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They're not leaving on their own accord. They're being pushed out. Agencies would rather pay for a less experienced, younger person who doesn't complain.
Some stay in the game through freelance, but unless you drop your rates, you're not going to get the work.
So you end up earning the same as someone 20 years younger.
No-one wants to pay for experience.
Where might I find this magical fountain of youthful creatives that don’t complain?
What’s funny is this is not some industry where you can make bank in your prime and then exit. Most people aren’t getting raises or bonuses or stock. Salaries might be higher than average but that doesn’t justify how it discards its people once they age out.
I’m in my late 40s and my boss is maybe in his 50s, and we both work in video editing and motion graphics. Lucky for us, it seems there are a good chunk of middle aged people in what we do, for some reason.
The kids these days look at us and nope the hell out.
Few observations.
The industry chases “cool”. Latest trends. Current culture. New technology. Things historically orientated on youth. So, hiring young makes sense to agencies as a shortcut. (Spending power being held by older people more than ever isn’t being reflected.)
Younger people are cheaper. Tightening purses means they can have more warm bodies for the money.
Until recently / potentially still in the near future, clients are paying agencies for a lot of menial work. Social stuff, market adaptions, artworking etc which is more cost effective to get more junior staff handling.
As a result of things swinging younger, senior people don’t need to be that much older anymore. A 35 year old can viably manage a team of twenty somethings. When you have that set up…it’s quite easy to not hire / manage out expensive 45+ year olds.
(To add - I’m not saying the above is good. I’m in my thirties and it scares me how little time I have left before being considered over the hill.)
Not to mention the fast growing fate that is AI… which will only shrink the workforce with a much younger average age.
Maybe I could be a marine biologist? Or an architect?