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Surprised he advertises his age, I started working around that age and pretty deliberately avoided age as a topic of discussion. Age is something best left unme
by wcummings 11y ago
Surprised he advertises his age, I started working around that age and pretty deliberately avoided age as a topic of discussion. Age is something best left unmentioned in a professional context.
- honua 11y agoYeah usually gets messy. E.g. the Babel author's experience
- petetnt 11y agoHappen to have a link at hand where I could read up on this? Tried searching for it but drew blank.
- karmajunkie 11y agoIts the kind of thing most people learn after they wish they'd learned it earlier :)
- marianoguerra 11y agoI used to do it a lot until I noticed, I think it's related to the first topics you learn while learning English (presenting yourself, name, age, where you come from).
- _query 11y agoThanks for the advice. I've thought about it a little bit and decided to remove it with my next update to the web page.
- wcummings 11y agoYou don't have to, but it will help avoid a lot of snark as well as well-intentioned but annoying jokes (like the babel dev described), not to mention less visible discrimination like being passed over for promotions, being given worse projects and so on. There are also programmers whose pride is damaged by doing the same work as someone much younger than themselves. Remember (at least in the US) age is a protected category and you can't be asked about it during an interview, so if you're careful about how you write your resume no one really has to know exactly how old you are. Good luck.
- mstade 11y agoI'd love to say it's not sage advice, but it is. Unfortunately, once people know your age they will – consciously or subconsciously – treat you differently. I rather quickly opted to never disclosing my age in any context, unless it is absolutely necessary (it almost never is.) It's just easier that way, leads to less discrimination. Unlike skin color or other highly visual traits, it's one aspect of your person you can hide without any significantly negative consequence.