I'm another one of those guys who literally has a gray beard. Recently spent a long time looking for a new job. When I interviewed at my current company (for ab

I'm another one of those guys who literally has a gray beard. Recently spent a long time looking for a new job. When I interviewed at my current company (for about 6 weeks now) my wife went to the website, looked over the pictures of the leadership team and said, "Look! They're not all children. Maybe they'll hire you!" And so they did. Great company. Fantastic job. I didn't used to believe in ageism. Then I got a little older. What I've found is that a lot of the problem is cultural. The hiring managers often make pop cultural references that I don't get (and don't want to). At times, I don't think we're even talking the same language. This is much less obvious when talking to actual technical folks. We all understand the language of tech and we all get Star Wars references. It's fine. But management sometimes seems to see me as some sort of alien species. They can't judge my technical skills and are offended that I'm not impressed by their new fad diet or corporate social media campaign. No, I'm not going to "like" your newest Tik Tok video. I would have to sign up for an account first and why would I do that? Little things like this create friction with a lot of younger people who haven't yet figured out how little it matters. And by younger people, I also unfortunately mean some in their forties, who think youth is the future. Anyway, that's some of what I've seen.