The stressful lives of older tech workers.

There is a lot of truth in there.

The industry is constantly changing, and you have to change with it or get left behind.

And the older you get, the tougher it gets to learn new technologies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tig
Luckily, I look a good bit younger than my age, but I removed the dates for my education entries in my resume to be safe.

I'll admit that some things are harder to learn these days. I think older guys like me won't put up with much bullshit, which is the main reason they'll can us.
Now, get the hell off of my cloud! :old:
 
I specifically switched from Windows server admin to networking because I figured that if I became unemployed, a 55 year old Cisco guy had a much better chance at getting a new job than a 55 year old windows guy.

Unfortunately, even though that has eliminated the stress of being potentially unemployable, being a network guy ratchets up the day to day stress level all on its own. Network admin is more tedious, and there are dragons waiting to eat you around every corner. It is far too easy to take production down because of some unforeseen interaction or detail.

And dealing with telecom providers is a special kind of hell all unto itself.
 
I am a systems/network admin and only in my mid 40s but I think my side is not as bad as a programmer/developer. While there have been changes in Windows servers and networking over the last 15 years I have been in IT, they haven't been as drastic as the programming world. I am hoping that when I hit my mid 50s, I will be done with IT all together.
 
I feel this becoming more and more true. I'm in my 40's and fortunately have a decent place to work, but I worry about what will my job be like when I'm 50. Will I be able to do this job as I approach 60? Changing careers at this age is a scary proposition. Everyone hopes for a career where they can rely on their brains and experience, but the pace of technology jobs is daunting. :(
 
This is one reason I left IT and went back to the Casino industry fulltime. I can sling cheques until I die.
 
I was pushed out of the tech sector at 46. Most place I applied to feared that I was too old to learn new tech.
 
Well, I'm in a bit of a different boat, as my line of work is more field service and training , and only touches a bit on the IT part. In our business (big boy ATMs), the service model is moving away from the manufacturers having their own service and installation divisions to farming them out to third-parties (where I am at now). My issue is less being perceived as too old by my current and/or prospective employers, and more feeling like I'm too old to actually do the job :wink: - how long can I drive from place to place, spend time outside in bad weather, sling around boxes of parts when I am doing some of the physical stuff, etc. Then again, I'm looking at delivery driving as a supplemental, and possibly full-time future income, so :shrug:
 
I'm in my early 40's and have been in electronics for more than 20 years, and things are changing rapidly there. Jobs that used to be plentiful and high paying have been sent overseas so there isn't much out there and whatever is left doesn't pay well at all. I have a good paying job now, but my company just let go of bunch of people, and most of them were old timers. No doubt they will be replaced by a younge, foreign, and therefore cheaper workforce. It's the downside of capitalism, someone always gets left holding the bag, and you are lucky if you are not one of them.
 
I can definitely relate to that article. I'm 54 and work for a tech company. The trend here over the last few years has been to hire new college grads pretty much exclusively, with only a few exceptions. Much like one of the cases in the article, I've managed to fill a niche here and feel like I'm fairly safe for the next 6-7 years. After that, my plan is to find a rich widow to be my sugar momma. I haven't filled my wife in on this plan yet...
 
Too much truth. I lucked out and hope to keep this job until I die, because the alternative is frightening.
 
While IT seems to be the worst offender I think there is an age out thing in many career fields. When in college years ago the trend was to change jobs in one's adult life about 10 times. In the IT field can one be proactive to the change, ahead of the curve or does come at you from to many angles?
 
My Dad used to say, "Never think you're the only one". All companies do this stuff and age discrimination in employment is rampant across the board. What they want is young and educated yet still naive employees who believe they can chase the carrot and actually catch it. What they don't want is mature employees who have finally realized that they never will and were never meant to catch it. Of course their Human Recourse and Legal Departments won't let them dump you for no good reason so lacking that they simply make your life miserable and degrade you until you either quit or have a heart attack whichever comes first. I survived 30 years of it by convincing my employers that I believed them when they told me how much they loved me and my work. But down inside I always knew that they were all using me like a whore. That's OK because that's how Capitalism works and the way to be a successful whore is to dress nice, have a good act and never fall in love.
 
Back
Top