Richard Warr (6/25/2013)
geoffrey.sturdy (6/25/2013)
"It's also a young person's game. Once you have a family, not sure you can make those trade offs and feel good about it. "Sorry - but I take exception to this - the mythology that somehow IT belongs to the under 30's is just plain wrong.
During my career I've gone from Cobol programmer to mainframe dba to sql dba , still managing to be a family man despite often putting in some pretty daft hours - still do and I'm more than capable of "keeping up" with the "young" - its bad enough when you have to put with this attitude from recruiters but on this blog people should know better - apologies for the rant
No need to apologise - I quite agree!
I've now got to the stage where my youngest (of five) children is now 22 and have never felt conflicted between work and family. Fortunately age discrimination is on the decline, especially since it's now illegal in the UK. I was 50 before taking my first permanent role.
You might as well say it's not a trade for women because they'll all go and have babies and miss a critical leap in technology :rolleyes:
I think this depends on the culture of the organisations you work for and your own personality.
With only one exception the organisations I have worked for have had the attitude that learning new skills and keeping up-to-date was something you did in your own time and when you have a young family your time is not your own.
In the contracting role you have to be much more self-sufficient as you are effectively running a business with yourself as the primary asset. The concept of your time as a billable resource is ingrained. The cost of training and education is a business expense. This must give you an attitudal advantage even if a physical advantage is only in the mind.