Axioms of PM Prequel #3: Ageism in IT — the real genesis of Adam’s Axioms

What happened when I started becoming invisible to recruiters? This story has the answer.

This is one of a series on the Axioms of Project Management. For a list of all articles, please see the Story Index Page.

After working in IT for around 35 years (around 2012), I felt the first touches of ageism creeping into my work life.

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And Then, I was Ghosted

Apart from a short period as an employee at a major telco, I’ve been contracting and consulting ever since I returned to Australia in 1998 after a decade in South-East Asia.

In that period, I’d never had much trouble getting an interview for a new project management gig, and the longer I worked and developed networks, the more consistent my success rate was in going from interview to offer.

I was very “comfortable in my skin” as a PM — in fact, I think I’m pretty badass. Each year and each project brought me more experience and new skills, and to be honest, a bit of pride in the parameters of that experience. I’ve written about that before, here and here.