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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

#31
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have bad news about the demographic pyramid of nearly every country...

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#32
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But startups really can't afford it, what else can they do?

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#33
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yah, when your answer for "most interesting project" involves an MCU with 63 bytes of RAM...

That could be very well today. Here is an example of an MCU with 48 bytes of SRAM that is relevant in 2024 because it costs less than 2 cents: https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/span-style-background-co...

Could I use a $0.02 microcontroller unit that has 48 bytes of RAM to function as the computer for a homemade networked camera package? Like, attaching the MCU to a one dollar WiFi module to begin building an amateur information technology system with a Raspberry Pi single board computer performing as the mainframe server?

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#34

You 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...

That's one of the last things I would wonder.

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But startups really can't afford it, what else can they do?

Insurance?

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#36
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could be very well today. Here is an example of an MCU with 48 bytes of SRAM that is relevant in 2024 because it costs less than 2 cents: https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/span-style-background-co...

Could I use a $0.02 microcontroller unit that has 48 bytes of RAM to function as the computer for a homemade networked camera package? Like, attaching the MCU to a one dollar WiFi module to begin building an amateur information technology system with a Raspberry Pi single board computer performing as the mainframe server?

The $1 WiFi module probably has a better microcontroller built in... And thus the popularity of the ESP8266...

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#37
You’ll never know if you’re being discriminated against due to age. Not here in Australia anyway, no one would ever say out loud. You just don’t get selected.

I did go for a job recently where we had a great phone interview and the guy essentially said “everything looks great we just need to meet in person” and when we met in person I visibly saw his expression change. Something about my appearance, either age or weight or both. He emailed no thanks after.

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#38

You’ll never know if you’re being discriminated against due to age. Not here in Australia anyway, no one would ever say out loud. You just don’t get selected. I did go for a job recently where we had a great phone interview and the guy essentially said “everything looks great we just need to meet in person” and when we met in person I visibly saw his expression change. Something about my appearance, either age or wei…

This is a case where statistics could prove of systemic discrimination and statistical anomalies

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#39

You 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.

> They always respond to applications.

That's not true. YC startup Tailor, the first (and only?) Japan startup that YC funded, left me on read on LinkedIn. They ignored my application without a response, too. Pretty confident this company discriminates against non-Japanese.

To be fair, the whole American tech culture of inclusitivity is not really a thing in Japan or most Asian countries. My freind works as a designer at a bank's tech arm, and told me wild stories of coworkers parading their sex videos around the office. Her boss straight up told her she was hired because she pretty, and that he was proud of forming a team of models (both male and female). I talked to other people who worked in East Asia, and they found these stories to be unsurprising.

Re: You're Too Old for That: Age Discrimination in Japan Tech

#40

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.

If the AI progress in the next 10 to 15 years will be like the AI progress in the last 10 to 15 years, tech culture will no longer hype youth anyway, or human employees in general.
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