For many older professionals, the job market has become a minefield, especially when decades of experience come with higher salary expectations.
A Reddit post suggests that in November 2023, a project manager was laid off from his role at Accenture. For years, he had overseen massive teams, sometimes as many as 150 developers, architects, and software testers.
Why is he unable to get a job?
But over the past 21 months, the search for a new role has been grueling. In a social media post, he says that he has been through more than two dozen interviews with no offers. At home, the pressure has been mounting.
His wife is a stay-at-home mother, and without his steady paycheck, the family has been relying on gig work like DoorDash, unemployment benefits, and help from relatives just to get by.
Even with these stopgaps, they have also fallen behind on mortgage payments. “The first thing recruiters say when they see my profile is, ‘It’s very expensive,’” he explained.
‘This is a scary change’
Netizens commented their opinion and experiences on the post. A man in his 40s wrote, “This is why, as a guy in my 40s, I do the following: I also wouldn’t put an up-close-and-personal picture on my LinkedIn profile.” I would put a picture of me from the distance. There is no need to show them any wrinkles or grey hairs. I remove the year I graduated from college from my resume. I only list the last 10 years of my job history on it. Side note: The last 7 are accurate. Sterling only checks up to the last 7 years.”
Another user added, “I still get “he’s too ‘experienced’ 50% of the time” even though we agree on rate. One of my recruiters was stumped. I’m like they figured out my age, it’s not rocket science, you age out of software engineering early. It’s why all the guys in SF would try to dress like they were 19 and would dye their hair. It’s a young man’s game.”
“I got told I was to old to be a superintendent. I ran crews of 300+ guys remodeling full hotels. I was 32 and to old……I just stopped looking after that. Not going through that ageist ass shit again. And I’m not even protected from “we won’t hire you cuz your to old” cuz I’m not old enough to be a protected class. Build fences now making what they refused to pay and don’t have to work winters. And about to move to a town that has no fence companies for 3 hours in any direction and start my own,” wrote a netizen.
A user claimed, “I’m closing on 20 years in the field.It’s a heavy mental job. It takes a toll on your brain, just like someone doing a heavy physical job, their body can’t handle the same load at 40 it was capable of at 20. Tech moves fast. What I was doing in 2010 has almost no resemblance to today’s landscape. Years of experience hit a diminishing return around 7-10 years. There is not much difference between a strong senior with 7 YoE and one with 20 YoE. The latter won’t be 3x better. Not even 2x. The type of problems you are solving get repetitive, it won’t always be fresh and new. It just becomes a job like baking bread at some point.”
“Manager” isn’t a very rare role, and furthermore anyone who has worked with, or god forbid, for Accenture would know that it’s not exactly an amazing thing to have on your work history,” noted another.
(This story is based on a post shared by a Reddit User. The details, opinions, and statements quoted herein belong solely to the original poster and do not reflect the views of Financialexpress.com. We have not independently verified the claims and cannot vouch for their accuracy.)