Solved: What do SAP specialists do when they get old?

Former Member · ‎10-16-2014

Hello,

I am currently 39 years old. I am SAP specialist since I was 24. I life in Germany. Official retirement age for people like me as proposed by the german government is 67. So I have one question for me and maybe others have the same question as well:

What do SAP specialists do when they get old?

How long can we work as consultants or developers in the area of SAP? When are we too old to learn new software versions or even programming languages? What do we do when that happens as I have doubts that this can be done until the age of 67.

I see alternatives like that:

- Try to do an early retirement if you can afford to to that. Still this will seldom be at an age when your learning capabilities are still excellent. Maybe before you do that you can do the next:

- Try to go to freelancing. There you might be able to move to calmer waters. Especially after you have been considered to old by your permanent employer.

- Try to go to management. In management experience is very important, I think, and you don't need to be that up-to-date with modern technologies.

- Try to go to an inhouse position. There you might also not need to be that up-to-date with the latest technologies. Maybe you can combine that with the next alternative:

- Try to go to support. Again here you can focus on software components which are not state-of-the-art.

- Try to do something completely new. So you could move away from the field of SAP and start a completely new career. Of course this could be difficult.

Until now I have not decided what to do in my 50s and 60s and I am not sure if I have a wide range of options.

What are your ideas about it?

Thomas Wagner

Matt_Fraser · ‎10-16-2014

Hi Thomas,

Like Luis, I have a few thoughts on the questions you raise.

Especially after you have been considered to old by your permanent employer.

Really? Your permanent employer would consider you "too old," especially before normal retirement age, for a job that doesn't involve pulling people out of burning buildings? Here in the US that would be illegal, but I understand that age discrimination laws are not the same everywhere.



How long can we work as consultants or developers in the area of SAP? When are we too old to learn new software versions or even programming languages? What do we do when that happens as I have doubts that this can be done until the age of 67.

I have a friend who only recently retired from SAP ABAP development consulting, and I think he still does the odd freelance job on the side from time to time, you know, to refresh the cruising kitty. I'm not sure of his exact age, but he has to be pushing 70, if he hasn't already passed it. When he was working on a project for us a few years ago, I didn't notice anyone thinking that he was "too old." On the contrary, he was teaching the "young pups" on our staff a lot of helpful tricks that they still use today. It's true he wasn't consulting on the latest, flashiest technologies -- his forte was traditional ABAP and ABAP Objects -- but I don't think that's because he couldn't learn new technologies. I think it's because he found there was still a strong demand for solid ABAP skills.


- Try to go to an inhouse position. There you might also not need to be that up-to-date with the latest technologies. Maybe you can combine that with the next alternative:
- Try to go to support. Again here you can focus on software components which are not state-of-the-art.

I work in an in-house position, technically in a support role, along with the rest of my team. That said, we do a lot of implementation work here, in-house, without consulting help. We aren't always on the latest technologies, it's true, but from time to time we do implement something new, and we're all required to learn everything we can about it. We can't afford permanent consulting help, so we become our own experts. I would pit members of my team up against almost any consultant and consider them to be the better technical and business process experts in their areas. They have years of domain and technical experience that, frankly, only the most expensive and elite of consultants have. About half the team are, in fact, ex-consultants, who "settled down" due to raising families or other factors that made the constant travel a hardship. This includes me. Which brings me to my main point, I suppose.

The usual factor that causes SAP consultants to settle into something else isn't that they become too old to stay nimble with the technologies. In fact, keeping nimble with the technologies, constantly learning, is keeping them mentally youthful and fit. No, the factor that comes into play is the constant travel. Traveling 100% of the time is fun and exciting when you're young, but there's no question it becomes wearying after a while. Eating from restaurants constantly becomes a health factor. It loses a bit of the flash when you've essentially lived out of hotels five days out of seven most weeks. It's fun to go to a new city, but often you spend most of your time stuck in some corporate office looking at fluorescent lights and cubicle walls. Of course, in my non-consulting, non-traveling job today, I still spend most of my time looking at fluorescent lights and cubicle walls, so that hasn't really changed.

On a side note, I should point out that I still love to travel for recreation, both domestically and internationally. Also, I wouldn't object at all to traveling for work today, even more than a little bit; I just am not in a position right now for it to be constant and all the time.

On top of this, as time goes on, people tend to meet others with whom they become romantically entangled. They start having commitments outside of the flashy consulting job. They get married and have kids. There are PTA meetings to attend, or clubs and community organizations to get involved with. Junior's tenth birthday is coming up and you want to do something special. Suddenly all of this is much harder when you're away from home more nights than not. Eventually a job closer to home, that lets you come home to your family most nights and weekends, begins to look more attractive.

This is probably what happens to most SAP specialists who get "too old" for consulting but are "too young" to retire and don't want to go into management.


- Try to go to management. In management experience is very important, I think, and you don't need to be that up-to-date with modern technologies.

Which brings us to management. I don't think I can add anything here that Luis didn't already say. His response was spot-on. Management is a trade, skill, and expertise in its own right. Not everyone who is a technical expert is necessarily good management material, and frankly, not everyone wants to or should go that route. I was a manager for a while, and it really didn't appeal to me (I did not enjoy having to tell anyone when they were performing sub-par), so now I am in a "technical lead" role instead, which is much better suited to how I like to work. I still influence the decisions we make, just as much as before, but I don't have the personnel hassles on my plate.

It's true in some companies that, after a certain point in your career, advancement stalls unless you go into management. Unfortunately that's true where I am -- I am at the top of my career ladder here. Other organizations have brilliant "thought leader" or "technical fellow" paths that can be an ideal growth route for the technically-minded. And, of course, there's always the freelance option that you mentioned. Other friends have gone that route and are making a hell of a go of it. I might consider that myself, once my daughter has flown the nest and the prospect of potentially not making the money for a little while isn't so frightening.


- Try to do something completely new. So you could move away from the field of SAP and start a completely new career. Of course this could be difficult.

Like Luis, I love this option. If SAP, or whatever you're doing today, has grown a little stale for you, why not try something new? Yes, it could mean starting over in terms of where you are on the "expert" scale, and it could mean making less money (for a while, anyway, until you regain recognition, expertise, or whatever it is that it takes to "succeed" in the chosen new career), but this is the kind of thing that will keep you feeling young right up until you decide you don't want to do it anymore.

In fact, I know people who do this after traditional retirement, sometimes because they need the money, but often because they want to try something new, and being retired they don't have the financial concern about making less money from the job -- they're free to do what they want.

Finally, for perspective, I'm 49 years old. I have been working with SAP for about seventeen years now, and in IT a lot longer than that, and I'm still constantly learning new things. I also branched out and tried something different for a while, after initially starting my IT career, and became an industrial electrician for a few years, before returning to IT. That was a valuable, and perspective-enhancing, aside to my life.

Thank you for your thought-provoking post, and I hope you don't mind my rambling and overlong response to it.

Best regards,

Matt

former_member182421 · ‎10-16-2014

That's a pretty good question, and I would like to give my 2cs in some of your points

- Try to go to freelancing. There you might be able to move to calmer waters. Especially after you have been considered to old by your permanent employer.

I don't want to think the freelance world is where all the old dinosaurs go to rest in peace, freelance world is more than that, and is pretty far to be calmer waters, You need to focus on selling your own product, yourself, that means be even more competitive than when you are permament, trainings, networking, selling strategies, of course travelling, etc.


- Try to go to management. In management experience is very important, I think, and you don't need to be that up-to-date with modern technologies.

To me that's a big mistake and it's one of the bigest mistakes of the top 5 IT companies does, management is not just a matter of experience, you must really want to do it, you must have the skills to do it or at least be prepared/open to invest on those, I'm talking about soft skills, you'll stop dealing with users-machine and start to deal people whom has it's own problems, objectives, ambitions, talent, etc. be a manager is a hell of a job and you must be really prepared for it, IMHO it's not a natural step of the evolution of a consultant/developer.

- Try to do something completely new. So you could move away from the field of SAP and start a completely new career. Of course this could be difficult.

I love that! When I was 5 years old and people asked me, what do you want to work when you grow up? Well, I'll probably said "I want to be Batman" or a pirate, etc. but what I'm really sure is I didn't say SAP consultant,

I'm not planing to be a grandpa suited on a skinny superhero costume and beat up the bad guys (I'll probably won't look good and I'll get beaten for sure ) but maybe I'll try to reach my younger self again and ask him "whatcha wanna do?"

Cheers!

Luis

Former Member · ‎10-16-2014

Hello Luis,

Thanks a lot for your very interesting and detailed response.

Best regards,

Thomas

Matt_Fraser · ‎10-16-2014

Hi Thomas,

Like Luis, I have a few thoughts on the questions you raise.

Especially after you have been considered to old by your permanent employer.

Really? Your permanent employer would consider you "too old," especially before normal retirement age, for a job that doesn't involve pulling people out of burning buildings? Here in the US that would be illegal, but I understand that age discrimination laws are not the same everywhere.



How long can we work as consultants or developers in the area of SAP? When are we too old to learn new software versions or even programming languages? What do we do when that happens as I have doubts that this can be done until the age of 67.

I have a friend who only recently retired from SAP ABAP development consulting, and I think he still does the odd freelance job on the side from time to time, you know, to refresh the cruising kitty. I'm not sure of his exact age, but he has to be pushing 70, if he hasn't already passed it. When he was working on a project for us a few years ago, I didn't notice anyone thinking that he was "too old." On the contrary, he was teaching the "young pups" on our staff a lot of helpful tricks that they still use today. It's true he wasn't consulting on the latest, flashiest technologies -- his forte was traditional ABAP and ABAP Objects -- but I don't think that's because he couldn't learn new technologies. I think it's because he found there was still a strong demand for solid ABAP skills.


- Try to go to an inhouse position. There you might also not need to be that up-to-date with the latest technologies. Maybe you can combine that with the next alternative:
- Try to go to support. Again here you can focus on software components which are not state-of-the-art.

I work in an in-house position, technically in a support role, along with the rest of my team. That said, we do a lot of implementation work here, in-house, without consulting help. We aren't always on the latest technologies, it's true, but from time to time we do implement something new, and we're all required to learn everything we can about it. We can't afford permanent consulting help, so we become our own experts. I would pit members of my team up against almost any consultant and consider them to be the better technical and business process experts in their areas. They have years of domain and technical experience that, frankly, only the most expensive and elite of consultants have. About half the team are, in fact, ex-consultants, who "settled down" due to raising families or other factors that made the constant travel a hardship. This includes me. Which brings me to my main point, I suppose.

The usual factor that causes SAP consultants to settle into something else isn't that they become too old to stay nimble with the technologies. In fact, keeping nimble with the technologies, constantly learning, is keeping them mentally youthful and fit. No, the factor that comes into play is the constant travel. Traveling 100% of the time is fun and exciting when you're young, but there's no question it becomes wearying after a while. Eating from restaurants constantly becomes a health factor. It loses a bit of the flash when you've essentially lived out of hotels five days out of seven most weeks. It's fun to go to a new city, but often you spend most of your time stuck in some corporate office looking at fluorescent lights and cubicle walls. Of course, in my non-consulting, non-traveling job today, I still spend most of my time looking at fluorescent lights and cubicle walls, so that hasn't really changed.

On a side note, I should point out that I still love to travel for recreation, both domestically and internationally. Also, I wouldn't object at all to traveling for work today, even more than a little bit; I just am not in a position right now for it to be constant and all the time.

On top of this, as time goes on, people tend to meet others with whom they become romantically entangled. They start having commitments outside of the flashy consulting job. They get married and have kids. There are PTA meetings to attend, or clubs and community organizations to get involved with. Junior's tenth birthday is coming up and you want to do something special. Suddenly all of this is much harder when you're away from home more nights than not. Eventually a job closer to home, that lets you come home to your family most nights and weekends, begins to look more attractive.

This is probably what happens to most SAP specialists who get "too old" for consulting but are "too young" to retire and don't want to go into management.


- Try to go to management. In management experience is very important, I think, and you don't need to be that up-to-date with modern technologies.

Which brings us to management. I don't think I can add anything here that Luis didn't already say. His response was spot-on. Management is a trade, skill, and expertise in its own right. Not everyone who is a technical expert is necessarily good management material, and frankly, not everyone wants to or should go that route. I was a manager for a while, and it really didn't appeal to me (I did not enjoy having to tell anyone when they were performing sub-par), so now I am in a "technical lead" role instead, which is much better suited to how I like to work. I still influence the decisions we make, just as much as before, but I don't have the personnel hassles on my plate.

It's true in some companies that, after a certain point in your career, advancement stalls unless you go into management. Unfortunately that's true where I am -- I am at the top of my career ladder here. Other organizations have brilliant "thought leader" or "technical fellow" paths that can be an ideal growth route for the technically-minded. And, of course, there's always the freelance option that you mentioned. Other friends have gone that route and are making a hell of a go of it. I might consider that myself, once my daughter has flown the nest and the prospect of potentially not making the money for a little while isn't so frightening.


- Try to do something completely new. So you could move away from the field of SAP and start a completely new career. Of course this could be difficult.

Like Luis, I love this option. If SAP, or whatever you're doing today, has grown a little stale for you, why not try something new? Yes, it could mean starting over in terms of where you are on the "expert" scale, and it could mean making less money (for a while, anyway, until you regain recognition, expertise, or whatever it is that it takes to "succeed" in the chosen new career), but this is the kind of thing that will keep you feeling young right up until you decide you don't want to do it anymore.

In fact, I know people who do this after traditional retirement, sometimes because they need the money, but often because they want to try something new, and being retired they don't have the financial concern about making less money from the job -- they're free to do what they want.

Finally, for perspective, I'm 49 years old. I have been working with SAP for about seventeen years now, and in IT a lot longer than that, and I'm still constantly learning new things. I also branched out and tried something different for a while, after initially starting my IT career, and became an industrial electrician for a few years, before returning to IT. That was a valuable, and perspective-enhancing, aside to my life.

Thank you for your thought-provoking post, and I hope you don't mind my rambling and overlong response to it.

Best regards,

Matt

Former Member · ‎10-17-2014

Hello Matt,

Thanks a lot for your great response.

I guess, in Germany age discrimination is not allowed as well but still in the consulting companies I worked in the past as well as in most projects and SAP events most of the consultants and developers I see are in their 20s or 30s (some in their 40s) but of course this might have a lot to do with the travel aspect vs. personal life as well.

I also agree with Luis' and your point of view that management is no naturell step on the career ladder for a consultant. Maybe this looks different when you replace it with project lead.

Best regards,

Thomas

siva_vasireddy2 · ‎10-17-2014

Hi,

This is a Good Discussion Initiated by you and Expecting more Good Comments by the Members.

Ralph_P · ‎10-20-2014

Hi Thomas,

being only in the mid-Forties, I sure hate to think about getting old . I'm not a freelancer and while there was a time when I thought long and hard about that direction, I already decided for myself that that's not my way to go. For sure, people are different and someone else in my position may think that freelancing is exactly what he/she wants.

I do like my job! Not always and not everyday, but in general I get up each morning looking forward to facing new problems issues challenges and solving them, meeting new people, getting insights on new companies and industries, working with members of my team or members of other teams. Short: I don't see any reason, as of today, why I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing until I retire.

I still want to develop myself; there are so many things I don't know or can't do. Stay curious, be open to change, that will keep me going for the next 20 years or so (at least I hope it will).

Ralph

Former Member · ‎10-20-2014

Hello Ralph,

Thanks a lot for your response.

I also hate to think about getting old. I think my life was best in my 20s. I also like my job and I think being a SAP specialist is very interesting and the culture in our industry is great. I also appreciate the great software we continuously receive from SAP. I don't like getting up in the morning any more although. But I also hope that we all can do our jobs as long as possible.

Best regards,

Thomas

Jelena · ‎10-21-2014

From what I've heard, the people who jumped on the SAP bandwagon early (90s or earlier) should already be able to retire (financially). I guess you guys must have just missed the "golden train" or somehow didn't play your cards well. Or it could be just an urban legend because still so many people are trying to get in on SAP.

I always thought that the SAP world is actually a good place to grow old in because there is such a variety of skills available. Even ABAP development is usually not the mere "coding" (that becomes boring quickly and seems like such an undignified thing to do in your 60s) but involves some analysis and business knowledge. For the functional specialists age would rather be an advantage since it requires more business knowledge and life skills than cutting edge stuff (or so ABAPers think ).

Doubt there is an age at which you're too old to learn any new things, as long as you want to. Besides the technology available today opens opportunities that did not exist before (e.g. working remotely).

But personally I'm in "living in the moment" camp. Otherwise come tomorrow there is Zombie Apocalypse and turns out we've spent all this time worrying about the retirement for nothing. It might not sound very optimistic but saves tons of time to enjoy life today, not 20-30 years from now.

Matt_Fraser · ‎10-21-2014

Ah yes, the Zombie Apocalypse is going to make my poor planning seem like a smart move after all!

As for the "golden train," it does sometimes feel like I got in just a moment too late. In fact, I have some empirical evidence for that in my own experience, but I won't go into it here. That seems to have been the story of my life with all my endeavors -- arriving just as the "train" has left the station, and I'm on the third-class follow-up coach. Ah, well.

Former Member · ‎10-22-2014

Hi All,

It is good to see that I have company. I am 38 and I too (sometimes) wonder what next? Although I have only 10 years experience in SAP, I think the overall age will matter at some point of time. I too thought about your points and here is what I feel.

Early Retirement:- At least for me, it will require a bit of luck as well. To get a client who will pay a handsome rate and it continues to happen for next few years.In addition, having migrated to another country at this age means almost like starting from scratch. So it is ruled out for me.

Freelancing:- It is really tough and dynamic!! Freelancing means almost like running your own business Good contacts are a must. Not everybody's cup of tea. Although you might get a chance to sell various skills rather than just one.

Management: - Well..go ahead if you love meetings, emails and spreadsheets . Just like freelancing, it is another dynamic form where you need to ensure that absolutely everything is going well. You need to meet people, set expectations, discuss, bargain, resolve conflicts...really a special personality is needed for this role.

In house: - In my experience in house roles are best if you want to develop yourself. They give you opportunity to interact with business, understand the process really well and get trained in a skill and then utilize it.

Do something new:- I am focusing on this right now. I have done a lot of work that can suit a business analyst / systems analyst role and I am trying to move in that domain and kind of become process focussed with technology as special skillset and advantage.

I hope what I shared is in line with the discussion. Very keen to know what others think as it is a key question for me, that I'll face more than once..

Regards

Abhi

Former Member · ‎10-22-2014

Hello Abhi,

Thanks a lot for your points of view.

Best regards,

Thomas

amy3 · ‎10-22-2014

My goodness Thomas,

It appears you have already talked yourself into being 'old'. I have a cousin like that, he was ready for a rocker and a cardigan sweater when he was 35.

I am over 50 and still consulting. I prefer longer (6 month to 2year) assignments but every assignment is a new challenge and an opportunity to learn. One of my colleagues recently retired at 68. He is a man who traveled all over the world on his holiday time as a church volunteer. He built houses, schools and wells, he retired so that he could devote more time to those activities.

You are only as old as you allow yourself to think you are. My father and my stepfather both worked until past 75. They were always up for a new challenge. My mother went back to school at 40 for a degree, worked in that field until she retired at 62 and then became a travel agent. She began to slow down after 75.

As to your learning capabilities, I have learned much and can grasp concepts and relationships much easier than before. I keep up to date with technology (as do my parents). It is only when you decide that you are not up for a challenge that you will stop learning. Many people think aging makes you stupid. The only thing it does for me is make me less tolerant of sitting and frittering away time when I could be doing something.

Sometimes age can make you a bit slower physically. I don't run through airports like I used to.

And what makes most people slower is the eyes. I used to think my parents had lost it when they had trouble connecting up the television or computer cables. It's not that they (I) can't, it's very difficult to see the markings. A good light and magnifying glasses take care of that problem. Age does not define you. When you carry on doing what you like and being interested and interesting, the people around you do not define you by age.

Regards

Amy

Former Member · ‎10-22-2014

Hello Amy,

Ok, I won't worry that much about the future any more. I think at university they told us that there was one economist who said: "In the long-run we are all dead.".

Best regards,

Thomas

Matt_Fraser · ‎10-22-2014

Can I give this more 'likes'?

former_member182421 · ‎10-22-2014

I'll give you my "like"

Jelena · ‎10-22-2014

This is a great discussion, I think the HR professionals should be paying more attention to it than to the Millennials. Would be interesting to read it 10 years from now and see where we stand.

Just wanted to point out that when people take a management position simply because they have gone as far as they could with their technical skills it usually doesn't work well for both the newborn manager and the people he/she supervises. Besides middle management is IMHO the worst position one might have in an organization - it's the ultimate "between the rock and hard place". On top of that the mid-level managers are frequently the first to go if there are the staff reductions. I've seen several of such transitions in my career and would say it's only 10% success rate at best.

former_member182421 · ‎10-22-2014

Would be interesting to read it 10 years from now and see where we stand.

Probably I'll be killing Zombies dressed like Batman.

Colleen · ‎10-22-2014

Will you be dress like Batman or will the Zombies be dressed like Batman?

former_member182421 · ‎10-22-2014

omg, that would be hilarious, but it only can be one Batman like only can one cookie monster in SCN. Thanks for the correction, some times my English is funnier than me...

Colleen · ‎10-22-2014

haha..now I'm picturing the Cookie Monster dressed as Batman whilst being chased by zombies. And that's how I'll finish SCN for tonight

Matt_Fraser · ‎10-22-2014

And what a finish! Poor Thomas probably never expected his discussion to be taken over by Batman, the Cookie Monster, and the Zombie Apocalypse, but as just quoted elsewhere, moments ago, "Life is what happens while you were making other plans."

More seriously, I have seen some really great discussion back-and-forth on this thread. Lots of great ideas.

Former Member · ‎10-23-2014

Hello everybody,

I really like the discussion. As I have no kids my own current retirement plans don't include a Batman costume but an eventual move to nice southern France.

Best regards,

Thomas

hemant-lakhera · ‎08-02-2023

Hi Jelena,

It's almost 9 years now and I hope you are doing well.

Would you like to share your journey of past 9 years?

Former Member · ‎10-23-2014

Hello Thomas,

Glad you raised the point, a quite interesting one for many of us.

Equally glad, you placed many possible routes too.

One of many ways is to 'Equip yourself for the Eventuality'. In a sense, you can consider

a) cross-skilling yourself in allied areas right away

b) identifying top-notch Mentoring/Training tool to convert the ocean of knowledge you have, into e-form to promote it when you are retired in the form e-books, e-training. You can notice many authors of SAP Publications followed it

c) focussing in SAP-Industry specific solutions of your choice/flavor so that by the time you retire, any opportunity in that particular industry may await you as an 'ERP Specialist'.

For example, for an SAP Professional in SD (Sales & Distribution), functionalities such as Customer Service, Global Trade Mgt., Global Trade Services, CRM etc., are there up for the grab. By having strict time-bound schedule, one can certainly 'widen' his professional wing. Cross-skilled Consultants are on the demand, you know.

You have a very long way to go before you retire.

I'm 57. Playing the role of 'Prinicipal Solution Architect-SAP Logistics' on regular pay-roll. Will think of retirement plans after about 3 years now though I'm enriching my arsenal.

Will continue to share my views alongwith others'.

Best Regards,

Murali

Former Member · ‎10-24-2014

Hello Murali,

Making e-books or e-training is a very interesting aspect not mentionned previously in this discussion.

Getting industry experience to work there later is also a good point.

Thanks for your input.

Best regards,

Thomas

former_member182421 · ‎10-28-2014

I just found this interesting blog which I believe add some extra to this discussion, the author is the well know

Former Member · ‎10-28-2014

Hello Luis,

Thanks a lot. In his blog Graham describes what might happen if a developer doesn't continue to learn new technologies and emphasizes the importance of this.

I totally agree with him. In the world of CRM I was a little bit late to learn WebUI after developing in SAP Mobile Sales with Visual Basic .Net successfully for several years and needed to catch up in this area which I fortunately did. Now new challanges await, which are e.g. Fiori, Cloud for customer and Javascript (for me).

Sometimes in the world of SAP you need to search for the information and in many cases you need to pay (sometimes heavily) for it. This can also be done by your employer if you are happy. This is one of the reasons why I will wait a few years more before going to an inhouse position or a few final freelancing years.

Best regards,

Thomas

GrahamRobbo · ‎10-28-2014

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the shout-out and reference to my "Call to Arms" blog. This one seems to be generating just as much feedback - well done Thomas.

For the record I am well into my 50's and still don't know what I want to do when I grow up.

Cheers

Graham Robbo

Matt_Fraser · ‎10-28-2014

They say the difference between the men and the boys is the price of their toys. Growing up is over-rated. What's the other quote? "Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the heck happened."

Former Member · ‎10-29-2014

Hello Graham,

Thanks a lot. I also like your blog very much. I also still feel young and so does still my body most of the time. Fortunately I don't still make all the silly mistakes I did in earlier times (but there are more than enough left).

Best regards,

Thomas

Former Member · ‎03-01-2016

Thanks a lot. I like your blog very much. As an experienced Software Prof though I’m interested in project not getting any as an individual. At the same time a big Co wont show much interest in senior people.

That’s the prob. Anyway……

Best regards,

Debashis

alisa_schlossberg-majer · ‎07-14-2020

ok in the meantime it is 2020 and we are in the middle of a global crisis 🙂 but I will add my 2 cents because I am close to retirement. I started SAP in 2004 and never stopped since. Kept up to date (mind you, I was over 40) by teaching regularly for SAP Belgium/UK.

In Switzerland where I live now, it is illegal to fire someone because of age but it is legal not to hire someone because of age. Also, the official retirement age for women is 64 and even if you can continue working, the company can decide if they want to keep you or not.

You can still work as a freelance of course and that is fine.

But personally, the thought of having to learn something from scratch gives me a headache: my mind functions well thank God but my brain is a little tired and even if I manage to learn new tricks, I would like to rest my brain that was in constant motion until now and do something a little more relaxing. SAP is fun but maybe it is time I look somewhere else for when I finally grow up