
Ask HN: Is it ageist to judge an older applicant for lack of achievement? - throwaway34567
So, this is a question that I&#x27;ve been pondering lately based on recent interviews. The position I am interviewing for is entry level for us, but not entry level overall. We look for 2+ years of experience for candidates. It is not unreasonable for a candidate with significantly more experience to apply for this position, though rarer (typical candidates have 2-7 years professional experience).<p>Is it ageist or unfair in some other way to judge a candidate with a dozen or more years of experience for not having progressed past the level of capability that we expect from people filling this role?<p>I try to be very conscious about making a hiring suggestion based solely on merit and suitability for the role, but I do not claim to be perfect.<p>On the one hand, it shouldn&#x27;t matter if someone took two or twenty years of experience to get to where they are if they are both equally capable now.<p>Of course, we also look for people who have the potential to grow out of the position. It&#x27;s hard to consider the person with twenty years of experience to be equally capable of continued development as the person with two.<p>It would not be unreasonable to make a career of this position, just moving up from $position_title_I to $position_title_II and so on, rising in seniority. I don&#x27;t think we&#x27;d be satisfied with someone who was satisfied with that, though.
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CuriouslyC
The real question you should ask is "why is he still in this role after X
years?" It is possible that he loves that role and doesn't want to transition
out of it, in which case he could be a great hire. Or maybe he just doesn't
want increased responsibility. Of course, it is also possible he just isn't
competent enough to move up the ladder, and has been stuck as a result.

See if there are other areas in his life (hobbies, activities, etc) where he
really excels. If he isn't fantastic at anything, you can probably assume
limited competence.

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DanBC
Advice to older people is to minimise the amount of experience they put on
their resumes for some positions, to avoid being labled "over qualified".

Interviews are totally broken. All you can do is try to eliminate bias (and
thus comply with the law), and try to avoid hiring obvious idiots. After that
anyone you get is probably good enough, especially if you have a good on-
boarding process.

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davelnewton
IF: You're hiring for capabilities, not length-of-experience THEN: Neither
their age nor length-of-experience is relevant

If you're hiring for someone that can grow out of that role you're evaluating
against different criteria. Not expanding capabilities is a result of many
factors, though, not just their ability (or lack thereof) to grow.

