I haven’t found anything IT after fifteen months. I hear the average time for finding a new job after layoff is 6 months but I am doubtful.
Me: 52 y/o male, 27 yrs in tech mostly on the software side with about 2 y sys admin back in the day when that was a title.
Questions:
Anyone else experiencing this?
Money will eventually run out. I am having trouble even talking about this so it’s just keeping me awake. I don’t even know how to approach this issue.
IBM rejects in their 50’s won’t be able to pass interview live test code; and may end up working at Walmart type job
OP: your life, as you know it, as an IT professional is over; get on with it and good luck!
Majority of IBM dinosaurs will have to face the same reality soon
Driving a garbage truck isn't as high-paying, as high-prestige or as cushy as most IT jobs, but the work is both honorable and necessary. Look at garbage pileups whenever there is a labor dispute and you'll see people screaming.
Unlike IT work, it's also the kind of job that is not easily outsourced.
This was me. Everything matches OP except I didn’t find any IT work for four years.
I have to survive and accepted a waste management job. I am driving a trash truck now so I can have an income.
True (but sad) story...there was a local tech entrepreneur in my part of the world who had it all. A classical high achiever, he did really well in high school, skipped college, became CTO of a famous local firm in his early 20s, made lots of money producing software, married a couple of times to beautiful wives, had lots of children...multiple homes, multi-million dollar Manhattan condo...you get the picture.
A few years ago he "died suddenly" at 56. Natural causes (allegedly).
S*** happens to all of us.
This is a story about the "Great replacement" in IT.
My advice would be to prioritize your mental and physical health over everything else. I was laid off from IBM at 53, a few years ago. Money may be tight for you, right now, but a millionaire with bad health is no better off than someone with good heath just scraping by. Strength comes from within. You are stronger and more important than your previous job title. Good luck.
Deport h1bs and dinosaurs will thrive...
RE: post @bbjb+1ssxFD75
It's the offshoring of US jobs and the reckless flood of H1B visas from the US government to India, China and other Third World countries that US taxpayers should be fighting against, rather than the educated Indians who have come here legally and are working jobs to keep themselves afloat during this depression / recession. It is unethical tech companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Salesforce and US politicians who have cheated and gamed the H1B visa system to get cheap labor and tax breaks to allow this mess from the US Labor Department. It is extremely unfair that young Americans are told to educate themselves and do so, but cannot find decent jobs to put food on the table and a roof over their heads after graduation. And yet the big companies mentioned above take all the jobs and offshore them and still get the advantage of paying lower corporate taxes - why ? There is something wrong with this picture and this scenario has been going on for way too long. Enough is enough - it is time for change.
It is only a hopeless situation if you let it be one. However, you are quite right that the job market is extremely crowded right now, and even more so in IT. However, it is not the only job market that's hurting. I've seen a lot of lawyers, for instance, who are in pretty rough shape...like $20-25 an hour. That's Walmart territory. There are lawyers with Harvard Law and similar credentials who sell beer at baseball games, who drive cabs, and who wait tables. These are people who you'd think have got it all...brains, beauty (a lot of beautiful people), credentials, very outgoing and personable, etc....and they can't make it as lawyers. So they do what they must to survive. You think every Indian you see has taken your nice IT job? Check out some of the Indians who drive semi trucks in this country. They too have advanced credentials. Well-educated, well-spoken (in English)...perfect for IT work right? Um...no.
That is the situation you are in, and you must adopt a survival mindset if you are to make it through it all. You can try waiting for an economic turnaround or some other kind of miracle, but it doesn't seem likely that any is coming soon. Take that Walmart or UPS or whatever job...whatever you are physically able to do. There are still jobs out there that are easy enough to do, even for older and disabled folks. They aren't as mentally stimulating as IT jobs, but let's be real...a lot of IT jobs aren't all that stimulating either.
At least you'll have some cash coming in. It's better to go through that than to just sit around in a depression for ever and ever. And if a better job comes along (maybe even an IT job), you can always try to grab it.
Same age as you and coming upon one year since I was let go. I have realized that no matter what skills I have - Cloud+AI - the age factor is not in our favor. Have been told couple places that I am too qualified for jobs. Plus there are hundreds like us applying for the same jobs. Recruiters don't even see your profiles unless you came through a reference - and even then they have dozens of referenced candidates to evaluate.
My health is getting effected as well. So are my relationships. And you can imagine finances are virtually gone. Have kids going to college. Wife got laid off from her IT job as well. So yes, no health insurance after a few more days.
For solutions, well there is always independent consulting. But those opportunities are drying up too. Lots of those activities can be done remotely from overseas. I have seen some jobs that pay hourly less than fast food workers! It is a hopeless situation, one that I have very less hope for a turnaround. I wish you luck and hope that you have a good network of friends and families to support you emotionally at the very least. If not, seek them out ... or seek professional help. Don't let your health suffer like I did. Its not worth it.
Layoffs of older workers happen at small companies too.
In case anyone wants to cast aspersions on "IBM rejects in their 50s" (who am I kidding, that's just about everyone here!), I'll state my opinion that IBM's past and present is Google, Facebook, Apple's and just about everybody else's future.
Truth be told, the problem for all tech employees is that they are dependent on their company's fortunes, which are fleeting. Apple and Google are successful now, but in 10 or 20 years their fortunes could be as bad as IBM's fortunes are right now. Apple's profit depends on cellphones, and Google's profit depends on advertising. Changes in either of those markets could send those companies plummeting.
It's too late for those of us in advancing years, but it's not too late for the younger folks to take measures to protect themselves. I'm not sure what those measures should be, but one thing I'd suggest is that they act less like employees and more like independent tradepeople. This already happens with a lot of people, and IMHO it's a good thing. The last thing you want to be is someone in their later years who can't ply their trade because their entire working lives have been dedicated to a company that's now failing. It used to be that being a 25-year or 30-year or more employee had a lot of benefits to it, but like a lot of things corporate management all over the world has done away with them. They offer the employees no love or loyalty, and there is no reason for the employees to offer anything beyond their next paycheck.
Very happy I had the foresight to save and invest from the beginning of my career as well as only making nominal charitable contributions over the years since I knew that if I needed help down the line the only one I could absolutely rely on was me, myself, and I.
IBM rejects in their 50's have nowhere to go
Considering the adoption of the Cloud, when a job can be made 4 times more affordable
from another country/continent from call/R&D centers, IBM or any other company will take advantage of it. Mostly the most innovative jobs, that can't easily be outsourced, are staying in America.
Wall Street is pushing hard for this to happen to increase ROI for shareholders.
With the increasing steep cheaper competition from overseas employees, If you're still at IBM in your 50's, you know you are a candidate for a McDonald's type job
Good luck! You may look for a long time...
There are better jobs available than working at Walmart. However, it is not easy right now to find a high-paying job as an American, or for that matter anyone in the Western world. There are lots of qualified people around for most positions who are willing to work cheaply. Competition is stiff, especially in urban areas and especially in IT work. The days where you could just go down the street for another IT gig ended more than 20 years ago.
If the OP can find another IT job, that's great. He's got almost 30 years in software and system admin. Finding a regular job is probably out of the question, but becoming an independent consultant is certainly a possibility (if he has the personality for it).
The only issue will be how to live in the meantime. Survival skills will be helpful.
OP is gonna end up working at Walmart
AK knows he is a dinosaur but he is running the show and decides the fates of IBM peons
" .. younger, cheaper, hungriier imported workers ..."
translation: inexperienced, therefore worth less, expensive to feed with communications barriers
IBM == SEARS
Re: post @5fdy+1ssxFD75
AK is a dinosaur too and he in his 60s; he is no spring chicken any more than the former IBM CEO, GR. This speaks is volumes about the age hypocrisy at IBM the higher up you go in the org chart.
There's something to be said for bringing in new blood...but that's not what IBM is doing. IBM is following the same old playbook that American business leaders have been playing for the past 50 years. Replace "old and tired" US labor with cheaper labor, using the same ideas (IP) that were successful in the past. Do not try new ideas or creations (innovation), because that would take risk and potentially cost money. However, run lots of beautiful advertisements in the right places showing smiling faces all over the world, so that IBM is portrayed to be a worldly company that gets ideas from all over.
He-l, IBM isn't even doing that last bit lately...remember when IBM used to run their ads all over the place? Glossy magazines, TV ads on all the Sunday news and talk shows that old people watch, and TV spots on the Sunday golf and tennis matches? Do they still do those? I haven't seen any of those recently.
New blood is needed in the management suite and the BOD...but it isn't there.
AK has said: "No more dinosaurs at IBM..."
Tech companies don't care much about aging employees in their 50's in this competitive job market. They can always be a blue vest at Walmart. By the way AK is trying to purge the struggling company from aging employees in their 50's, just like the rest of the industry. He prefers to bring over "young new blood" from cheaper countries; it's just the reality of the industry
"OP has been replaced by younger, cheaper, hungriier imported workers from overseas"
can they spell
or more importantly create
please list the major advancements they have made in their home country
OP has been replaced by younger, cheaper, hungriier imported workers from overseas
At 52, OP is done in IT
So sorry to hear this. The job market is tight right now. I left ibm after almost 20 years. In my case, I quit to go to a better job because I was tired of the toxic environment, but it took me many failed attempts to find a good job. One thing I noticed is that I did not know how to interview. I had been at IBM for so long that I never practiced interviewing. Make sure you get help from an expert on how to write a good resume and practice on how to interview. Good luck!
For what it's worth...any former IBM employees (that I knew) who worked elsewhere were recruited into their new jobs, rather than them "applying" through a traditional hiring process, submitting a resume, etc.
In other words...those employees had specific skill, experience and knowledge sets that made them potentially valuable to new employers. The IBM name may not always have a sterling reputation on its own, but there are parts of the company that still have potential for poaching high-value employees.
It’s not age discrimination if you lack the skills in today’s market. The days where you can manage everything using gui and simple scripts is long gone. Most people at IBM fall into this category.
Most companies outside of IBM view IBM as outdated and inept, which is technically true as IBM hasn’t had any innovations for the past decade.
I just don’t know why would any graduates want to work for IBM as IBM is viewed as a detriment on resume.
The economy is horrible right now thanks to the DC administration, so you are fighting an up-hill battle. However, I don't know the skills you have to know if perhaps part of your challenge is that you need to update your tech stack skills. I would highly recommend anyone laid off consider going back to school to get a cyber-related degree. There are several on-line you can get if you are not near a school that can ramp you up. There are 1, 2, 4 year degrees that can rapidly ramp you into an arena in which their is a major gap in resources to where your age is not going to be as much of a problem. Good luck
Personally, I've found that startups don't care about continuous learning but rather continuous experience. And even then, they are not interested in YOUR continuous experience unless it has immediate applicability to what they are trying to start up.
IMHO it's definitely age discrimination, but startups will give younger employees a chance to grow into a job. They will not give that same opportunity to older folks. An older person has to be a "hired g-n"...someone who can hit the ground running from the moment they step in, especially if they are highly paid.
I was let go from IBM in my early 40s. I'm still in IT, but I pretty much had to start over in life. The IBM name made a nice talking point (and it still does, believe it or not), but other than that it didn't offer much advantage in gaining future employment.
I’ve found being over 50 and being a longterm IBMer to be a huge detriment to finding a job in this market. Other employers, especially startups, look at you as if you’re prehistoric even if you show evidence of continuous learning.
Too old too expensive. Almost all IT is offshore now. All the hardware in the cloud and all the help is too. Having IBM next to your name is a scarlet letter. Look on going a different path
Let's assume it is not possible the job, you are trying to get
Which job would you enjoy doing? Even if less money?
Apply for this job and learn at least how to get a job and how to interact.
You can always say no.
I should do it when it is my turn even though scary
I worked with an Oracle DB Administrator when he was laid off because they didn’t need a senior level guy to maintain the project he built.
They hired a guy out of school to replace him and he was never able to find another job.
He was 54 and when I googled him (the OP made me think of that guy ), I saw his obituary. The guy drank himself to death. OP please get help if this ever crosses your mind.