Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 199 posts

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#81

Post by ProAm »

nardonne wrote: post #47
mikevp wrote: post #31

Laid off at 56. When I got home from being notified, there was an email from the HR person at a competitor in my inbox. I started work there within two weeks. Plus, my prior company had a rather spectacular special severance package for those of a certain age who would sign an agreement not to sue for age discrimination. (This was accompanied by a thick stack of statistics of who had been laid off, showing that they…

It's almost impossible to sue for age discrimination and win. All they have to do is lay off 1 person in their 20s at the time they laid off their older workers and they claim innocence and it works.

Even if you sue and win you'll likely never work again due to it.

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#82

Post by antonvs »

modbait wrote: post #76
fecak wrote: post #12

I'd hate to think that readers over 50 feel the need to consider leaving the tech workforce, and I know perhaps hundreds of successful engineers over 50. Those that have a hard time getting back in are often a victim of discrimination not truly based on age, but on stagnation. A 50 year old who has worked on five interesting diverse projects in the last 10 years will find work. A 50 year old who spent the last 20 yea…

I believe the "old == stagnant" meme is largely a myth. It sounds right somehow, so it sticks with us. Over the course of a long career, though, I've seen this kind of stagnation distributed pretty evenly across people of different ages. The difference is that when we someone who's young and stagnant, we just chalk them up as green, or a business type, etc. But not "stagnant". We can't see their future, so we can't s…

But an older stagnant person's skills tend to be much more out of date.

Younger ones have the benefit that their skills are still likely to be relevant at a larger subset of the employer pool.

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#83

Post by anocendi »

fecak wrote: post #63
VectorLock wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When applying to those roles how did they discover you were 41?

Former recruiter and current professional resume writer. As the other respondent said, the quick formula a recruiter might use to guess your birth year is "college graduation date - 22" or "date of first job - 22". You should keep this fact in mind as you write a resume and decide which jobs to include, which jobs to perhaps delete, and whether you want to include your graduation date. It isn't necessary to include a…

I am curious. If what you described is a standard technique people can use, what prevents the recruiters/talent acquisition to, by default, discard resumes/CVs without exact dates?

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#84

Post by [deleted] »

otakucode wrote: post #68
kazinator wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, those 3500 recipients could not have known that you're 41 and tossed the application on that basis. There is just some problem other than the one you imagine. > I used to mainly work in support, from 1st/2nd/3rd line to sysadmin, systems design and spec, network architect, everything. I do Windows, Linux, Mac OS, networking, comms, some programming knowledge, training, all sorts. But I'm too old to get work as…

If your 25 years of experience are on the application, it doesn't take a math major to spot that you're not 23.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#85

Post by modbait »

antonvs wrote: post #82
modbait wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the "old == stagnant" meme is largely a myth. It sounds right somehow, so it sticks with us. Over the course of a long career, though, I've seen this kind of stagnation distributed pretty evenly across people of different ages. The difference is that when we someone who's young and stagnant, we just chalk them up as green, or a business type, etc. But not "stagnant". We can't see their future, so we can't s…

But an older stagnant person's skills tend to be much more out of date. Younger ones have the benefit that their skills are still likely to be relevant at a larger subset of the employer pool.

That's an interesting point, and may very well be true. It doesn't imply that there's a correlation between age and stagnation, though.

Also, in my experience, stagnation can run in the other direction, temporally. I encounter many young people who won't even learn about, much less consider, using a tool like 'make', simply based on the assumption that newer seemingly similar tools must be better. Sometimes the old ways really are superior for the task at hand.

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#87

Post by legohead »

To any older guys out there who think they might be looking in the near future -- my advice is to learn the "current stack", or really, just to keep up to date and messing with the new technologies that come out.

My story: A couple years ago I started job searching, at 38. I had been at my current job for 5 years. I had a hell of a time getting anyone to bite. I had a dozen phone interviews that I felt went well, but no callbacks. This stroke me as odd, as when I had been searching last time, I had to fight off people and had multiple offers.

I noticed a trend in the jobs I was applying for. Kubernetes, Node, C#, etc. Things I didn't have on my resume, although I knew I could learn with ease. But your prospective hirer doesn't want to hear how good you are at learning their stack. There are enough candidates to choose from that already know what they need, and I was told that more than once.

The jobs I was applying for were the same description, same mechanics and job duties I had been doing for 15 years already, but since I didn't work with the latest stack -- too bad.

I eventually got lucky and found a job that was transitioning from what I already knew to one of these newer stacks.

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#89

Post by kwillets »

One theory I have is that the tech community was a lot more nerdy in the past, and we've gradually been diluted out as the tech population has grown. The whole "culture fit" thing just seems creepy to me; I used to work with all kinds of crazy people.

Re: Ask HN: Laid-off readers over 50, have you left the tech workforce?

#90

Post by zenpaul »

Ha, ha, ha, I just got laid off Monday along with most of the rest of the team with no notice. The market seems to be fairly hot here in Fairfield county CT so I'm jumping right back in and expect to pick up another job/contract in the next month. It's just a matter of rate and commute...

It is tempting to just do my writing or something else but I love the work, it pays well and it's fairly expensive to live here.

Speaking of writing, I wrote this the day after the layoffs and it pretty much sums up my feelings...

A tree fallen; the turn of a leaf

Why is the HR team here with crisp manilla folders? "There's an announcement at 10," please assemble the soldiers.

Somber words were spoken and no questions were asked. Then with cleaning out our desks most of us were tasked.

The screen turns red, system down in sector 4! I tense for a moment and then gleefully ignore.

We pack the last picture and hold back a tear, And say "it's still early, but let's all get a beer."

We relive the drag-out meetings where we battled for the truth, And the late afternoon YouTubes bordering on the uncouth.

For some it's a blow; for others relief. It's a tree fallen; the turn of a leaf.

So I'll join another startup, yes that will be fun. Or even a bank, if they really want to get shit done.

The joy of building and creating with keyboard or pen, Is what I live for over and over again.

If you're team's on a mission with problems quite hard, Tell me about it. Please call me. The number's on the card.

Post reply on HN