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Show HN: Hire an Oldster

tryoldster.com

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31–40 of 308 posts

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#31

Post by themoat »

mr_spothawk wrote: post #22
JorgeGT wrote: post #13

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…

>the Devil knows more from being old than from being the Devil. brilliant. what's the origin there?

It's a pretty old spanish proverb. I couldn't find where it came from, but for reference, I lived in Peru and heard some older guys say it. Then in college, I worked in a warehouse in the southern united states and older Mexican guys would say it to make sure the young workers respected them.

So, I wonder if it's just a universal Spanish proverb?

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#32

Post by JorgeGT »

mr_spothawk wrote: post #22
JorgeGT wrote: post #13

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…

>the Devil knows more from being old than from being the Devil. brilliant. what's the origin there?

It's a very old Spanish proverb, so presumably only the Devil knows the origin ;)

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#33

Post by amyjess »

terrib1e wrote: post #6

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.

I've heard it said before that ageism is the only -ism that everyone ends up experiencing.

You're 30, and I'm 32, which means that in a decade we'll both be in a federally protected class. I don't think there would be federal protections if ageism wasn't a huge problem for 40+ people. In another decade, we'll both be in our 50s, where ageism is definitely a problem.

I think all younger people, myself included, have a responsibility to fight ageism now so we don't get bitten by it ourselves later.

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#35

Post by madengr »

Ensorceled wrote: post #18
edoceo wrote: post #2

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.

> age != experience != skill Or, as a former boss of mine put it: "He has one year of experience ten times."

Or maybe one year of experience, each in a specialized topic, which are all intertwined. I have 20 years experience in RF engineering, and probably a few years each in sub-disciplines that combine to form a full system. That is pretty valuable, especially being able to head off problems, due to prior experience with them.

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#36

Post by [deleted] »

mr_spothawk wrote: post #22
JorgeGT wrote: post #13

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…

>the Devil knows more from being old than from being the Devil. brilliant. what's the origin there?

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#37

Post by marvindanig »

tjr wrote: post #28

I was recently working with an older developer. I don't know, maybe of 65 or 70 years. He was working on aerospace network intrusion detection systems, and I was helping him set up a simulation system. He was slinging around low-level computer architecture terminology, while I was quickly trying to access what I remembered from a college class 15 years prior, just to keep up with the conversation. Older programmers a…

This whole idea of going after young fresh graduates is a ploy from the likes of Facebook or Google to increase their outreach and expand the talentpool they could source from. They are the ones that are on high towers and need people who know react or polymer or stuff like that.

Startups usually, though anecdotal, don't discriminate based on age or length of experience. In fact most of the awesome startups that I know hired solely based on experience and that "fit" into the cultural diversity of the company.

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#38

Post by jameshart »

edoceo wrote: post #2

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.

Not an HR lawyer, but I believe that as long as you weren't exclusively hiring through here, using a site like this as part of your hiring strategy could in fact be used to demonstrate that you are seeking out candidates from a broad range of backgrounds. If you only advertise a role in youth-oriented venues that might itself be grounds for being accused of discriminatory hiring practices, so also considering candidates through a channel like this would help defend against that accusation.

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#39

Post by anjc »

This service should be superfluous due to enforcement of discrimination laws. If companies are specifically not hiring older people then there's surely some way to find out.

And the idea that an "oldster" is a thing should not be legitimised by people in the tech industry. Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas.

Re: Show HN: Hire an Oldster

#40

Post by HCIdivision17 »

tjr wrote: post #28

I was recently working with an older developer. I don't know, maybe of 65 or 70 years. He was working on aerospace network intrusion detection systems, and I was helping him set up a simulation system. He was slinging around low-level computer architecture terminology, while I was quickly trying to access what I remembered from a college class 15 years prior, just to keep up with the conversation. Older programmers a…

It's a weird experience if you're a clever youngster. I liken it to speed vs torque. I have to rely on being fast and being able to scan a problem as fast as I can to understand it. But an older engineer will just know the lay of the land. I had this happen a lot with an older electrical engineer. He seemed slow and I looked to run circles around everyone, but he could point to things as a root cause before I even understood the problem. I would have to spend time to decompress his observations to backtrack how he figured it out, and you start to realize that his shortcuts and heuristics are just so much better than mine. I wish all young engineers to have the opportunity to be whooped by the tortoise.

Sometimes I would spot something he didn't, but it was frequently because I was approaching from a position of ignorance. It worried me that someday I'll lose that edge, but I guess it's why a good team will be diverse and balanced.

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