I'm in a second-class tech job market (not in a big city, even), and my skills got me two interviews and a job offer in DAYS.
And I'm in my 40s.
And I've been turning down full-time employee offers for years. Contracting suits me better. That or a "founder" role.
You need to specialize. And to be good at your specialty. Mine has been games for years, but this time I leveraged my Android experience to get a contract doing embedded Linux software.
For the record, my job is "good paying": Nearly $100/hour. And it's hourly, so the one time I had to work a long day to meet a deadline (nearly 10 hours! Oh no!) I got paid for it. :)
So keep your skills fresh and relevant and age doesn't matter -- except in one important way. People will see you and think "this guy has a life, so he isn't going to be pulling constant 12 hour days," and they (foolishly) think that's a drawback. But at least for me, I'd laugh at them for not wanting to hire me -- because I sure-as-hell wouldn't want to work for someone who expected that.
And I'm in my 40s.
And I've been turning down full-time employee offers for years. Contracting suits me better. That or a "founder" role.
You need to specialize. And to be good at your specialty. Mine has been games for years, but this time I leveraged my Android experience to get a contract doing embedded Linux software.
For the record, my job is "good paying": Nearly $100/hour. And it's hourly, so the one time I had to work a long day to meet a deadline (nearly 10 hours! Oh no!) I got paid for it. :)
So keep your skills fresh and relevant and age doesn't matter -- except in one important way. People will see you and think "this guy has a life, so he isn't going to be pulling constant 12 hour days," and they (foolishly) think that's a drawback. But at least for me, I'd laugh at them for not wanting to hire me -- because I sure-as-hell wouldn't want to work for someone who expected that.