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Age Discrimination at Work

nytimes.com

81–90 of 206 posts

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#81
In my experience age discrimination is real. All large companies explicitly discriminate against young employees because US law does not prevent it (50+ becomes the protected class).

Most young corporate employees are promoted on a schedule. The inputs to that algorithm are age and performance.

Large companies explicitly discriminate against young employees by paying them less and refusing to promote them without considering their age.

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#82
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever topics like this come up on HN, there are always tons of people in their 30s and 40s posting comments like this, which boil down to something like: "I'm not old enough to experience age discrimination yet, and I'm scared but I'm going to keep up with the latest languages/frameworks so I will be special and not be discriminated against like all the other developers, who allowed their skills to deteriorate whe…

I'm 54. Have been in sw dev for 40 years. I have kept my skills (aws api / node.js / css / html5 / etc) up to the point were I am over qualified for many of the positions (laid off 3 years back from IBM) I apply for. Before I updated my LinkedIn profile pic I received many interview invites. Now I get none. Recently I started looking at the people that these sw dev companies _actually_ hire. They ask for 3/5/10 years…

Sorry if what I'm about to say is rude, please file that under me being ignorant rather malicious.

Given your struggles to get a job and your very valuable experience, what's holding you back from going as a contractor / setting up your own shop?

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#83
The problem aren't old people, it's people who sit in their cushy employment for ages, don't want to learn something new and try to do things the way they know.

Those can be young too, but I guess since time is a factor here, the older people are the higher the chances they got >5 years of business as usual in their pockets.

I personally prefer diverse ages in my teams, but I also met some awesome devs who learned their skills with analog computers, haha

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#84
post #58
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are young and childless you get the difficult shift/all nighter/extra travel because the other guys have families. Then when you get older and the kids are gone you get the same screwing over because the other guys have family to feed. It's always something.

That's because people with kids have practically 2 jobs i.e. 2x as much workload and it will be those kids that will pay for your retirement.

We all know it's like having 2 jobs. But having kids is a choice. Don't do it if you can't pay for it or you have to keep leaning on colleagues to cover for you.

As for the prospects of other people's kids paying for my retirement, that seems very low probability given the projections for the future of social security. When planning for retirement you should assume you receive zero from social security.

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#85
post #2

30 years ago the discrimination was firmly against young people, today it has flipped on its head. Yet we have larger HR departments, rules, etc etc. So some serious questions need to be asked. But having felt the brunt of age discrimination when I was young and now older, I kinda angst. Kinda feel like generation discriminated sometimes having caught it at both ends.

I think rather than the world flipping, what happened is the absolute value of the age difference between you and the hiring manager was large, small, large. They prefer like kind.

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#86
post #3

I was applying to a job with a large game studio. The interview was going pretty well, I'd thought. We talked a bit about how we'd implement certain gameplay elements, the content of the projects we've worked on, and overall it just seemed good and we all seemed to get along pretty well. Then they asked me how old I was. Their response to my age was, "Oh... maybe it's a little late then. You're not too old, but... ki…

I think the rejection might actually be good for you - they certainly were looking for a young, naive, and enthusiastic person - to exploit to death their desire to work in game industry, and pay them peanuts.

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#87
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this comment being downvoted? Is it factually incorrect?

I wish it were. Google "lebenslauf muster" in image search to see it in full effect. > There are a few must-have personal details every Lebenslauf should include which you might not have on your original CV: a photo, your marital status and place of birth. https://www.thelocal.de/20130131/47649

This is the same in Sweden fwiw. I was agast when CVs started passing my desk with seemly random self-portraits on them.

Why the hell do I care what you look like?

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#88
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 54. Have been in sw dev for 40 years. I have kept my skills (aws api / node.js / css / html5 / etc) up to the point were I am over qualified for many of the positions (laid off 3 years back from IBM) I apply for. Before I updated my LinkedIn profile pic I received many interview invites. Now I get none. Recently I started looking at the people that these sw dev companies _actually_ hire. They ask for 3/5/10 years…

Sorry if what I'm about to say is rude, please file that under me being ignorant rather malicious. Given your struggles to get a job and your very valuable experience, what's holding you back from going as a contractor / setting up your own shop?

That is the route I am now going. Until my last breath I'm going to build a sw company and hire 100's of people. Like all companies I'll have a page on my site that says how moral and inclusive we are except that we won't be hypocrites like most (all?) other sw companies. This is my delusional dream.

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#89
post #45

Allow me to provide a contrarian view. I'm not disagreeing that age-discrimination does not exist, however I must say it's not always the case. I'm 35, so I wouldn't qualify as young but neither old. Businesses tend to recruit younger devs for few reasons: - They can be easily convinced to work longer hours - They are typically paid much less However there is one trait in older devs that make them undesirable: - They…

Just in case it's not obvious, your assertion about what older people are like is absolutely textbook ageism.

That may be true. I don’t have enough in this game to follow the literature. I’m responding to the above post and here with anecdotal experience.

What it suggestsed to me is we need to talk about social skills necessary to navigate roles and relationships between young managers and older workers.

When dealing with junior and inexperienced colleagues, the power relationship seems more ‘natural’. People can reference many years of clear social hierarchies—parent-child, teacher-student, adult-child.

Where is the template for the reverse relationship? Younger, and socially/life inexperienced managers, with ‘junior’ workers who are older by years, and maybe socially very experienced.

Let’s face it, no manager wants to hire someone who threatens their position. And I’ve see the workers who feel a new older worker also threatens their growth trajectory in the company—as if you’re jumping the line.

In my experience some of these problems change dynamic when you work for small businesses, and flatter organizations.

Re: Age Discrimination at Work

#90

I've effectively "fixed" a couple startups built by fresh college grads and interns and made a pretty penny doing it. I think some companies and some founders have thought engineering was an area where they could cut corners by not hiring experienced people, and they have learned this is a good way to fail. That being said, you want a mix - more seasoned people leading the direction, processes, and technology selecti…

This is actually an example of age discrimination. Young people can be in leadership too. I always see conversations about ageism in tech drift towards older workers but as someone who was precocious I was often denied opportunities I was ready for because I didn’t have “enough experience”.

Yes! Also blatant discrimination in the other direction. Older folks can also have energy, eagerness, and an openness to learn new things.
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