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64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

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Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#291

Post by panda888888 »

perryh2 wrote: post #50
crispyambulance wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it disturbing he can't find work as a project manager. If anything, that's one role where the practitioners typically know fuck-all about nothing and where good ones are worth their weight in gold. I LOVE to work with ADULT project managers who have a clue about how projects actually unfold and how things actually get done with a wide variety of personalities in the mix. Instead, more often than not, you get 2…

In today's world of agile development, I haven't met any project managers worthy of anything. I feel that strong product managers are capable of managing development as well. I can't believe there are actual people getting paid to move JIRA tickets around full-time.

Disagree completely. A good project manager sees themselves as a peer to devs, with a goal of shielding their team from dumb administrative stuff (like requests from upper management that are clearly out of touch with how the product actually works).

To do so, they must see themselves as a peer. Anyone with an ego who wants to boss people around will be a terrible PM. A good PM enables their team and is altruistically driven.

Once you work with someone like this, you'll understand how amazing PMs can be.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#292

Post by burfog »

snotrockets wrote: post #283
ericb wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that "fairness" is exactly the right ideal if our goal is the most health and wealth for the most people? I want my doctor to be really great--to be in that job because he is the best at it. I don't want someone placed there by a truly random lottery, and I do want the guy who won the intelligence DNA drawing to be the one I talk to. I also want wealth to motivate people to get into that job, as it is so…

Fairness in opportunities, which you just disqualified by assuming the best Dr need to be a MALE and GENTICALY PREDETERMINED SMART. My (short) experience working in health care suggest both are very bad qualifications for a health professional.

To be coldly rational, you want to pick from the group that is the most discriminated against for entry into medical school. Right now in the USA, that would be Asian males.

An exception is if you may need the doctor to insert a hand into your body. In this case, note that Asian female doctors generally have the smallest hands.

An exception is if you are very heavy and might require feats of strength for your care. In this case, young non-Asian males are most likely to have the needed strength.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#293

Post by fleur-de-lotus »

Aloha wrote: post #83
crispyambulance wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it disturbing he can't find work as a project manager. If anything, that's one role where the practitioners typically know fuck-all about nothing and where good ones are worth their weight in gold. I LOVE to work with ADULT project managers who have a clue about how projects actually unfold and how things actually get done with a wide variety of personalities in the mix. Instead, more often than not, you get 2…

Some of the best PM's that I've worked with are well into retirement age.

With all due respect, this says more about your age than it says about good PM's.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#294

Post by siruncledrew »

perryh2 wrote: post #50
crispyambulance wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it disturbing he can't find work as a project manager. If anything, that's one role where the practitioners typically know fuck-all about nothing and where good ones are worth their weight in gold. I LOVE to work with ADULT project managers who have a clue about how projects actually unfold and how things actually get done with a wide variety of personalities in the mix. Instead, more often than not, you get 2…

In today's world of agile development, I haven't met any project managers worthy of anything. I feel that strong product managers are capable of managing development as well. I can't believe there are actual people getting paid to move JIRA tickets around full-time.

It’s easy to be bad and hard to be good. There’s PMs I know that casually joke about how about most of their week is time spent dicking around on the internet while having a few meetings and watching some tasks get done. They are more like project secretaries where they DGAF about being involved. Then there are PMs that go the extra mile to keep stakeholders involved, triage bugs and tasks, and willfully volunteer to fill in as needed. They are the ones that can actually add substantial value to a project.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#295

Post by fleur-de-lotus »

wolco wrote: post #160
maerF0x0 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, however we all should have long term savings that we do not touch, even if things are falling apart. That used to be how pensions were. Also keep in mind this guy is in Canada and the GFC was not nearly as severe as in the USA.

Canada has lower salaries and higher taxes resulting in lower savings. But in a year should have cpp/old age.

Higher taxes is a form of compulsory savings. If they get sick, they don't go bankrupt.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#296

Post by siruncledrew »

towaway1138 wrote: post #15

I'm only in my 50s, but this is very relateable. Did a couple dozen interviews a year or two ago before finally getting a bite. Somewhat amazingly, even passed the hiring committee at a FANG, only to get swatted down by a rare strike from the executive level. In one interview, was asked to produce a class that could serialize and deserialize a list of numbers, to/from a string of chars. Sure, it's not that hard. Took…

This is observational, but I notice older hiring managers are more ok with hiring older applicants. Maybe there’s some kind of relatability or something, but the older hires actually turned out to be cool, insightful people. It’s even pretty funny when they joke about age in a self-deprecating sense.

Consequently, I’ve seen that younger people are more wary of hiring people too far removed from their own demographic like there’s a forethought a 40+ dev is going to be some burdensome fart from an AARP commercial.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#297

Post by ChucklesNorris »

Age discrimination is rampant and yet illegal. Corporations ought to be fined for having a workforce younger than the average age of the country's citizens. That would help people like the man in this article.

But I wonder, at 64, hasn't he applied for Social Security? It wasn't mentioned. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#298

Post by dev_north_east »

myresume wrote: post #16

I have experienced this myself. I am going on 50. I am actually looking for work now. And I have kept up and I am using modern tech stacks. http://geoffreycallaghan.com

I really like the style you have there (achievements and then tech used). All nicely laid out. One thing:

> Created a user interface in XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) using Microsoft Expression Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio (version).

"version" seems like something you meant to come back to? And I'd ditch the explanation of XAML.

I really hope you find something.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#299

Post by EADGBE »

lsc wrote: post #213
snorkel wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of FANGs I interviewed at, I couldn’t help noticing they totally avoid asking practical questions that require field experience to understand and instead just focus the entire interview on CompSci college homework problems that recent grads can easily relate to. I wonder why. Hmmmmm ...

Yeah, but... CompSci college homework... really isn't that hard? I mean, with some coaching and effort, I can study enough get most of those questions even though my math abilities top out somewhere around high school trig. I mean, they are gating some incredibly high-paying jobs. Sure, you gotta jump through some hoops to get it, but I'd argue that the coding tests are... well, they certainly aren't the hoops I find…

> Yeah, but... CompSci college homework... really isn't that hard?

Don't know. To me, college CompSci material might as well be greek. But I somehow get by programming...

Now - if we want to talk about contrapuntal music composition techniques - I'm your guy.

Re: 64 and unemployed: One man's struggle to be taken seriously as a job applicant

#300

Post by EADGBE »

wolco wrote: post #155
thisisweirdok wrote: post #79

When I was in my upper 30s I was mistakingly included in a reply-all email from someone who interviewed me and said I seemed kind of old for the position. I was ready to lose my shit on them but my wife made me wait a day before responding when she saw how angry I was. I was considering hiring a lawyer to sue the shit out of them for discrimination, but at the end of the day I brushed it off with a snarky "at least I…

You think they would give you an offer to avoid legal issues.

That would have gone really well. Especially when the comment comes from someone you work with every day.
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