Tech Or Management Beyond Age 39?

relliker writes "So here I am at age 39 with two contractual possibilities, for practically the same pay. With one, I continue being a techie for the foreseeable future — always having to keep myself up-to-date on everything tech and re-inventing myself with each Web.x release to stay on top. With the other, I'm being offered a chance to get into management, something I also enjoy doing and am seriously considering for the rest of my working life. The issue here is the age of my grey matter. Will I still be employable in tech at this age and beyond? Or should I relinquish the struggle to keep up with progress and take the comfy 'old man' management route so that I can stay employable even in my twilight years? What would Slashdot veterans advise at this age?"

Re:management

[curmudgeon99]

I hear the irony in your comment: just trying to weed out the competition by sending them over the cliff that is management, ay? Pretty fiendish...

Re:Run Like Your Hair Is On Fire...

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh heh. He said "Peter Point".

Re:Run Like Your Hair Is On Fire...

[Nefarious Wheel]

...your staff is your tools...

Yeah, I felt that way about some of mine too. But there were a few good ones.

Re:...and the pursuit of happiness

[EdIII]

The only reason people want money is for happiness.

Sometimes it is for unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanisms, hollowed out magma lairs, and sharks with frikkin' laser beams attached their heads. Oh wait... that's happiness too. Nevermind.

Re:You will have to know tech either way

[WillKemp]

Being 39 doesn't make you 'too old for tech'... being lazy, unwilling to change, inexperienced and out of touch does.

Conveniently, those are also required qualifications for being a manager!

Re:You will have to know tech either way

[dintech]

Personally if I left tech I'd head for business development, but that's just me. You still get to play with all the latest toys that way.

I'd head to HR for the same reason...

Re:You will have to know tech either way

[generic.individual]

I have a girlfriend who is pushing her way to ex-girlfriend like that. It's my "fault" though.

Give it up.

[John Hasler]

> With the other, I'm being offered a chance to get into management, something I also
> enjoy doing and am seriously considering for the rest of my working life.

And besides, you will never have to think or learn again (after you learn to play golf, of course).

> The issue here is the age of my grey matter. Will I still be employable in tech at this
> age and beyond? Or should I relinquish the struggle to keep up with progress and take
> the comfy 'old man' management route so that I can stay employable even in my twilight
> years?

Give it up. Your're already an old man. Your grey matter is totally ossified. Have you ever heard of anyone over 39 accomplishing anything?

The fact that you even ask this question tells us the answer. You clearly see learning as a chore, and probably always have. Go into management. You are CEO material.

Re:You will have to know tech either way

[vmbsd]

They came from Pacific Bell, actually.

"Employable in tech at 39..." Heh

[grikdog]

39? Maybe, depends how resilient you can stay. 43? No. Absolutely not. You'll go down in flames and kill your chance to get into management. Nobody wants you when you're old and gray.

Be beautiful. All you need for that is high school.

Be beautiful and black. All you need for that is an ignorant old man with a quick temper and a ready belt.

It amazes me how many jobs there are that make sense in urban environments. Developed means not having to apologize for selling what is essentially a protection racket — insurance.

Re:You will have to know tech either way

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't sit back and relax and expect to be good. But you CAN sit back relax, be really bad, and not get fired.

OMG! You just described 70% of my department.