State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

Interesting point. Are there fewer people in their early to mid-30s, continuing to go into contracting?

10-15 years ago it seemed that I worked with a lot of contractors who were under 35. Now there seem to be fewer younger ones about.

This forum seems to be disproportionately populated by people well past 40 so I don't think we're particularly representative of 'the market'.

I suspect what happens is you become older than the person interviewing you and the perception is you are more stuck in your ways than younger candidates.

Certainly in what I did the focus went from doing decent Test Analysis that could then potentially lead to automated testing to having a CV full of testing frameworks.

Not my field but developers seem to need to have an increasing range of development platforms non their CV which I suspect most of them could learn in their sleep because they are experienced developers. This lends itself to younger coders who have the time to chase the next trend in their spare time and not have families to worry about.

Some would call it ageism. I call it sidelining a lot of valuable experience that has a track record of delivery.

[SchumiStars]

That graph does not look right. This is the worst I have seen it. I have been working since 1999 and contracting since 2008.

I have been thinking, saying, looking at getting a government grant to learn how to become a teacher. The wife has been studying for another degree at Oxford for a couple of years so may join her.