4 ms·

You're not wrong at all. Furthermore: > 2. Under 30 years old Is obviously age discrimination as well. Unlike some people, I'm under no illusions that tech

by sebular 12y ago

You're not wrong at all. Furthermore: > 2. Under 30 years old Is obviously age discrimination as well. Unlike some people, I'm under no illusions that tech is non-discriminatory, but it's still surprising and disappointing to see it stated so plainly on a job description. These people are idiots for leaving this document online now that they've been caught. I don't know the specifics of UK labour laws, but in the US its mere existence would be grounds for a lawsuit.

detaro 12y ago
They only need "Fast and accurate proficiency" in being under 30 years old ;) (so someone who just turned 30 is probably best, having the 30 years experience with being under 30)
andyjohnson0 12y ago
"The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees, job seekers and trainees because of their age." [1] [1] http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1841 http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1841
- vasilipupkin 12y ago
  Wait, UK only adopted this in 2010? Sorry, I am surprised by that
  - philh 12y ago
    Not necessarily. That Act might be an update to a previously-existing one that also forbade gender discrimination.
  - gaius 12y ago
    The 2010 Act just merges the laws from the 1970s (equal pay, race relations, etc) into a single law. It was an exercise in tidying up the statute books.
  - celticninja 12y ago
    This is correct, age discrimination was the most recent addition to the anti-discrimination laws.
  - andyjohnson0 12y ago
    The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations [1] made age discrimination illegal beginning in 2006. Before that it was not illegal. The 2010 act, among other things, extended protection for age discrimination to other people such as prospective employees. I'm British, and the fact that we only got around to this in 2006 seems to me to be fairly shameful. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Equality_(Age)_Regulations_2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Equality_(Age)_Regul...
    - vasilipupkin 12y ago
      well, we've got plenty of shameful things in the US that we haven't gotten around to fixing, so no worries
VLM 12y ago
Is a demand for an academic reference letter obvious age discrimination also? I'm old enough that I'm pretty sure some of my profs are dead by now. I suppose a seance could be arranged. Trying to obtain "testimonials of previous customers" would almost certainly get me fired and sounds like a major breach of professional etiquette but then again this is a different culture, maybe that kind of thing is normal over there. Along with providing dumps of my social media presence. Not to trash talk the concept of the startup excessively, but why do they need a guy with 20+ years of experience and a full service laundry list to do what little they're trying to do, and unless I was the dumbest 20+ year veteran out there its not really possible to summarize my entire life experience in a 30 second video, at least to any useful to them extent. Slap a video on youtube and send em a link doesn't take a 20 year industry veteran although I could do it if I needed to pay the mortgage. Also, I've seen longer gravestone epitaphs than whats provided. On the bright side they didn't ask for sexual orientation, marital status, religious beliefs, or demand an interpretive dance portraying the quicksort algorithm, although who knows what goes on at the interview. So they're looking for someone simultaneously deeper than the Marianas Trench and shallower than a rain puddle. Good luck with that.
- sciguy77 12y ago
  > On the bright side they didn't ask for sexual orientation, marital status, religious beliefs, or demand an interpretive dance portraying the quick sort algorithm, although who knows what goes on at the interview. Hah, well-put. Anyone know what the apology and the tweet before it was? Both links are dead now.
fuzzywalrus 12y ago
The youth obsession in tech is strange. I understand a culture fit but the best programmers I know are 40+, they just had the drive to stay up on trends and experience that goes back miles.
- forgottenpass 12y ago
  The youth obsession in tech is strange. Young employees are much easier to overwork and underpay. Some 20-somethings even throw years of their personal lives away when the right carrot is dangled in their face.

by sebular 12y ago

detaro 12y ago

They only need "Fast and accurate proficiency" in being under 30 years old ;) (so someone who just turned 30 is probably best, having the 30 years experience with being under 30)

andyjohnson0 12y ago

"The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees, job seekers and trainees because of their age." [1] [1] http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1841 http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1841

vasilipupkin 12y ago
Wait, UK only adopted this in 2010? Sorry, I am surprised by that
- philh 12y ago
  Not necessarily. That Act might be an update to a previously-existing one that also forbade gender discrimination.
- gaius 12y ago
  The 2010 Act just merges the laws from the 1970s (equal pay, race relations, etc) into a single law. It was an exercise in tidying up the statute books.
- celticninja 12y ago
  This is correct, age discrimination was the most recent addition to the anti-discrimination laws.
- andyjohnson0 12y ago
  The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations [1] made age discrimination illegal beginning in 2006. Before that it was not illegal. The 2010 act, among other things, extended protection for age discrimination to other people such as prospective employees. I'm British, and the fact that we only got around to this in 2006 seems to me to be fairly shameful. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Equality_(Age)_Regulations_2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Equality_(Age)_Regul...
  - vasilipupkin 12y ago
    well, we've got plenty of shameful things in the US that we haven't gotten around to fixing, so no worries

VLM 12y ago

Is a demand for an academic reference letter obvious age discrimination also? I'm old enough that I'm pretty sure some of my profs are dead by now. I suppose a seance could be arranged. Trying to obtain "testimonials of previous customers" would almost certainly get me fired and sounds like a major breach of professional etiquette but then again this is a different culture, maybe that kind of thing is normal over there. Along with providing dumps of my social media presence. Not to trash talk the concept of the startup excessively, but why do they need a guy with 20+ years of experience and a full service laundry list to do what little they're trying to do, and unless I was the dumbest 20+ year veteran out there its not really possible to summarize my entire life experience in a 30 second video, at least to any useful to them extent. Slap a video on youtube and send em a link doesn't take a 20 year industry veteran although I could do it if I needed to pay the mortgage. Also, I've seen longer gravestone epitaphs than whats provided. On the bright side they didn't ask for sexual orientation, marital status, religious beliefs, or demand an interpretive dance portraying the quicksort algorithm, although who knows what goes on at the interview. So they're looking for someone simultaneously deeper than the Marianas Trench and shallower than a rain puddle. Good luck with that.

sciguy77 12y ago
> On the bright side they didn't ask for sexual orientation, marital status, religious beliefs, or demand an interpretive dance portraying the quick sort algorithm, although who knows what goes on at the interview. Hah, well-put. Anyone know what the apology and the tweet before it was? Both links are dead now.

fuzzywalrus 12y ago

The youth obsession in tech is strange. I understand a culture fit but the best programmers I know are 40+, they just had the drive to stay up on trends and experience that goes back miles.

forgottenpass 12y ago
The youth obsession in tech is strange. Young employees are much easier to overwork and underpay. Some 20-somethings even throw years of their personal lives away when the right carrot is dangled in their face.