Reply to: Contractor knacker yard

[BlasterBates]

I know a contractor who is 69. He's a bit worried he might find it more difficult when he hits 70.

[tomtomagain]

If I was giving career advice it would be thus; start perm get a technical skill, switch to contracting for 10 years / or when you have enough / Switch back into the right perm role or do something else.

And that's not bad advice.

The danger I see in long-term contracting isn't hitting an age-related ceiling. It's getting stuck down a technological dead-end. For example, being a COBOL programmer in the 1990's or ASP.NET Web Forms developer today. As said by Expat earlier in the thread. It's hard to shake of legacy and make that jump from a dying technology to the next-big-thing.

Clients rightly expect the contractor they hire to have the skills they need and be competent at those skills and they are not in the business of providing the contractor with experience or exposure to newer up-coming skills. It's your responsibility as a contractor to keep an eye on the future direction of IT and ensure you are positioning yourself to pick up the new skills that will keep you marketable for the next decade. And that is easier said than done.

In defence of the oldies .... every team should have one or two, because they will often do or take on responsibility for stuff that the young-un's, who are really focused on the technology, don't want to do. You know, the boring stuff like, documentation or testing.


Keep learning. Keep flexible and professional and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

[tomtomagain]

(Still sucks hitting 40 though.)

Yeah. But it's better than not hitting 40.

[eek]

If we are thinking of the same place, I was there last year on a 3 month gig and was 39 when I started. Most of the permies I was working were older than me and the other contractors were of similar age to me. Didn't hear of any contractor "ageism".

qh

Last time I interviewed there (11 years ago) it might have been ageist. I imagine however that most people have just got older over the years so its far less of an issue than it was...

[quackhandle]

Ive even heard that one of the well known money comparison companies who are based near North Wales will 'not take on any contractor aged over 35.'

If we are thinking of the same place, I was there last year on a 3 month gig and was 39 when I started. Most of the permies I was working were older than me and the other contractors were of similar age to me. Didn't hear of any contractor "ageism".

qh

[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.

[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

[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.

[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?

[LondonManc]

How dare you madam. How dare you. Yes indeed

What did I come in here for again?

A cure for Alzheimers?

[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)

[unixman]

I was just calling you an

How dare you madam. How dare you. Yes indeed

What did I come in here for again?

[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.

[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.

[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