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We are going one step back on ageism in tech
Last year we soft-launched https://noageismintech.com here as a job board website (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20252097) and for much of our surprise, we had a huge number of users commenting on the thread and accessing the website in the first week. After a month, the traffic began to fade out and we didn't know what to do.
Unsure on how to regain the traffic from early days, the website was taken offline.
Takeaway from this soft-launch: we believe ageism is a massive problem in the tech industry.
After some months without touching NoAgeismInTech, and listening to some good comments from that soft-launch, we are now back to business going one step back, finding out what sort of problems job hunters face regards age discrimination. With the correct answers and problems identified, we can then build the right solution for the problem.
Have you ou someone you know ever faced age discrimination when job hunting?
- anticristi 7y agoI am currently on the "recruiter" side and I would love to know more about ageism in tech. Is there a good link that describes what exactly is ageism in tech (e.g., does it start with 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+), what are the consequences (both for recruiters as well as candidates) and why is it bad? From my perspective, I would not call myself ageist, but I do tend to deselect very senior engineers: They tend to be crazy expensive and somewhat ossified (e.g., "Why do we need containers? Debian packages solved all the problems a decade ago."). My 2 cents.
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoIf you're deselecting very senior engineers without finding out if they are actually crazy expensive or ossified I guess that seems pretty ageist.
- anticristi 7y agoGood point! No, we deselect them after at least an interview, during which we find out that they are either crazy expensive or ossified. :D
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoOk, well I don't think I'm ossified but I'm crazy expensive (basically as it isn't worth moving from my job, especially taking the time to do inevitable take home project, I require a 16% pay hike to consider it which puts me at the highest rate for Danish programmers with my level of seniority in Copenhagen according to surveys) So I wonder - is there any relation of crazy expensive and ossified in your experience? Are crazy expensive programmers just as likely to be ossified as not (I knew a DB guy that I thought was a little ossified about 11 years ago and I thought he was crazy expensive) If they are crazy expensive but not ossified maybe that argues experience and always learning new things which might be a sign of someone being worth the crazy expensive (obviously I like to think I'm worth what people keep paying me)
- anticristi 6y agoI have nothing against crazy expensive and experienced, and, once I can afford it, I will definitely choose it. However, a general trend to deselect candidates because on an expectation of them being crazy expensive does not sound ageist to me. Hence, if this whole "let's fight ageism in tech" trend is to be taken seriously, the phenomenon needs to be better described and understood.
- silicaroach 7y agoHey, I'm not ageist either but I tend to avoid young inexperienced recruiters. They tend to make assumptions about salary expectations and are somewhat ossified (e.g. New is always better!) The actual age starts at <30. A recruiter in that age group is killing time looking for their 'real' job and has close to zero industry experience ... or life experience for that matter.
- anticristi 7y agoUnfortunately, I have to agree with you. Not meaning to be ageist, but I have really bad experience with managers under 30.
- jc01480 7y agoYes. See any given posting for a federal job. Strict age restrictions are imposed universally. Federal positions should not discriminate on age.
- anticristi 7y agoCan you expand a bit? (I'm from Europe.) I went on the White House's job listing website and I see no age restrictions, except "above 18" (https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/jobs-internships/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/jobs-internships/).