I was made redundant in August 2005 at the age of 61
after nearly 36 years in IT with the same company. I found it all
but impossible to get another job in IT for a number of reasons,
one of which may have well have been my age.
I had gone into IT at a time when you did not need a degree and
progressed in various roles, keeping pace with technology only in
so far as it was necessary to do my job at the time.
So while I have loads of experience and can perform well at
different levels from programmer up to project manager, I have no
formal qualifications. The lack of qualifications does not matter
until you find yourself out of work, when it bars you from a large
part of the marketplace.
Working at one company for a long time can bring a good salary
and high standing, but it can also leave you with a great deal of
experience that is of little or no value in the outside world.
Starting again
You have to accept, however unpalatable, that your worth in that
world is not what you would hope for. You also have to be willing
to start again, further down the career ladder at a lower
salary.
If you are unemployed and have any savings, you will qualify for
Job Seekers Allowance (£56 a week) for six months only. After that,
you get nothing until you are destitute or decide to take your
pension.
If you take your pension early, its value is reduced
considerably, although we older workers have probably cleared our
mortgages and may well have finished the child-rearing phase, so we
can afford to reduce our expectations accordingly.
Even so, it is still difficult to find work in or out of IT
because of the rising number of unemployed people of all ages. Many
have fixed bases, some in parts of the country where the situation
is especially bad; relocating is often not an option.
I applied for an average of about six contract and permanent
positions a day for almost a year, including a number of jobs
outside IT altogether. The Job Centre really did not help at all.
Most of my applications went unacknowledged and during that time I
had only three face-to-face interviews and two phone interviews.
There was a lot of enthusiasm from agencies, but it came to
nothing.
Legacy skills
I eventually landed a programming job using old technology where
my age and experience both counted in my favour. Many companies
operating legacy systems welcome old hands to act as caretakers for
a few years. There is no long-term future, but it is a job where my
experience is valued and it will bridge the gap until retirement.
It is a lot better than being unemployed and much better than
stacking shelves in a supermarket. It has also restored my belief
in myself.
l Gordon Eve-Tatham’s first job in IT started in 1964 for the
Westminster Bank. After a spell with ICT (later ICL), he joined
software group Fraser Williams before taking up his current role in
VMS Cobol and DEC Rdb
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