On Age

This is interesting.

Apparently age discrimination for people over 40 in the tech sector is, indeed, very real.  From today's New York Times:  Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On.

This one really does piss me off.  I understand the issue.  I get it.  I've blogged about it before:  Are early stage startups and normal lives incompatible?

I say, screw it.  Screw the 'new kids' that think the old guys are antiques.  To hell with the VC's that won't talk to anyone under 30.  I say: Start your own company anyway.  It costs almost nothing today compared to what it used to.  Or write a book.  Or start a consulting practice and charge, a lot, for that 20 or 30 years you spent learning how to work smart and not stupid.  Or do all three.

Or, if you're so inclined, take that executive job at the fortune 500 company making six figures and retire with a a million or so bucks at 60.  Ya, you're not filthy rich, but you'll be comfortable.  You'll still be doing better than the 9 out of 10 twenty-something startup guys, who's startup will fail,  who wouldn't hire you at 40 because you're too old.  Interestingly, those 9 out of 10 failed startup guys?  They're the one's most likely to become old techies who can't get hired as the industry moves on.

The 11 years it takes to go from 29 to 40 goes by very very quickly.




Paybacks a bitch.

Here's what I suspect will happen:  The population will continue to age.  Society will begin to understand that an over 40 high tech guy has substantial value to contribute.  The entitled Gen Y Millennials of today will, faster than they believe possible, become the 40 or 50 somethings of tomorrow and will have both a little more understanding of the issue and substantially less 20 something's to hire (because, with birth rates dropping in industrialized countries, there will be many less of them).  We'll 'make do' with an older average age work force and all the talk about age will still get buzzed about but, in practice, become so much background noise.