In the next 10 to 15 years, tech is going to have a lot of millennial who reach 50+. We'll have a similar challenge in the US where tech culture leans towards hyping youth, and the new reality.
You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
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Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Age is pretty easily guessable by degree dates and your appearance, they don't need to ask it explicitly.
Maybe at some point it’s better to leave off your degree? Your 20 years of experience are a lot more important (and the 10 before those irrelevant).
I did this once, after working for 15 years. Maybe that wasn't long enough? First question in the interview: whether I had a degree.
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#23You know what japan always does though? They always respond to applications. Theres no instant automated rejection email. Theres no getting ghosted by 90% of companies. Pay is bad though.
Pay wasn't horrible 30 years ago when I was there; but after 30 years of ~0 inflation...
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#24Japan requires photos of woman on their resumes, and their age. Japanese employers don't like hiring women who are in their child-bearing ages because they might get pregnant. Say what you want about the US, but the level of protection workers have is so much better than most other countries.
Bit disingenuous wording - they don't exclude men from photos & age. The US has summary firing. In Japan if you're a permanent employee you can reasonably expect to remain so. From the people pissing in bottles at Amazon your protections don't sound any better. Hiring discrimination against child bearing aged women is universal - it's just in the US they have to be more careful how they do it.
Yep. I once had the CEO of an early stage, venture backed SF startup I worked for confide to me:
“you know, every time we interview a woman in her late 20s/early 30s, I just have to wonder if she’ll take maternity leave 6 months in to working with us. As a startup we just can’t afford that”.
Of course the public face of the company was all about fighting inequality, supporting diversity, etc.
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#25If this is true, given their birth rate, they will have to change, or run out of people to do things.
A reminder Japan's birthrate isn't a special case: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_f... Same as Spain and Jamaica, higher than China and Korea.
Closer to Canada than Canada is to the U.S.
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#26In the next 10 to 15 years, tech is going to have a lot of millennial who reach 50+. We'll have a similar challenge in the US where tech culture leans towards hyping youth, and the new reality.
Luckily, there’s going to be a lot less youth (compressing demographic pyramid), forcing businesses to accommodate older workers if they want labor.
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#27In practical terms, I've never been asked my age in an interview. At some point I'm going to prune my experience if I have to.
Age is pretty easily guessable by degree dates and your appearance, they don't need to ask it explicitly.
You don't need to list the dates you obtained your degree.
When I was just getting started in the field, I already had some work experience from prior exploits and college employment. Leaving the dates off my degree helped me get a reasonable job early on, I think.
Just wear your ballcap backwards and folks will assume you're at least young at heart! (I jest)
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Pay is bad though I wonder if that is in any way correlated to this: > Gov't study finds only 3,065 homeless people in Japan https://japantoday.com/category/national/gov%27t-study-finds...
First, that number is most probably understated. Second, your comment could be interpreted as saying that counties with high pay have (or should have) a lot of homeless people, which seems insane. So what did you mean?
It’s not that insane. If pay is low then companies can afford to hire more people to do the same amount of work, leading to overall more employment and then presumably less homelessness.
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#29In the next 10 to 15 years, tech is going to have a lot of millennial who reach 50+. We'll have a similar challenge in the US where tech culture leans towards hyping youth, and the new reality.
Luckily, there’s going to be a lot less youth (compressing demographic pyramid), forcing businesses to accommodate older workers if they want labor.
nah, they'll just continue moving it offshore.
Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech
#30You know what japan always does though? They always respond to applications. Theres no instant automated rejection email. Theres no getting ghosted by 90% of companies. Pay is bad though.
> Pay is bad though I wonder if that is in any way correlated to this: > Gov't study finds only 3,065 homeless people in Japan https://japantoday.com/category/national/gov%27t-study-finds...
There are probably more than 3000 people just trying to live out of net cafes. Pay is bad for SWEs because Japan mostly doesn't have the sorts of companies that generate millions in profit per SWE, and foreign companies lower their offers to be only a little above the local market rate. Pay is bad for other workers because huge amounts of labor are wasted on tasks like "staying at the office at least as long as my boss" or "replacing our successful product with a new one for the sake of demonstrating that we have done something" which are optimized for purposes opposed to creating value.