You can be a lawyer, accountant, journalist or administrative employee. Even doctor, or agronomist. Insurance salesman, secretary, or physical education teacher. You can be 40 years old and know that you have 25 or 30 more years of working life. You may feel that you need a change in your life, a swing that takes you to a more pleasant and profitable place. You may ask yourself, do I want to continue like this?
With these same concerns in the minds of its founders, two years ago SeniorITty was born, a labor retraining program towards IT jobs aimed at professionals over 40.
Why IT jobs? Because to these questions of middle age is added the labor reality we are living. According to studies by the World Economic Forum, more than 600 million people worldwide could lose their jobs by 2030 due to automation. And more than 50% of all employees will need training in new skills over the next five years.
SeniorITty is a program of labor reconversion towards IT jobs. Photo: Archive.
As if this were not enough, the technology sector needs more resources, more people working in the field. And not only with undergraduate or postgraduate academic training, it also requires a greater number of people wanting to continue growing and contributing experience.
The question is: how do you bring experience if the IT world is reserved only for young people? Or at least that's the popular belief. Can a 40-year-old who may be a senior in his career or work but does not have technological skills, reconvert to the IT world? Is it on time?
Javier Merediz is 45 years old and is a political scientist. During the pandemic, his profession began to be questioned. Talking with her friend Florencia Nicolet, a 46-year-old graduate in Systems, they came to the conclusion that many people her age were beginning to rethink whether they wanted to continue working in the same way and began to look for different options.
After doing a thorough work helped by specialists in neurosciences, they created a program of labor reconversion towards IT jobs aimed at professionals over 40. Because they are convinced that you can learn anything at any time in life.
"People need to know that working in technology is an opportunity for them. The labour market is changing and many of us are at risk of being left out. On the other hand, there is a great demand in this sector", explains Merediz, co-founder of the company SeniorITty that takes its name from combining the senior professional profile + IT.
The tech sector needs more people working in the field. Photo: Archive.
What does the program of reconversion to the technological world consist of?
From SeniorITty they clarify that they are not an academy of courses but a transformation program. "We profile people so that they know what their natural abilities are, and based on them we recommend a technological specialty to reconvert, accompanied by a mentor and a coach," explains Merediz.
The plan lasts 6 to 8 months and is built from five stages:
1. Visualization. Professionals with or without a degree who are 40 years of age or older and who have no experience in the technological field are invited.
2. Talent Discovery Point (TDP): This is the stage of discovering talents. Through a battery of highly tested tests and then combined through algorithms, skills are detected and linked to some technological specialty.
3. Training: It is an asynchronous plan, online and part-time, with two meetings per week and accompaniment of mentors and coaches who act on 4 pillars:
- Natural abilities (discovered in the TDP) and individual motivations.
- The basic training skills that each person already has.
- The fundamental theoretical/practical material to learn the new skills of the IT world.
- Change of Mindset (how an activity works other than the one you have been doing).
Training specialties include web developer, QA tester, Scrum or Data Analysis. Most people have qualities that highlight some of these options. However, it may happen that some show great capabilities for more than one alternative.
First, people's skills are detected and linked to some technological specialty. Photo: Shutterstock.
4. Generate a work project. Once the theoretical/practical training is completed, SeniorITty ensures a stage of microwork, prior to reintegration into the IT world to finish anchoring the new knowledge and practices.
5. Job reintegration. They connect the client with a company that accompanies this process of reinvention. "We have ties with several tech companies that value the 45-year-old who has knowledge in other industries or businesses and a very important life experience. We also provide freelancers with different job options," says Merediz.
What are the requirements to access the SeniorITy program?
Be over 40 (not exclusive).
Wanting to reconvert or take a turn in their professional and personal life
- Be motivated for change.
You don't need to have any prior technological knowledge. On the contrary, some of the clients with whom the company works are journalists, accountants, doctors and a baker.
What are the benefits of the conversion program for over 40?
"The world is undergoing a new industrial revolution" explains the founder of SeniorITty and adds: "A lot of jobs are going to disappear but at the same time, technology is also going to generate a lot of new jobs. That's why you have to incorporate it, so you don't fall out of the system. And we show you the first steps into the techno world."
Among the benefits of facing the reconversion program are:
- Changing your life
Earn better salaries
- Acquire technology tools that will open up a world that until then was unknown.
"Also the importance of doing it in community," explains Javier Merediz. "The fact that your peers are in the same situation as you enhances the reconversion and makes you feel supported. We generate meetings once a month where doubts and problems can be raised once the training is finished. We invite people to share their experiences, studies, news, etc."
How much can be gained with this reconversion to the IT world?
As explained from SeniorITty, the technology sector is a market that requires many people and there is not as much as needed. "A junior in the IT world starts earning $ 200,000 or $ 300,000, in other industries it is not paid as well as in this one. In addition, the market is so cannibalized that resources are 'stolen', so we focus on those over 40 that nobody looks at them," explains Merediz
It is that by adding experience plus technology, the value is much greater. "I think you have to align expectations with reality. Do you earn more than in other industries? It's true. But not at first. Over time, a professional who converted to technology can charge $ 5,000 per month, "closes the founder of SeniorITty.
How much does the program for over 40s cost and how to sign up?
The full program costs $ 440,000 that can be paid in installments depending on the months that the training lasts (between 6 and 8).
To register and have more information you have to enter the website www.senioritty.com from there you can start the process of job reconversion.
LN
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