I'm a level 7 individual contributor in tech in my early fifties. With four kids soon all in college and a late start (last year) on active retirement investment, I plan to work till age 65. I actually enjoy my work and my team at Fidelity.
Assuming I wont' be laid off, is it a realistic expectation to work till that age, as an individual contributor or should I transition into one of those "leadership" roles to stay on longer?
@OP Are you male or female? Or even better, LGBTQ? if you're male, see ya. If you are other, you'll be find.
Fidelity is the only place where dinosaurs thrive and the raptors and small ones go extinct. Way to go Fi
I’m 93 and still coming in the office everyday working the abacus till me fingers bleed.
Stay until you can grab a really good buy out honestly
No one is going to pay you a cushy G7 level salary to push a few commits per week on Copilot until you are 65. You might have one or two years left. They will offshore your role or pay 1/3 your salary to a new grad to do the same work. You are freaking delusional thinking you can coast another 15 years doing the same job.
OP here. Thanks all for the hearty replies! True spirit of a self-help anonymous forum like this one.
@d1, sorry for the bad manager you had to deal with. I had one who must felt threatened and gave me 80% bonus for a EE performance. I got the signal and internally transferred to my current team which is superb top down left right.
What makes me want to work till 65 is, in tech, with the code assistant such as Github Copilot or Claude Code, manual coding has been reduced to an insignificant part of the job. Like medical doctors, the experiences and wisdom of the older folks, empowered by the coding agents, are suddenly more impactful and enjoyable.
I was with fido for 18 years and got pushed out at 52. I had saved and invested about 60% of my working salary. I was ready, but didn't realize it yet until my boss acted like an a$$. I told him he'd better keep working, because I'm not. Life is great! Material things are overrated by far. The freedom I got is priceless! Life ain't forever. Don't be a slave to the grind.
Really not many 60 year olds around, they push you out with high salary and a golden handshake.
In my mind there are 3 things to weigh. 1) what you think will make you happy for however long you have left with the company. 2) potential job security concerns if you don't compete to climb the ladder like many others do. 3) compensation
1) happiness - only you can answer that. If you're happy doing what you're doing then why change. If primary concern is 2 and 3 then go for it, but understand the trade-offs if taking a role that's not really your passion.
2) as far as job security...who knows. It's anyone's best guess what's coming next and I wouldn't make a change for this reason. We're all just a number and I wouldn't try to guess or make a change based on the unknown. If anything I'd avoid staying in the same exact role for a very long time, but you can always make a lateral move and not change your level, title or responsibilities. Just work in a different group every so many years so you don't appear stale.
3) Pay -- There is overlap in pay across grades so don't assume you'll make much more. In fact i know of some managers that have a good performance history but have direct reports a grade lower than them with a higher base salary. Yes there is potential additional bonus and shares at the higher level, but it's not guaranteed and when newly promoted you're evaluated against others who have been at the level longer and you know how the bell curve works. You may not see much (if any) additional compensation for some time. The question is how long will you be there and whether or not you'll be there long enough to see it. In the meantime there are additional responsibilities, stress , etc that might not be worth it to you.
Good luck
55 is my goal!
I’m 57 and get asked all the time when I will retire. I love my job and get E rating about every 3 years. I will work till 62 unless there is a VBO but do enjoy having FU money in case things change.
Great question.
Too many variables about each individual’s situation to paint with broad strokes.
I’m older too. Joined the company about four years ago.
Hope to work to 65 or a few years beyond.
Would love it if Fidelity is my last company.
I focus on learning new skills constantly and broadening my network so that if my job is eliminated, hopefully I can find a new one quickly.
Best of luck to you. There aren’t many people over what appears to be 60 around so not sure about my chances.