31–40 of 60 posts
And that's why companies don't tell you why they didn't choose you.
Well into his 60's when his son asked for him to make him a dev engine for a game he was making, he dug right in and had a prototype rather quickly.
I think as I've gotten older the only issue for me is motivation to actually want to work on projects, vs just doing any random thing.
Been dealing with this since my 40s. And good luck hiding it on your resume, most application forms these days require dates and even addresses. I am also discriminated against based on location. Some companies won't even interview you unless you are local, even for remote jobs, even if you're willing to relocate.
My friend's dad is a retired developer. Use to work for a jet company. Well into his 60's when his son asked for him to make him a dev engine for a game he was making, he dug right in and had a prototype rather quickly. I think as I've gotten older the only issue for me is motivation to actually want to work on projects, vs just doing any random thing.
I can identify with this statement. I love learning new things and experimenting. Doing "any random thing" is generally much more appealing to me now.
50ish here. If I'm ever looking for a new job again [hopefully never!], I'll be sure to dye my hair and drop dates from my job history.
Unfortunately many companies make use of their ATS mandatory when applying for a job and those systems usually require start and end dates for all but your current job. Even if ATS doesn't requirement, HR likely will when they do employment verification.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> shifting the platform out from underneath their workforces causing older workers to stumble But the older workers don't have to stumble. They can learn the new platform. I'm an older worker and have done so many times over my career. It's not a huge deal -- especially because keeping up with changes in technology is a thing that everyone of every age has to do anyway.
Sure, you can learn new platform X well enough to be productive in probably a matter of days, but you can’t manufacture 3 years of experience with platform X unless you lie about it. And many job postings expect you to not only have years of experience with platform X, but also significant experience with particular database Y and cloud service provider Z. How did you get your first job for each new platform that you…
From my perspective hard requirements turn out to be red flags more often than not. Asking for 6+ years in a single language kind of looks like you regret your tech stack. Requiring experience with project management software is a cry for help.
But for me, my real concern is just trying to come up with an AI-powered business over the next few years before I am being discriminated against not only because I am older, but also because I am human that wants to be paid more than $1 per hour.
On RunPod a 4090 is only like $.50/hor and can run Mixtral very easily in quantized mode.
The open models like Mixtral are getting very, very good. And when you combine that with specialized agents for particular application areas, and then the ability to consult multiple agents per project, easily adding knowledge with RAG or automatically generated fine tuning datasets, etc..
There might be a lot of competition from AI programmers within a few years.
But regardless, I needed to find a way to create a "real" online business. The new and anticipated abilities of AI make it a bit more urgent I think.
I'm trying to build an agent hosting platform because I think that within a couple of years, everyone will expect to be able to run LLMs/agents on their own computer natively. So I am guessing we will have something like WordPress for agents. Hoping people will consider my tool.
>After he was rejected for the sales job, the company’s recruiter also told him that Exact Sciences Corporation was “looking for someone more junior that can ... stay with the company for years to come,” according to the EEOC. And that's why companies don't tell you why they didn't choose you.
I dont want to defend "age discrimination" proper, but I think it's a very fine line and companies should have the right to select someone with low experience. This, of course, means they have to treat an "older" tech newbie the same as a fresh sprout. But it should absolutely be their choice if they want a junior level vs a senior employee.
I may be wrong - please let me know: It's my understanding as a worker in the US that there is no restriction on employers from hiring junior-experienced employees.
My two bits: Age discrimination feels rampant to me, where I see Old being equated with Bad. I see this on a bi-weekly basis from my industry-following news-consuming habit, reading comments from "young" people in the tech industry. I believe it's an issue on the rise, since I believe the demographic of tech people still seeking employment is shifting to older.