UKC

Yes there is an Age Discrimination law, but lets be realistic about this, at what age are you considered to be on the job market scrap-heap?

In reply to The Lemming:

I'm 33 and in IT, and it is becoming clear to me that I'm going to have to head towards management roles rather than technical to stay reasonably safely in a job over the next few years...

Neil

In reply to Neil Williams: Blimey - it is odd. There are quite a lot of oldies in the software bizz. It seems to me that candidates are discriminated against on their abilities rather than age - certainly from what I have seen.

In reply to The Lemming:
Depends on the jobI suppose . In my game experieince counts so I seem to still have no probs finding clients despite turning 60.
Or if you go to B&Q it seems age is a positive disadvantage. However, I've found few openings for 60 year old hip hop djs, for which I'm profoundly grateful.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

Can a disadvantage be positive? Anyway, I thought B&Q employ older people; a quarter of their workforce is over fifty and their oldest is ninety four (as of 2009 anyway)

http://www.changeboard.com/content/1517/HR-jobs-and-human-resources-jobs/

In reply to EeeByGum:

That would be best - but it's not what I've generally observed. There are plenty of older people in the industry, but far more of them are managers, trainers etc than coders.

This may of course be more to do with their preference than the availability of jobs, though possibly also because keeping up with the movement of technology in your own time when you've got other things to deal with e.g. a family is quite hard.

Neil

In reply to The Lemming: I think it's industry specific rather then role specific. I work in accounts, The last advertising agency i worked in the average age across the company was 27! My last job was in the NHS and at 37 I was one of the younger ones in my dept.

In reply to The Lemming: A lot will depend on the job. Your not going to employ an older person in a roll that will require a lot of in house training if they only have a few working years left, the same goes for heavy physical work.

In reply to The Lemming:

The point at which you either become unable or unwilling to continue to learn and your industry / job role moves on without you. For some they reach that state in their 20s for others they may never reach it. So it will depend on the individual as much as they industry they are in.

In reply to The Lemming: Working in mental health I'm finding teh age demographic is getting higher all the time. There seems to be few young mental health nurses, few young OT's few young social workers, but rafts of young psychology interns, who vanish once trained.

Maybe that is just in this location though.

In reply to risby:

I was speaking as a customer rather than a potential employee

In reply to The Lemming: Interviewed and got my last job at 52. Beat several younger candidates for a local authority post in a planning capacity.

Don't think (so far) that you're ever too old and its a mind set. But being realistic, there must be a cut off point at some point!

In reply to The Lemming:

After retiring at 65 I had no difficulty getting part time jobs, so long as you recognise that you are not going to earn mega bucks, but certainly a nice top up to your pension.

I've had the following jobs over the last 4 years (all part time):-

Ipsos-Mori Poll Interviewer
Go Ape Instructor
Key Accompany viewings man for local Estate Agents

These have all brought me in enough money to enjoy a 3 or 4 good overseas holidays a year without breaking into my pensions, and there has been the potential to work longer full time hours if I had wanted to.

In reply to The Lemming:

You can be on the scrap heap at 40 +. Life is full of pathways. You make decisions things happen that you have no control over that may affect your whole life. Everyones Lifestyles choices are different.

In reply to The Lemming:

Looking at current levels of youth unemployment, I'd say about 16.

In reply to The Lemming: When u can no longer do the job. My old man looks like hes going to have to retire this year at the age of 60 as he's developed severe athiritis in his wrists through his job as an engineer. Spannering for 40 years has taken its toll.

In reply to Kev Fox:

Really ? He must be old.

I've only met a very small proportion of Engineers who would use a spanner at work.

I only use spanners to fix my car, but rarely in my job as an Engineer.

As for when you become too old to be employable ? Well, I looked at the syllabus for the course I did, and realised that over 25 years I've developed new skills, but no longer have the core skills that I'd need if I were starting out. All I can say is keep learning and developing.

In reply to The Lemming: It's the students and young working classes that can't get jobs. Like the ones we saw protesting in London and rioting all over the country in 2012.

God knows what'll happen if it rains less this summer, still in a double dip recession, house prices stagnant - could be a bit of a tinderbox.