
Ask HN: How real is Ageism? - madmonk
I&#x27;m a webdev with 10+ years experience with the same company and may need to be looking for a job soon.  Though I&#x27;ve never seen evidence of it, I&#x27;ve heard that ageism is a concern in tech.  Has anyone seen&#x2F;experienced any sort of ageism with regards to hiring?  Should I make efforts to make myself appear younger when interviewing?<p>EDIT:  A few specifics I forgot to include. I&#x27;m in my late 40&#x27;s and in the north east US.
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AnimalMuppet
I think ageism may be real in some areas of tech, including in some kinds of
programming. I think web dev may be one of those areas, but I'm not in that
area and I don't actually know.

Here's what it looks like from where I sit: Older people want to get paid
more. If you want to get paid more, you have to be worth more. You don't
become worth more by working longer hours - you can't compete with the young
on that front. Instead, be worth more by creating fewer bugs, by _not_
creating flawed designs, by knowing that something is a bad idea _before_ it's
implemented, and so on. Your experience has to show up in value for your
employer, or it isn't worth more money.

So if your experience isn't worth more money, and you still want more money,
you have trouble getting a job. It's not ageism, exactly (though ageism could
result as hiring people internalize the situation).

I said "you have to be worth more money", but that isn't exactly right. You
have to be worth more money, _and be able to convince the hiring people that
you are worth more money_. If their default assumption is "older people aren't
worth it", you've got an uphill struggle.

Web dev itself may be a problem. Is experience worth more than knowing the
latest framework? Can you learn that framework faster than the younger people?

> Should I make efforts to make myself appear younger when interviewing?

No.

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elliekelly
As someone who was in a non-technology role[1] who has interviewed people for
technology roles I think ageism in technology is often inadvertent (I've never
heard anyone say "Candidate X is too old for this position") and "shows"
itself more than other areas because technology moves so fast. As people move
up in an organization there is less need to hone their skills. "Old school"
investment managers I have worked with still manage to the 60/40 rule.
Similarly, a bank I worked for had a CTO who was probably top-notch at server
security in the 1990's but completely resisted any SaaS that used AWS because
of "security concerns." Instead of learning how to assess whether the way a
potential vendor has configured AWS posed any risk to our company he just
turned them away. He didn't understand AWS and had no interest in trying to.
Because technology advances so quickly the CTO has been let go (resisting AWS
is futile) while the 60/40 guy will probably continue to mismanage money for
his clients until he decides to retire in the next 2-5 years.

[1] Attorney but also happened to wear Chief Info Security Officer/Chief
Privacy Officer hats

