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

You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 265 posts

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#141

Post by Symbiote »

dmoy wrote: post #76
erichurkman wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting your age isn't necessary when your experience goes back decades and you graduated from university before your hiring manager was even born. Similarly, your name can convey a lot of biases as well, such as gender and ethnicity.

You can truncate your cv and not list graduation year, though name is tough.

The last time I shortlisted people for interview, HR had removed names and any other identifying information.

"So, candidate 24892 looks strong."

I don't know if I have unconscious biases, but this method was unlikely to make things less fair.

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#142

Post by bbcbasic »

mahyarm wrote: post #132
bbcbasic wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With such high salaries what if you sleep on a couch, live off the proverbial ramen for a 5-10 years, pump it all into investments, then go retire somewhere cheaper?

Then you want kids, and you don't want them to grow up in Colombia or the Phillippines.

Ha ha I was thinking more just somewhere else in USA / UK / Europe etc.

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#143

Post by mwfunk »

ardit33 wrote: post #14
cpprototypes wrote: post #9

Recently I got an email about a job that seemed interesting. It's a well known company that used to be a startup but is now a mature company. I went to the job description page: 8+ years experience, tech stack I'm familiar with, mostly backend work, seems ok so far. Then I get to the last line. Open office, has video games, happy hours, other typical things designed to attract those in their 20s. It's all a hidden me…

I am sorry, but what is wrong with having video games in the office? At both my previous companies I played games time to time, with co-workers. 15 mins of playing Fifa with a co-worker end s up both relaxing, and productive as you both bond and hash out things, and often much better than boring meeting. I am 35 btw. Also, our CEO regularly played as well. I have been at an office/environment (Amazon), with cubicles,…

This is all anecdotal evidence of course, but my exposure to this sort of office culture has been much more negative than what you described. Every place I've ever worked, I've played video games or done other fun stuff with my coworkers, sometimes as a part of every day. Nothing wrong with that, I wouldn't have had it any other way. This is the norm, but I don't think this is what people are talking about in this thread.

The negative variant of "come work here, we have video games in the office!" happens when there is an expectation from management (or even just the rest of the team) that everyone is going to participate in Mandatory Team Playtime whether they enjoy it or not. And the 1-2 hours of Mandatory Team Playtime always means that you have to stay at work for an additional 1-2 hours just to get your job done. Or maybe Mandatory Team Playtime is a consolation prize for making you work through the weekend.

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#144

Post by sidlls »

jimmywanger wrote: post #91

A lot of older programmers seem to think they have 20 years of experience, when they only have the same year of experience 20 times. If you don't keep up to date and current, it's not ageism.

You represent the other extreme with your comment. Very few software projects have more than two or three years of "experience fertility," for the kind of experience you mean. There's a difference between someone who can't even last a year to get a project from prototype to some semblance of maturity and someone who wants to move on after one to two years when a project reaches the point at which maintenance overtakes new development.

What's the difference between somebody who works on four different projects over 8 years for company X and somebody who works on four different projects for four different companies over the same period, in this context?

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#145

Post by [deleted] »

hirundo wrote: post #8

I'm a grey beard who applied to a company specifically advertising for young developers. Got the job without mentioning my vintage. That was six years ago and they still haven't seen my face. I waited a while to gently break the news to them. If you're a technological senior citizen remote work is your friend.

[deleted]

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#146

Post by newscracker »

Symbiote wrote: post #141
dmoy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can truncate your cv and not list graduation year, though name is tough.

The last time I shortlisted people for interview, HR had removed names and any other identifying information. "So, candidate 24892 looks strong." I don't know if I have unconscious biases, but this method was unlikely to make things less fair.

That sounds like a very good move to let people have an equal opportunity to "get a foot in the door", so to speak, but I'm genuinely curious how biases may be reduced during the interview process (be it telephonic or direct) and interview questions that may be directed at one's experience? Is this even possible without having dedicated "how to interview people" learning sessions and monitoring?

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#147

Post by 35bge57dtjku »

dmoy wrote: post #76
erichurkman wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting your age isn't necessary when your experience goes back decades and you graduated from university before your hiring manager was even born. Similarly, your name can convey a lot of biases as well, such as gender and ethnicity.

You can truncate your cv and not list graduation year, though name is tough.

Is it really, though? It's possible they'd never need your real name until you filled out tax forms after being hired.

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#148

Post by MichaelBurge »

vacri wrote: post #99
flukus wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't the games, it's the office space. Having video games, foosball, table tennis, etc near your work space is distracting as hell. If they are optional and silent (from my perspective) it's not a problem but me experience has been the opposite. I had management buy everyone nerf guns once as part of a "hitting our targets" marketing campaign. It seemed like every time you got deep into concentration a n…

> Needless to say, we missed our targets. ... intentional pun? I've had the nerf war going on around me as well. Everyone else in the office shooting at each other, me in the middle fiddling in my terminals. I learned that if you just don't respond, you don't become a target and you can get on with whatever you were doing (YMMV).

> ... intentional pun?

I believe his management made the pun when they bought the nerf guns for the "hit our targets" campaign.

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#149

Post by bryanrasmussen »

flukus wrote: post #127
RachelF wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also younger workers are lot cheaper and don't have families, so you can work them longer hours. Older techies have wised up.

I see the opposite more often. Younger people have stuff to do after work. It's the guy with a wife and 3 screaming kids that wants to work long hours.

I think both hold true. The young can do a good crunch week that the old can't because of responsibilities, the old will some times have home situations that allow them to put in more overtime consistently.

Re: You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

#150

Post by WalterBright »

ourmandave wrote: post #34
hirundo wrote: post #8

I'm a grey beard who applied to a company specifically advertising for young developers. Got the job without mentioning my vintage. That was six years ago and they still haven't seen my face. I waited a while to gently break the news to them. If you're a technological senior citizen remote work is your friend.

Ah, "Grey beard". The term Microsoft used to separate the old from the young at a conference when they first introduced the .NET framework. Classic "old bad, good new" sales. As in, "you Grey Breads remember using C++ and MFC, etc." Yes I remember. Because it was yesterday just before I came to your conference! I still went home and started learning what the hell XML was though. =(

> you Grey Breads remember using C++ and MFC, etc.

I remember submitting my BASIC program on IBM punch cards. Using a card punch machine taught one to not make typos. You youngsters with your backspace keys!

Post reply on HN