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I'm a google engineer who is cough well over 40. I haven't experienced any age discrimination. The engineering team for the product I work on, Google Play Music

I'm a google engineer who is cough well over 40. I haven't experienced any age discrimination. The engineering team for the product I work on, Google Play Music, is roughly 15% older engineers (rough guess, because I don't actually know how old everyone is). And across google, many of the most well regarded engineers (not talking about managers) are also older folks. Should there be more older engineers? Possibly, but the population is skewed because google is growing very fast of late and the vast majority of hires come straight out of college. Also keep in mind that software engineering is a tough profession, and burnout is a real issue. Many of the people I've worked with over the years have moved on to other careers, in high tech or in something completely unrelated. The luckier ones cashed out on stock options or IPOs, and no longer need to work for a living - they either have their own little companies where they play around or they just retire. I'd say probably 40-50% of the engineers I worked with in my 20s and 30s are no longer doing any coding. Bottom line: age discrimination is generally not a problem at google. One discrimination suit means nothing - those happen all the time at every successful company, and most of them are from folks angling for a quick settlement. (I don't know the merits of the particular case in question.)

thrownaway2424 12y ago
There's only one person on my immediate team who is under thirty. Much of the company's engineering leadership is on the "ex-dec" mailing list. Let's just say that there are no 22-year-old engineers on ex-dec.
- edwardhotchkiss 12y ago
  Based on these statements, would that mean that there is no cause for concern; while female engineers over-represent the percentage of CS majors?
  - adventured 12y ago
    What does CS majors have to do with it? Engineers capable of working at Google != majoring in computer science. Computer science degrees are handed out like cracker jack prizes these days. Men graduate college at a lower rate than women, graduate high school at a lower rate, and have a lower literacy rate. What does that have to do with the specific pool of talent from which an uber engineering company like Google would pull from?
  - mbrubeck 12y ago
    That seems to be a non-sequitur, but in any case: 17% of "tech" employees at Google are women (worldwide): http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#tab=tech http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#tab=tech 18% of CS degrees are earned by women (in the US): http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp so women are not in in fact over-represented among Google engineers, at least by that measure.
- cheapsteak 12y ago
  Curious about the "ex-dec" mailing list. Link? Google isn't of much help (top result is this thread)
  - Yunk 12y ago
    Since the discussion is age, I would say digital equipment corporation which would put everyone at 40+.
  - Shebanator 12y ago
    yep, its ex employees of DEC. A lot of really good people came from the Palo Alto-based DEC WRL in particular.
300bps 12y ago
The engineering team for the product I work on, Google Play Music, is roughly 15% older engineers (rough guess, because I don't actually know how old everyone is) I'm 41, work at an investment bank as a software engineer and I think I'm probably one of the youngest people in IT here. Having an IT work force with only 15% of people above 40 doesn't happen by accident and in my 20 year career in IT, it's not the norm of most companies. the vast majority of hires come straight out of college. You realize that happens because of policies that make that happen, right?
- Shebanator 12y ago
  Umm, no. Competition for experienced engineers in Silicon Valley is incredibly fierce - I get probably a couple dozen cold recruitment pitches every week, from startups and big companies alike. Any decent engineer with 10+ years of experience can write their own ticket pretty much anywhere they want, and many choose do so at startups where the potential rewards are higher. On the other hand, most new grads would kill for a job at google, which is one of the best high tech companies to work for (if not the best). And most new grads don't want to take the risk and lower pay of a startup (not with all those student loans to pay off). More supply == more employees. No sinister policies needed. Edit: appended clarifying sentence to first paragraph
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - 300bps 12y ago
    Umm, no. Competition for experienced engineers in Silicon Valley is incredibly fierce - I get probably a couple dozen cold recruitment pitches every week, from startups and big companies alike. Cold recruitment pitches aren't job offers. They're also typically made with no idea how old the person they're speaking to is. More supply == more employees. No sinister policies needed. I would say it's more a matter of when you specifically target recent graduates for hiring, you tend to hire a lot of recent graduates. Are you disputing that Google specifically targets recent graduates for hire?
vitd 12y ago
That's great that you feel that way and that your team may not discriminate. So why can't Google post those numbers, too? It would make them look great!
- Shebanator 12y ago
  I'd like to see google post those numbers as well. I do realize that my own experiences are merely anecdotal, but hopefully of interest to enough people to be worth the post.

thrownaway2424 12y ago

There's only one person on my immediate team who is under thirty. Much of the company's engineering leadership is on the "ex-dec" mailing list. Let's just say that there are no 22-year-old engineers on ex-dec.

edwardhotchkiss 12y ago
Based on these statements, would that mean that there is no cause for concern; while female engineers over-represent the percentage of CS majors?
- adventured 12y ago
  What does CS majors have to do with it? Engineers capable of working at Google != majoring in computer science. Computer science degrees are handed out like cracker jack prizes these days. Men graduate college at a lower rate than women, graduate high school at a lower rate, and have a lower literacy rate. What does that have to do with the specific pool of talent from which an uber engineering company like Google would pull from?
- mbrubeck 12y ago
  That seems to be a non-sequitur, but in any case: 17% of "tech" employees at Google are women (worldwide): http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#tab=tech http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#tab=tech 18% of CS degrees are earned by women (in the US): http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp so women are not in in fact over-represented among Google engineers, at least by that measure.
cheapsteak 12y ago
Curious about the "ex-dec" mailing list. Link? Google isn't of much help (top result is this thread)
- Yunk 12y ago
  Since the discussion is age, I would say digital equipment corporation which would put everyone at 40+.
- Shebanator 12y ago
  yep, its ex employees of DEC. A lot of really good people came from the Palo Alto-based DEC WRL in particular.

300bps 12y ago

The engineering team for the product I work on, Google Play Music, is roughly 15% older engineers (rough guess, because I don't actually know how old everyone is) I'm 41, work at an investment bank as a software engineer and I think I'm probably one of the youngest people in IT here. Having an IT work force with only 15% of people above 40 doesn't happen by accident and in my 20 year career in IT, it's not the norm of most companies. the vast majority of hires come straight out of college. You realize that happens because of policies that make that happen, right?

Shebanator 12y ago
Umm, no. Competition for experienced engineers in Silicon Valley is incredibly fierce - I get probably a couple dozen cold recruitment pitches every week, from startups and big companies alike. Any decent engineer with 10+ years of experience can write their own ticket pretty much anywhere they want, and many choose do so at startups where the potential rewards are higher. On the other hand, most new grads would kill for a job at google, which is one of the best high tech companies to work for (if not the best). And most new grads don't want to take the risk and lower pay of a startup (not with all those student loans to pay off). More supply == more employees. No sinister policies needed. Edit: appended clarifying sentence to first paragraph
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- 300bps 12y ago
  Umm, no. Competition for experienced engineers in Silicon Valley is incredibly fierce - I get probably a couple dozen cold recruitment pitches every week, from startups and big companies alike. Cold recruitment pitches aren't job offers. They're also typically made with no idea how old the person they're speaking to is. More supply == more employees. No sinister policies needed. I would say it's more a matter of when you specifically target recent graduates for hiring, you tend to hire a lot of recent graduates. Are you disputing that Google specifically targets recent graduates for hire?

vitd 12y ago

That's great that you feel that way and that your team may not discriminate. So why can't Google post those numbers, too? It would make them look great!

Shebanator 12y ago
I'd like to see google post those numbers as well. I do realize that my own experiences are merely anecdotal, but hopefully of interest to enough people to be worth the post.