I am 53. In the middle of July, I was told my job was being sent to Jacksonville Florida (I was 52 at the time). I was not asked to follow it.
By Labor Day, I had 3 job offers, the smallest raise I was offered was 50%. I turned that job down.
I had some personal issue that prevented me from taking the job I really wanted, so I said yes to the third one. But that company hired me prematurely, and needed to get other stuff in place before they could fully utilize my skills, so I was released after one month.
By this time, the personal situation that prevented me from taking that one job stabilized, and I called them back. I was welcomed with open arms.
All at the age of 53. So, 50 is a grey ceiling only if you let it. As for me, I didn't, and will be working on my first client site visit next week with this new company... Working at VMWare Headquarters in Cali, on helping them set up for their next generation technology.
Age is but a number, too many in our industry get lazy and don't keep up with the technology. And that is where the stigma comes from. I got this job because I have been working with cloud based microservice environments. And this landed me 3, count them 3, quality job offers.
Don't let the negativity cause you to give up before you even get in the game. If you are 50+, and like me, been in this industry all your adult life, you have experience that is valuable... Use it.
Kevin Fries