyond a few jokes in the office. TBH, most folks in IT are getting older, so I actually see it as less of an issue now than it was 10 years ago. YMMV.

Ps. I have no idea what a "GCSE" is.

51 here. Been a while since I posted on here. Started contracting at age 31 in London in '95 (yes, the good old days LOL), still contracting 20 years later in Sydney, Australia. No problem getting roles and after a break of several years from the IT industry also. In the last 5 years since arriving in Oz I've gone from SQL Dev to Snr Tech BA and added $300/day to my day rate. I'm currently aiming to move to a data architect role but I've been approached about a perm role and I might take it for 2-3 years while they pay me to go back to uni part time to do a Masters.

Still learning new stuff (agile, architecture, data governance etc), still keen to do more study at Uni, and still keen to pop back to the UK at some stage and contract again. As Nomadd says - no-one really seems to care that much about how old you are as long as you have the skillz.

p.s. on a slightly different topic - all this talk about next April - big changes on the way? Here in Oz the agency does my payroll and I don't claim any expenses (I walk across the road to work). I'd have no issue with doing that via an umbrella company in London and being IR35 compliant because it's just so much less hassle than having a plc. IMHO it's worth the extra cost because it frees a lot of your time and worry and lets you focus on what you are good at - improving your skills to maximise your daily rate.