Any older programmers working in the country? I'm thinking late 60's and over.

kali.mist

I have been making a living in developing and supporting software for near 20 years. I'm in my mid 40's with two young kids, single parent and I cannot see retirement as an option. I am going to keep working as long as I can. I have seen a lot of ageism in tech, and I was wanted to hear from any folks in Ireland that are working into their 60's in systems development/support. That could be DBA, Developer, Senior Tester, that kind of thing. I have avoided management positions because they just don't suit my personality. Just would like to hear the work experiences of the older experts in this domain.

jimmycrackcorm

There's three approaches to follow. One is management that you've ruled out. Other than that, another is niche specialism, as in COBOL Programmers are still in demand. The last one is to actually keep yourself up to date, and combine the knowledge with your experience to keep ahead.

The good thing about IT is that they're always something new that you can become an expert in to do so. The downside is that sleeving your evenings watching Eastenders won't help.

_Kaiser_

It's something I've started to think about myself as I also early 40s and don't see retiring as being an option either unfortunately

In my case I started out on the phones doing helpdesk support, moved into internal IT, then an IT admin/manager in a non-tech organisation.

At that point though I realised that staying on that track wasn't going to work long term as a lot of the stuff is now automated or outsourced, or done by fresh graduates who can do it for half the money. To be honest too, I was a bit jaded of the hands on side as well.

So I focused on the management aspects of the job and after being made redundant during the recession, pushed those elements in my search for another job.

These days I run the IT Department and look after a small global team of techs. My background of doing that role definitely helps in that regard but I'm increasingly less technical myself these days - I still do a bit, and mess about at home with my home domain, but my role is pretty much entirely looking after the team and service, procurement, process and sla agreements etc

Hopefully it'll continue to work out as I get older

Does someone one in their fifties count however they work contract don't work the full year and its not the family's only source of income.