RE: I am not doing software development into my 60’s. I want to get off of the technology treadmill.
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In relation to this, read this article:
KEY EXCERPT:
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Employers dismiss them as either lacking in up-to-date technical skills — such as the latest programming-language fad — or “not suitable for entry level.” In other words, either underqualified or overqualified. That doesn’t leave much, does it? Statistics show that most software developers are out of the field by age 40.
Employers have admitted this in unguarded moments. Craig Barrett, a former chief executive officer of Intel Corp., famously remarked that “the half-life of an engineer, software or hardware, is only a few years,” while Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has blurted out that young programmers are superior.
Vivek Wadhwa, a former technology executive and now a business writer and Duke University researcher, wrote that in 2008 David Vaskevitch, then the chief technology officer at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), “acknowledged that the vast majority of new Microsoft employees are young, but said that this is so because older workers tend to go into more senior jobs and there are fewer of those positions to begin with.”
More than a decade ago, Congress commissioned a National Research Council study of the age issue in the profession. The council found that it took 23.4 percent longer for the over-40 workers to find work after losing their jobs, and that they had to take an average pay cut of 13.7 percent on the new job.
Why do the employers prefer to hire the new or recent grads? Is it really because only they have the latest skill sets? That argument doesn’t jibe with the fact that young ones learned those modern skills from old guys like me. Instead, the problem is that the 35-year-old programmer has simply priced herself out of the market. As Wadhwa notes, even if the 45-year-old programmer making $120,000 has the right skills, “companies would rather hire the younger workers.”
To those companies I have this one comment:
CHEAP || FAST || GOOD; Pick two, (the third is excluded by the other two).
Peak mental performance occurs from age 20 to 40, then starts to decline. The idea that everyone in their 50s should make more than they did in their 40s is probably wrong. Older workers have more wisdom but their younger co-workers often don't value it, are bound and determined to learn the hard way. If it was common that older people got pay decreases to match their output they would not be pushed out like they are.
In my work environment now... that's exactly how it works, it's cost effective when it comes to overall payroll. They pay a salaried "trainer" who simply moves them in and out like a revolving door. Thus all new employees come in at slightly above minimum wage...having prior expereince no longer applys.
Additionally when it comes to trimming down staff, in the slow season, the higher waged employees (older) will always take the hit, and the first to go if necessary
The company is currently going thru a re-organization and modernizing it's facilities....as expected long term employees were offered severance if they wouldn't accept part-time work. ..and those positions were then filled by the young folk.