The article does not deal with 'how' an employee gets hired. In my experience, HR is an almost airtight barrier against age while direct communication with the

The article does not deal with 'how' an employee gets hired. In my experience, HR is an almost airtight barrier against age while direct communication with the individual or team that you might work with is usually fair and quite open. You may fail, but mostly for good reasons; don't fit in with the team, horn locking with the current alpha etc. It is a humorous fact that I learned (at a late age) to refrain from commenting on the 'quality' of hard and software before learning what was favored in the direct interview process. (Never disparage Microsoft until you learn what products are in the dev chain--- or for that matter what database is being used! :) )