Vitamin "Age": confessions of a 54-year old Software Leader
As I dive deeper and deeper into my search for a new challenge in the software development engineering industry, I am confronted by a rather strange picture, long time-frames even in relatively small companies (with a seemingly urgent need), of instant rejections where there is a very good fit, vagueness and unclarity on the side of hiring departments when rejecting.
AI is a big driver of the change in this sector right now. When I first started looking, I spoke with some friends and acquaintances in large consultancies, as well as startup founders and solo consultants. All reported that their market slice was behaving unusually. There was a hush, that was attributed by many to uncertainty around strategic AI capabilities. Noone knew what these capabilities were. This was a hiatus in hiring, which could not be explained by the season.
Here are a bunch of further observations from my search:
- Companies in Europe are cutting costs
- with associated layoffs esp. in management
- Large numbers of vacancies
- But people not hiring to fill these
- Unclear if there is any intention to fill these
- Often regulatory positions
- Or the company seems to be “fishing”
- Some head hunters are doing “Business as usual”
- Other head hunters openly speak about the strange conditions
- Companies dealing less with intermediaries
- Lower income ranges
- Less contracts in the consulting space
- Higher demand for IC.
- IC need to have productively used ML/AI frameworks
Some reasons for this seem to be:
- Market competition and geopolitics
- Presumed AI optimization of departments
- VC funding focusing on later stage deals
Finally, there’s my own personal demographic:
- I am over 54 yrs old, and wondering what effect this is having
- I have a normal market salary requirement
- I do use AI application assistance, generally only as a check or editor
- I know interviews better from the other side of the table:
- I have not practiced as interviewee much ever in my life and so I am aware that I need some practice.
- I see interviews as learning experiences and know that the alignment has to work both ways.
Advice I have received from others:
- Tailor my story to what is being looked for, if it’s 8 years of leadership experience, write 8+
- Employ similar devices to make it past the AI filter
- Take dates of education out of the CV and drop older positions
- Drop the salary ask (especially in Germany)
- Look for the human connection, especially in the first interview, where it’s going to be less about tech.
Advice from myself (obvious things one tells juniors through leads):
- Keep a positive frame of mind.
- Think strategically about the job search:
- Make choices that define me uniquely across all channels and
- attract the attention of hirers,
- decide where to play and
- how to win there.
- In particular bundle all my efforts in the chosen direction
- Get hands-on qualifications,
- self-study, especially in AI/ML, Agentic
- Work on an open source project,
- Get traction through publications focusing on Tech, Behavioral Mentorship aspects of leadership
- Remember what annoyed me most when I was interviewing; things like imprecision on technical details and inability to drill into technical topics, lack of interest, no questions.
3 takeaways
- Frame your story positively! Age bestows you amazing benefits, it’s a recursive loop, you have been here before and you can nail it.
- Fight fire with fire. AI is changing the market and you need to get in on it and use it to your advantage.
- It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Activate your network and don’t be shy to get out there.