We have all seen "Am I Too Old" threads for IB, B-School, etc. on the fora. Just like your weight, height, and physical appearance, your age is a factor that affects your employment. Its not just a factor affecting those trying to "break in." Its a factor that could affect you in the middle of your career. Its frequent in finance, the technology fields, and like most things, its worse for women.
You're only as good as your last job. Someone who's 45 and has been out of work for a while has it so much harder. There's just a ton of choice for employers out there. Age discrimination is a huge thing out there. . . . it's not discussed ever, and it's not just a problem in finance.
It seems that many people on WSO are young (30's and below), but are you guys worried about age discrimination in the future? Would you discriminate by age when hiring someone? And is there anything you can do about it?
i feel old at 27, can't imagine 30s.
Haha. I understand. Its hard to imagine being old. But it would suck to work in this field for 20-25 years then get screwed by not being able to find a job when you are in your 40's-50's. I thought I saw a chart posted on here that showed that the # of people working in finance really hasn't changed much in the last 30 or so years, but there are many more people trying to find work in finance. There is more competition for the same # of jobs which means someone is going to lose out, and many times it might be the "old" people.
Soooo, people don't want to hire older people, companies and rich people are sitting on capital until they get the president they want, and everyone's talking about cutting social programs for the elderly.
Serious question: how in the fuck is this supposed to work out for the age 40 -> 60 demographic?
I feel old as a motherfucker and Im 24. Seriously, Alexander had already conquered Egypt by the time he was 24.
[quote=seabird]I feel old as a motherfucker and Im 24. Seriously, Alexander had already conquered Egypt by the time he was 24.
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The average life expectancy in Alexander's time was like 33.
We recently hired an admin assistant who is a young gal, about 26. Towards the end of the recruiting process, it came down to two candidates - her and an older gal who was in her 40s (but had been an admin assistant for a long time). In my opinion, the older gal was head-and-shoulders above the younger, but the younger one is smoking hot. Now, everybody regrets taking her on over the older gal because she is a whiny, incompetent and prissy little bitch. We're thinking about firing her.
It sounds like you got what you deserved.
I guess I wasn't clear - I was totally against hiring the younger gal. The admin department made the final hiring decision, and they're all former sorority girls.
Was she cheaper than the 40s woman? Or same pay.
Same.
aaah, excuse me then, I misunderstood.
Same here. Turn 24 today, and I feel quite disappointed.
Happy birthday man. As far as the OP, with age comes experience. So with the exception of demanding pay commensurate with that experience, I'd even view it as an advantage. Hell, the entry level has as good as disappeared from my experience for just that reason. Why would ppl want someone with 0 experience when they can get someone with experience willing to take a pay cut. Just my $.02
Seriously? You guys feel old in your twenties? You are doing something wrong.
It is difficult for someone who is 45+ to reinvent themselves. I've seen it many times where someone was working in a niche area and the market size shrank. Naturally, firms cutting costs target the guys making the most money, which is more often the relatively older ones. The key takeaway is to make sure you don't get so narrowly pigeon-holed in your career to minimize that chance of happening.
There are a plethora of guys (its nearly always guys) running around at the moment, trying to raise money for CMBS/MBS funds and a lack of capital means that pretty much all of them will fail. These guys have one skill set (trading and structuring asset backed paper) and have little or no management, investment or research skills and so are stuck with no obvious answers. Those who were MDs in 2005/6/7 are probably fine and can live off what they saved or get by with a bit of advisory/consulting work - those who should have been getting their big payday in 08/09/10 are a bit screwed.
I had the opportunity recently to pigeon hole myself (EM mezz lending for what its worth) and turned it down - because i had no idea where that asset class will be in eight years!!!
Thank god I'm in my twenties.
EDIT:
So, maybe the best long term plan is to have a generally applicable set of skills? Specialization seems very dangerous in a rapidly changing economy
I entered investment banking at age 32. Nobody ever raised any questions about my age or my decision to change careers. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that I spent my twenties flying F/A-18s for the US Navy.....
Haha
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