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I'm 40, in tech years that's like 1000. I also see value in hiring experience but explicitly factoring by age discriminates against a protected class in the USA. I think a lawsuit is in my future if I use this for placement at my company. Of course, if you simply rebranded to talk about "experience" rather than "age" then solvelem probbed. Also, age != experience != skill.
Apart from the particular technical knowledge an older guy may have, the accumulated human experience (this is, how to interact, trust, judge, understand, influence and work with other human beings) is always a very valuable factor that they may possess, for while technology changes very fast, basic human nature remains the same. In my country we have a saying: the Devil knows more from being old than from being the…
brilliant. what's the origin there?
An oldster in HN world is someone over 32, right?
While I think there are issues with the presentation, as edoceo noted, I love anything that stands to dispel the startup bubble myth that experience is a contraindication. I've been privileged to work in companies with programmers in their 50s and 60s and they've been great mentors. Their work continues to be top-notch and the insight and maturity they bring is absolutely invaluable. In order to keep their labor cost…
Put it another way. When you board an airliner, are you happy to see a fresh faced pilot?
Or my (old) dermatologist. He said he could spot skin cancer from across the room. I asked him how, he said half his business was skin cancer - he looked at it for hours every day.
Brilliant! I'm only 30 but I know plenty of older folks that have a hard time finding jobs. This is basically an issue across all industries. I'd love to get involved in this and help it grow.
Across all industries? Really?
Interesting idea. Let me talk about something very tangential, if I may: a minor branding query. Why go with "A Qureshi Media startup. Contact us at contact@qureshimedia.com" in the site footer? It made me wonder "hmm, why haven't I heard of Qureshi Media, let me check them out, they are probably some huge media conglomerate." To my surprise, http://qureshimedia.com/ appears to be the website of a consultancy that in…
Older programmers are worthless, simply due to their age? Ridiculous. I hope to someday be as skillful as this guy.
WTG putting this message together, good luck!
I'm 40, in tech years that's like 1000. I also see value in hiring experience but explicitly factoring by age discriminates against a protected class in the USA. I think a lawsuit is in my future if I use this for placement at my company. Of course, if you simply rebranded to talk about "experience" rather than "age" then solvelem probbed. Also, age != experience != skill.
"Company X isn't looking for anyone seasoned"
"Company Y is open to seasoned individuals"
Companies would also look for people who were a certain number of years of out school. Like, "5 to 10 years experience post-degree." Sure, that could technically mean a 45 year old who went back to school at 35 is qualified for the position, but there is a 0% chance the company would hire that person.
The other recruiters would talk about these things pretty explicitly outside of emails. There were a lot of interesting justifications:
Older people are harder to train
Older people are difficult employees because they are stuck in their ways/used to getting their way
Older people expect more benefits/vacation/pay
Older people use more sick time
Older people don't keep up with developments in the field
Discrimination wasn't limited to age. The recruiters were just as happy to help their clients discriminate on race, or gender, or familial status. Really anything.
In my experience, age was the only protected class that recruiters would try to suss out how the hiring managers felt about while they were trying to determine the ideal candidate. It seemed to me that the other prejudices would only come to light after the recruiter had a relationship with the hiring manager and had sent them a number of candidates in the past. There were still a lot of euphemisms though.
This was just my experience though, and I was working for a small firm. I have no idea what the rest of the field is like at all.