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Well it cant be his age as they obviously have a rough idea when they see his degree date

Thanks so much for your response. He very much fully understands that he would need to hit the ground running. He was even in the Uk ready to start immediately if a contract came along.

What I meant by ticking boxes is that it seems to me in London they literally are looking for all boxes ticked. The roles he was meeting for would require someone with PM experience, but would also be expected to be a BA, and Programme Manager. It almost seems that the role/project is doomed from the start. That they literally want blood. One of the jobs was because the PM was on stress leave.

Thanks Globetrotta for sharing your experience, it's very much a helpful perspective. My husband wants the contract work/short term unfortunately many of the roles are short term full time jobs and the salaries are surprisingly low. We're beginning to think too many PMs in London and businesses can afford to pay low and expectations high and demanding. It's been an enlightening experience!

Hi Englishmum, thanks for sharing, will take a look.

And he has the qualifactions/experience to get an interview.

Absolutely, over and above.

Hello Anne
What's happening to your husband is no different than what's happening in the US (and in other parts of the world).

Age discrimination could be a factor but I think the reason he can't find work is because companies will have to pay him a lot more than they would a twenty year old. Sorry to say, most corporations today only care about their bottom line. I went back to school, acquired a degree in accounting and the only job I could find is a part-time retail job.

I can unequivocally say that in my 30 years there 1977 - 2007 pre GFC that was never the case, it was always about experience and age was the only way to get it. You are absolutely correct in that its all about bottom line but that is nothing new, that always was the case for a publicly traded company; Wall Street only cared about Sales, EBIT and EBITDA when I was at Lockheed and that was the case into the 2000's. What has emerged is a notion of lean and reduced overhead; more with less is nothing new that started in the 80's but keeping costs down since growth (SALES) have not and are not likely to grow at anywhere near the rates the did before for a number of reasons, so hiring 20 some things that not only cost less are less likely to get sick (in the company's eye's) can be worked to death are grateful for work and above all are ten a penny in the circular merry-go-round turnstile corporate world in USA where you can be dispensed at will.

You're right globetrotta
It WAS about experience. Since the crash of 2008, the relationship between employee and employer, from what I've seen in the US anyway, has gotten worse.
Actually I have seen corporate nonsense since the 1990's but that's another story.

It was never good to start with.

How can it be in such an unstable work environment when one is or was expected to work all the hours God gives even weekends for 2 weeks holiday p.a., be on call, unrealistic demands, and no job guarantee. I recall the adage 'work to live or live to work' was something we used to say late 70's and 80's clearly the former, that is as obsolete as 9 to 5 in USA; it was always about work in at 7am out maybe by 6pm if you were lucky, work on Saturday and get called on Sunday.

My corporate experience dates from circa 1980... and from the time I arrived in USA 1977 until I left including 80's the number of layoffs or mergers resulting in downsizing was horrendous, four times by 30, fortunately it was not seen as detrimental personally given the dynamics of corporate USA, especially in banking in 80's. But even at Lockheed they sold our division off made up of 17 different state divisions all to make money to pay off debt, the company that bought us ACS now has also been bought - its all about surfing and swimming, hopefully you get my meaning. But you cannot surf or swim if you can't get to the beach/ocean analogy for getting a job in case I was to cryptic. Playing field has dramatically changed makes me question why I ever bothered - should have known better, still one has great experience and worked with some great people, but I have never gotten another corporate job since 2009 GFC in UK saw to that. Still previous generations have had it worse, but they did not have globalised work forces to contend with. I wish anyone in similar situation the best of luck surviving this purge of the over 50's for we all knew a different time.

Maybe the solution is to become self-employed. One of the strong points of UK life is that it's relatively easy to setup shop, unlike many other EU countries. This will help you get established but allow you to apply for jobs along the way. Good luck.

Sounds familiar - sorry to say this may just be the state of the job market right now. I can't see this changing any time soon either.

I have to concur, although it still requires pounding the street but ultimately as I had said by being a contractor or self employed company with correct insurance and willingness to sign non-disclosure agreements it reduces costs to perspective clients and it is as you say fairly quick to set up and has a low cost entry, website filing fees for business, some marketing material done in Publisher or some such programme then since one has to beat the bushes and streets get in front of HR people anyway for jobs one could also pitch the business, even as far as getting a network of people who have alternate skill sets. For example, say you are a BI specialist in IBM Cognos and a company you chat with needs a Sharepoint person or a Qlikview person, what if you had contacts established you could act as the broker take a percentage the company you set up offers such services you just act as a principal the Qlikview person is paid by your company. We have done this before with start-ups when we needed to present more than we were we have have lawyers accountants on retainer for services required when we did not have the skill set. Hope that makes sense; just trying to help.

It's horrifying to think that even Lockheed would cut jobs because of corporate BS. I remember I worked in the banking industry and the bank I worked for was taken over. When the new owners came in they took everything that people vested for years and knocked it down to zero. How disgusting. There were employees six month to maybe three years away from retirement and they lost everything. Titles were stripped, vacation time lowered, etc. That's corporate for you.