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> I have come to learn that this was directly because I'm older. I was unaware of the animosity so many young folks have against us; but I am now painfully awa
by onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
> I have come to learn that this was directly because I'm older. I was unaware of the animosity so many young folks have against us; but I am now painfully aware of it.
I think it's less animosity and more incompetence.
I remember once when I was younger - around ~26 - being interviewed by a ~22 year-old fresh out of college, and the interview was more like a college test.
What relevance did this have to what I would do at the company? Most likely - nothing.
But this was basically all this person knew.
The younger you are, the less ability you have to 1) know what's valuable, and 2) assess it.
Not that this is a particularly easy thing for anyone to do.
That being said - younger people are going to place close to no value on your decades of battle scars and experience. They don't have any. They probably like to think it's not worth anything - because it makes them feel better about not having it.
You know - never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
I'd also caution on the things you perceive to actually be animosity - they're probably mostly jealousy. You're someone who has WAY more options available - so you can be demanding and picky about your employer. Younger people might hate that - but that's really jealousy. They probably don't actually hate you. There's a big difference.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoGood point.
- caffeine 4y agoI was a younger, inexperienced tech lead sitting in on an interview led by an engineer about 10 years older than me. I was shocked when he spent the whole hour asking soft questions like “So describe your previous team structure. How did ideas and plans arise? Who took responsibility? How was conflict resolved? What were your impressions?” I always went hard on technical stuff when interviewing, was always worried that an incompetent would sneak through. I asked the senior engineer his rationale. He told me “This guy went to X school and got Y degree and worked at Z company. So I know he’s smart enough. And I can teach him to write good software. But I can never teach him not to be a prick.”
- klysm 4y agoI think people say that and interview like that till they get a bad hire.
- caffeine 4y agoTo be fair, all the other interview rounds were with more junior, low-EQ CS nerds like me, so he could still be pretty confident the candidate would get a good grilling.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoI interviewed like that for 25 years. I did get a couple of "bad hires," but never for tech reasons.