Is There Ageism in Tech? Or Do You Just Want Out?
I was interviewed on a podcast recently and the host asked me a question that has stuck in my head ever since. Is there ageism in tech? I had never seriously thought about it. I have not had to deal with it personally. But I could not stop thinking about it all week.
I have previously compared tech with professional sports. But in sports there is an actual physical limit. There are no 50-year-olds in the Premier League. Your body gives out and your career ends. Tech is not like that. There is no physical limit stopping you doing the job at 55.
So I thought about it differently. A career in tech sales is a bit like clubbing. Stay with me. When you are in your 20s you can go out three times a week and feel great. The energy is there. You love the chaos of it. In your 40s you can still go clubbing. Nobody is stopping you. But you might do it once or twice a year, and you need a week to recover. It is not that you cannot. It is that your priorities have shifted.
Tech sales is the same. When you are young the pressure is manageable. Making 100 calls a day. Getting grilled on forecasts. Asking permission to take time off. No holidays at quarter end. Mandatory office days. You can handle all of that in your 20s and 30s. You might even enjoy it. But at some point the invite to the big sales kickoff stops being exciting and starts being a chore. The Sunday-night dread before forecast Monday gets heavier. The energy shifts. Not because you are too old. Because you do not want to do it anymore.
So no, I do not think there is ageism in tech. Not exactly. I think there is a moment where tech employees realise they want out. And whether they can actually leave depends on one thing: the financial decisions they made in their 20s and 30s.
When I was still at Salesforce I ran a workshop on building wealth. Afterwards a woman came up to me, buzzing. “Sjoerd, I loved that session. I rang my partner straight away and said we do not have to do this for the rest of our lives.” That is what this is all about. Being able to stop when it starts feeling wrong. Not the spreadsheets. Not the tax relief. Not the pension contributions. All of that matters, but it is not the point. The point is options. The ability to walk away when you are ready, on your terms. Not because you got pushed out, but because you chose to.
It is about knowing what you are working towards. A house. Early retirement. More time with your kids. A life that does not revolve around a quota. Once you know what it is, you can put a number on it. Once you have the number, you can make a plan. And once you have a plan, you do it consistently for a very long time. That is the whole thing.
So here is what I would ask yourself this weekend. What are you working towards? Not what are you working on. What are you working towards? And if you know the answer, what can you do today to start making it real?
If you would like help putting a number and a plan on it, here is a short video on what I actually do: https://go.bamillionaire.com/watch-now. Or if you are ready, book a call: https://go.bamillionaire.com/apply
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