Older contractors

[d000hg]

As an employer, getting an older person as a contractor might be preferable to an employee. If you employ someone you have to pay sick pay and be flexible around their life circumstances and generally treat them like you give a damn. As a contractor, no such concerns!

[vetran]

Today working with a guy who is a contractor in his 60s who has written hundreds of books and advises governments , big business etc. He is booked months ahead. One assumes his daily rate is more than most contractors earn a week.

Chap I worked with in last place (late 50s) he has been trying to retire for years (one of his kids is quite sick so spending time with him).

plenty of COBOL or similar warriors out there in their 50s->70s. Again no problem getting a job.

[d000hg]

Today working with a guy who is a contractor in his 60s who has written hundreds of books and advises governments , big business etc. He is booked months ahead. One assumes his daily rate is more than most contractors earn a week.

Chap I worked with in last place (late 50s) he has been trying to retire for years (one of his kids is quite sick so spending time with him).

plenty of COBOL or similar warriors out there in their 50s->70s. Again no problem getting a job.

Yeah we have one or two like that where I am. People trying to leave for years and being persuaded to stay as nobody else has their depth of expertise.

[edison]

I'm in my mid-50s and have never been in so much demand and I plan to work, part time at least, till 65.

I can't comment much on techie roles like devs, but I see a lot of clients who are much more open to older contractors in business facing, strategy and advisory roles. I've just finished a gig at an FS firm where most of the contract PMs hired recently were in their 50s and most of the Exec Board were in their 40s.

A lot depends on chemistry with the hiring manager (and conscious/unconscious age bias may come into it.) I've worked at a startup where the co-founders were 24 and I was older than their parents but they loved the experience I was able to bring. Similarly, I worked at a very trendy scaleup in Shoreditch where I was older than all 150 people in the company, including the Head of Technology who was around 40. Age wasn't a factor at all and I really enjoyed working there.

If you're good enough then many enlightened hiring managers won't really care too much how old you are as a contractor, so long as you can fit in.

[vetran]

Yeah we have one or two like that where I am. People trying to leave for years and being persuaded to stay as nobody else has their depth of expertise.

The middle guy is easy to work with, he will tell you himself he isn't super clever but he just gets on with it. I had a lot of time for him as he was zero stress so I taught him a few new tricks which he appreciated. He only started in this particular industry 18 months ago. You know the bloke where you only have to explain it once and it got done sensibly then that was him.

As I regularly tell clients if you have anyone you can't run the business without because your staff have such a depth of knowledge, your documentation & training is insufficient.

[anonymouse]

Today working with a guy who is a contractor in his 60s who has written hundreds of books and advises governments , big business etc. He is booked months ahead. One assumes his daily rate is more than most contractors earn a week.

Chap I worked with in last place (late 50s) he has been trying to retire for years (one of his kids is quite sick so spending time with him).

plenty of COBOL or similar warriors out there in their 50s->70s. Again no problem getting a job.

5 devs/manager & 3 tester/managers just retired (all COBOL permies). That leaves 2 testers (1 contractor & 1 permie) & 1 dev (contractor) now. All 53+. Easy money and just signed up for another year now. The previous COBOL to JAVA project still doesn't work (after 18 months), so now I've been drafted in to help out. Very inside IR35 role, but it's WFH. I work for a while, take some time out, then they phone me to come back for the next piece of work..

[woohoo]

I think in 5-10 years only the old programmers will be working looking after legacy systems. The new generation will ask a daft AI to write a system for them and it will probably do a decent job.

I remember a lecturer at UNI saying that being a clerk in a bank was a middle class profession 100 years ago with status until tech replaced the need for any kind of skill. I can see general programming going the same way.

[xoggoth]

Wonder if there's any contracts going for people with experience of Fortran IV ?

[vetran]

I think in 5-10 years only the old programmers will be working looking after legacy systems. The new generation will ask a daft AI to write a system for them and it will probably do a decent job.

I remember a lecturer at UNI saying that being a clerk in a bank was a middle class profession 100 years ago with status until tech replaced the need for any kind of skill. I can see general programming going the same way.

I imagine it will be an evolution as with most technical jobs. Code cutting will be reduced to Fivver.

The jobs fixing the issues will still be well paid.

[woohoo]

I imagine it will be an evolution as with most technical jobs. Code cutting will be reduced to Fivver.

The jobs fixing the issues will still be well paid.

I was partly joking but I'm not sure, I can see in 5-10 years there being a big change in general programming. But I'm just guessing. I can still remember a bit of Cobol, I don't think a decent AI worth its salt would lower itself to that so I should be ok Jack.