Hi all,

My age is 41 and I work in ICT sector (SAP Functional Consultant). I heard that IT professionals facing Age discrimination in Australia and it is difficult for immigrant over 40 to find a job.

I'd love to hear from you.

Mate, please get real........ It's a fact of life of getting older.......... you'll always be up against the young whizz kids.........
sell your experience not your qualifications

it has taken the majority of people about 6 months to get a job.

It is illegal here to discriminate on age grounds........... and before you pull the race card out of the bag, that too is illegal !

As a 42 year old immigrant who works here in the ICT sector, I am not aware of any such discrimination. If you have the skills, experience and work ethic, you will always be in demand.

I guess people will always look for reasons to justify why they can't get work though......

[Hi
I am not sure about the discrimination. But definitely here recruiters Lack in Mapping your skills with Requirement. They prefer Local Experience rather than overseas experience which is rubbish. It is worry some. What i had observed is here in oz they expect Master of all but jack of none. Hope this helps.


Cheers
Dhama









QUOTE=srashed;8717160]Hi all,

My age is 41 and I work in ICT sector (SAP Functional Consultant). I heard that IT professionals facing Age discrimination in Australia and it is difficult for immigrant over 40 to find a job.

I'd love to hear from you.[/QUOTE]

I've got to say that is bollox. I'm 40 and had a role in employing new people in our IT department. Believe it or not, how we decided has sod all to do with age, sex, or race, and everything to do with how they could do the job.

I would interview a 25 year old more fiercely than a 40 year old, just because I want to see how much is confidence versus skill with the kid. But actual bias against them... nah, I honestly haven't seen it in our department

JTL

Age discrimination in Australia does happen if you are over 40 and it occurs in every employment sector, yes it does. More so against women. Much less so in technical areas where there are skill shortages - race is not necessarily a factor.

However reasons for people from overseas not getting jobs are often dressed up as 'not enough Australian experience' - even if the level of skill required for the job is minimal, the person has extensive o/s experience or the job is so generic that 'Australian experience' is meaningless. It is worth asking beforehand if 'Australian experience' will be looked for by the company.

Personally I always try to hire sub 25, blonde, preferably female. Unfortunately not many of those have 10 years experience selling at executive level capital IT projects so we have a lot of vacancies. My sales numbers are suffering but hell EVERYONE wants into my department.

IT is a young mans game anyway, you should be looking at management positions by the time you are 40 or be running your own business.

I agree with the opinion above.

Don't worry about it. Some jobs suit 25 years old, some require the skill level and experience that only comes with age. I am 40, took me a week to find a job. I am not even sure they would have been aware of my age either, although I guess they could have worked it out more or less.

Absolutely correct. Age discrimination is rife in Australia but of course that would never be the reason given for a candidate not being given a job. Once you are over 50 your chances drop significantly and over 60 forget it.

Is it any more rife than anywhere else? 41 is fine.

50 perhaps is pushing it in some sectors. Most decent IT people have moved on to other niche positions by then.

Infact, I honestly have not met many people over 50 in IT unless they are in middle mgmt, or other value-added roles hence I believe I have 10 years left to milk on cruise-control.

Bizarrely, moving to Australia was a good thing because it allowed me to set on cruise-control for longer..

Race is only an issue if language skills is an issue. And it can be.

More than any general perceptions - what really matters is who is interviewing you and their personal view vs your ability to differentiate yourself in an interview . In a medium to large corporation, it is clearly spelled out for an yone in a position to interview and make a hiring decision , that discrimination on a range of areas is something that is not tolerated.

If you are going for interview at a 5man band then yes the "law" will protect you but realistically the law is not going to get enforced unless you pursue it and can prove it. If you are going for a blue chip or big firm then they will have policy and practice that will be enforced which will put other barriers in place to make sure decisions are fair.

I dont think I've ever asked someones age in an interview in the 20yrs I've been hiring and firing nor have I given it much thought. Its more about finding the right talent and attitude.

I am a headhunter that works in the ICT sector and specialise in placing SAP guys such as yourself. I can tell you straight that at 41 years old you will not be discriminated against.

In ERP it is very rare to find young guys with the necessary experience required and people your age, with strong functional knowledge and project experience are snapped up.

If you are finding it difficult to find a job it is far more likely that your skills or project experience are not up to scratch.

I've never looked at age either - and my observations of age 'in role' are only those based on looking at people and what they do and how old they are - or rather, appear to be...so many people look knackered at 40, whilst others don't. It varies.