Too Old
A reader, kart-pusher, posted Too Old and Not a Woman – UK Contractor Rejected.
1. Support Manager (Long term sick cover, 6 months)
- They selected me from a large list of candidates to travel all the way from Coventry to Norfolk to interview along with two other candidates.
It seems I had, by far, the most experience and the interview went well. I wanted the lowest rate, and could start tomorrow.

What a shock when two days later, the agency calls me saying I was not successful. They didn’t select the other two either.
The successful candidate was a woman. It was the intention of the client to employ a woman, but they neglected to tell the agency.
2. Too Old – Pre-sales Server Consultant Interview
It went well as I was the only candidate selected for interview.
I heard back three weeks later that I was unsuccessful. The reason was that I was two years older than the person they wanted.
What a load of cr4p as they already knew my birth date. Why didn’t they tell me I was too old before getting me along for the interview?
I think part of the problem, and disagree if you will, is that clients are now interviewing contractors to simply show how much cheaper it would be to expand the department permanently.
They don’t want it just for the duration of a project. They forget all the hidden extra cost of permies that we all know about.
UK Contractors Comment
Turned down for being too old and not a women? This is a rum do this. I hope you didn’t incur too many expenses in getting for these two interviews. If you did I hope you asked to be reimbursed. Why do I think that both of these jobs are for Government or local authorities.

Surely you can’t be turned down nowadays for being too old when there are Age Discrimination laws. There’s also the Sex Discrimantion Laws. They have been on the statute book for decades.
If you had been not good enough that would have been something. However, being too old is ridiculous.