"I want to work for 10 more years. Banks won't hire me"
I've had a long career in finance. I've worked on both the buy-side and the sell-side and I am not ready to retire. I want to work for another decade, but no one will hire me.
I'm one of many. There is a whole load of people like me, with years of experience, who are simply left out of the market.
I'm not looking for an enormous pay check. I've walked into interviews and said words to the effect that I'm willing to work a few rungs further down the ladder, but I'm consistently frozen out. When you reach my age, banks are simply not interested. It's the unspoken form discrimination.
I still have a lot to add: I am loyal; I have no intention of bolting for more money somewhere else; I am highly capable with a deep skill set; I am tech-savvy. I try my hardest to project an image of youth and vitality: I am learning Python and updating my skill set.
I understand that you cannot keep coasting on the skills you had five years ago.
It's only when banks hire people like me that the hiring market will be fully healed. In the meantime, I hear a lot of talk about diversity from banks, but I don't hear any reference to them hiring older people like me. - The only context in which ageism is addressed is in terms of disability: as you get older, you're more likely to be disabled. Banks say they will hire disabled people. They never say they will hire people who are old.
Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash
