Is This Legal?

#1

Post by larionv » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:25 PM UTC

Is this legal? Just received an email from Xoriant about a new Sr. Data Engineer position.

Here are the requirements:

7-10 years of experience. NOT looking for someone with 15+ years. They will NOT be considered. Must have experience with any Graph Database - - client uses Neptune NOT looking for a Data Scientist. MUST be a Data Engineer who does the actual work of getting data into 1 place. AWS experience – implementing graph database in AWS (required experience) Python experience – for data pipelining

I am wondering about "NOT looking for someone with 15+ years. They will NOT be considered."

Can they openly put this requirement into their position requirements?

Re: Is This Legal?

#2

Post by Someone » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:28 PM UTC

I think that, in many jurisdictions, that would be indirect age discrimination (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discriminat...)

Re: Is This Legal?

#3

Post by aphextim » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

Here is what I found about the matter in a prior case from 2018:

https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/06/06/screening-candidat...

Tl:Dr - Yes it may

Re: Is This Legal?

#4

Post by ent101 » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

IANAL, this seems to be heavily jurisdiction-dependent. For example, I know that it is unlikely that this would be considered age discrimination in Ontario Canada, whereas, it's likely to be considered so in California.

Re: Is This Legal?

#5

Post by gshdg » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

Assuming they’re willing to work for the pay you’re offering, I can’t think of any reason other than age discrimination NOT to want that additional experience.

Re: Is This Legal?

#6

Post by smileysteve » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 7:05 PM UTC

Interpretation might vary;

~2013 I responded on twitter about "a dev who has 15 years of experience with PHP" with, a response about why I would be concerned that that could mean the developer never learned the PHP 3 (much less 4) object model.

And if you tell me you have 15 years working with "any" Graph database, that seems like it would have some irrelevancy to the Graph Databases of today.

Of course, it's also possible to "forget" experience, at least on paper and an interview; and changing your resume to do so, may be advantageous as you get older.

Re: Is This Legal?

#7

Post by glwtta » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

smileysteve wrote: post #6

Interpretation might vary; ~2013 I responded on twitter about "a dev who has 15 years of experience with PHP" with, a response about why I would be concerned that that could mean the developer never learned the PHP 3 (much less 4) object model. And if you tell me you have 15 years working with "any" Graph database, that seems like it would have some irrelevancy to the Graph Databases of today. Of course, it's also po…

The posting seems to be requiring 7-10 years of work experience, not specific to graph databases or any other technology.

Re: Is This Legal?

#8

Post by fxleach » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 7:55 PM UTC

ent101 wrote: post #4

IANAL, this seems to be heavily jurisdiction-dependent. For example, I know that it is unlikely that this would be considered age discrimination in Ontario Canada, whereas, it's likely to be considered so in California.

I live in Ontario and I'm curious as to why you think this is unlikely to be considered age discrimination here.

Re: Is This Legal?

#9

Post by OJFord » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 8:08 PM UTC

It may or may not be intended to discriminate age, but I can't see how to distunguish it from filtering out 'overqualified' candidates from an explicitly tiered position.

Re: Is This Legal?

#10

Post by 9wzYQbTYsAIc » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 8:40 PM UTC

Please use ASK HN: in the title.