4 ms·

Tips to Overcome Ageism in Hiring as a Software Professional

5 points by fecak 14y ago

Zenst 14y ago
I experienced agism on the lower scale when I was young and would just blow them away in the interview with my technical knowledge and examples how I applied it. But would still be descriminated upon salary wise in that if I was older with the same skill set I would be paid more and that was due to me being young. As I got older around the 30's I started to get a lot of `overqualified` after interviews which was down to the case of the manager worrying I'd take there job and presume as much OR was down to them not being able to pay me enough to what they thought they would have to pay me. Both silly as this was after interviews when they had seen my CV and skill set already and with that the shock of being that skilled should not be a reason to not offer the job. Secondly I had already seen the salary range offered and perks in the job description I applied for and for them to presume they would have to pay me more and not even try to make an offer is again just silly. Maybe the best answear is when you get a lot of over qualified or other fob of excuses the law still allows to pass of as legaliesed descrimination then maybe you could look at working for yourself and with that charge companies 10x more than what they would pay you to do that task and one day employ somebody without putting them thru that whole bullshit. But I did work with a chap who lied on his CV about his age and got a job, later on it came to light but the company was cool about it as they understood the reasons. Sometimes it is best to not outshine there technical people too much initialy, get yoru foot in the door, but it is just as hard to dumb down than it is to smart up. Bottom line you can be honest about yourself and they will lie about the reason for not hiring you or you can lie by ommision and blur that line a little. But in many ways there are good companies or parts of companies out there that are open to the full truth and are just after smebody who can do the job and that is improving compared to the older days on some levels. Though sadly the HR filtering mindset is mostly to blame for a lot of the issues we see today.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Lying on your CV is grounds for dismissal, and the company could sue for breach of contract or somesuch. You don't have to put an age on a CV, so don't put it on. Companies (at least in the UK) are not allowed to ask how old you are. If you find you're getting lots of "You're over qualified" replies then you need to tailor your CV to the job you're applying for.
- fecak 14y ago
  I'd never suggest lying on a resume, but I don't consider omission lying if the omission is for a reason. Should I include the job I had when I was 16 in a deli once I have 20 years of experience in another industry? I think most people would say it isn't lying to omit that, nor would it be lying to omit a help desk job that you took immediately after graduating college if you've been doing software development for the past 15 years. I think it's easy to rationalize why some jobs can be safely omitted without misrepresenting yourself.

5 points by fecak 14y ago

Zenst 14y ago

I experienced agism on the lower scale when I was young and would just blow them away in the interview with my technical knowledge and examples how I applied it. But would still be descriminated upon salary wise in that if I was older with the same skill set I would be paid more and that was due to me being young. As I got older around the 30's I started to get a lot of `overqualified` after interviews which was down to the case of the manager worrying I'd take there job and presume as much OR was down to them not being able to pay me enough to what they thought they would have to pay me. Both silly as this was after interviews when they had seen my CV and skill set already and with that the shock of being that skilled should not be a reason to not offer the job. Secondly I had already seen the salary range offered and perks in the job description I applied for and for them to presume they would have to pay me more and not even try to make an offer is again just silly. Maybe the best answear is when you get a lot of over qualified or other fob of excuses the law still allows to pass of as legaliesed descrimination then maybe you could look at working for yourself and with that charge companies 10x more than what they would pay you to do that task and one day employ somebody without putting them thru that whole bullshit. But I did work with a chap who lied on his CV about his age and got a job, later on it came to light but the company was cool about it as they understood the reasons. Sometimes it is best to not outshine there technical people too much initialy, get yoru foot in the door, but it is just as hard to dumb down than it is to smart up. Bottom line you can be honest about yourself and they will lie about the reason for not hiring you or you can lie by ommision and blur that line a little. But in many ways there are good companies or parts of companies out there that are open to the full truth and are just after smebody who can do the job and that is improving compared to the older days on some levels. Though sadly the HR filtering mindset is mostly to blame for a lot of the issues we see today.

DanBC 14y ago
Lying on your CV is grounds for dismissal, and the company could sue for breach of contract or somesuch. You don't have to put an age on a CV, so don't put it on. Companies (at least in the UK) are not allowed to ask how old you are. If you find you're getting lots of "You're over qualified" replies then you need to tailor your CV to the job you're applying for.
fecak 14y ago
I'd never suggest lying on a resume, but I don't consider omission lying if the omission is for a reason. Should I include the job I had when I was 16 in a deli once I have 20 years of experience in another industry? I think most people would say it isn't lying to omit that, nor would it be lying to omit a help desk job that you took immediately after graduating college if you've been doing software development for the past 15 years. I think it's easy to rationalize why some jobs can be safely omitted without misrepresenting yourself.