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I tend to think that this is a very complex issue that many factors play into. From what I have seen (in the past 15 years), year of birth alone is not a factor. What does factor in is a perception of the traits our society (unfortunately) associates with "older" people: insecurity, indecision, inflexibility, cognitive decline, and bad health. If you are 20- or 30-something and you have any one of these traits, it is often masked by youth or overlooked because of youth. When you get older, people start to look for and even expect them, and that's the problem. To some degree and in the "right" circumstances, everyone is insecure, indecisive, inflexible, and obtuse. Interviewing is very stressful, and when under stress one is often not one's best self. If you are young, that is taken into consideration. If you are older, it's sometimes held against you.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Ken Poshedly
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 7:48 AM
To: Kat Kuvinka; bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: tech writing recruiters
Kat,
While there are no absolutes and not every company discriminates on age (or anything else), you better hold your tongue until you yourself get well past 50 and then see what happens. I'm well past 50 (even past 60) and I cringe even thinking about job-hunting because I know that if the hiring manager who interviews me is under 45 or so, I'm probably NOT gonna get hired there. So far, I've always been correct. My last couple jobs were via hiring managers at least close to my own age. And now I face it again because I need to move on.
I've talked to lots of H.R. managers who openly admit it (age discrimination) is rampant, "but not at my company". Yeah, right. A good look at a majority of the workers at any particular company can give at least a rough idea how things really are. My company is a wholly owned and operated Chinese manufacturer with over 100 employees here; at least half of them speak maybe 10 words of English and are here directly from China on work visas and know they are home on the next jet if they complain in the slightest, another 25 or 30 percent are Chinese but here as U.S. citizens or with greencards (and they also never complain), leaving the rest to be Americans or Asian Indians just to put a "Western face"
on things. Only three blacks are on staff, including the cleaning guy, the front desk receptionist, an IT guy, and the inhouse recruiter (who has filed lots of EEO complaints) but they somehow got past the "radar" used to screen them out.
And the home-country management and personnel policies (while not illegal) remind all of us everyday that we are "owned". The average tenure of an employee back in China is less than a year. It would be just like that here, too, if the economy was better.
Remember the song from 1970 by Joe South, "Walk a Mile in My Shoes"? Yep, that's it.
-- Kenpo
________________________________
From: Kat Kuvinka <katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Fri, May 11, 2012 10:23:53 AM
Subject: RE: tech writing recruiters
I couldn't disagree more. I know that ageism exists, but it has not been that bad in my experience. As someone in their (mid-to-)late 40s, I have interviewed and seen many writers my age hired because of experience, personality, and maturity. All tech companies, even start-ups, are NOT run by kids who only want to work with kids. It's not that kind of world anymore (with obvious exceptions like FaceBook). It's more like a parents-starting-families-in-their-40s kind of world.
Anyone who is older who can't find a job easily wants to cry ageism, but it is tough all over.
>
> If you are seeking direct employment, it is best to do your own
> hunting and make your own applications. But if you are not in your 20s
> recently out of school, or some fast rising star in your field, you
> may find getting direct employment a difficult task. If you are in
> your late 40s or 50s, you had better have a couple of patents, a bunch
> of trade fame, or something that someone wants badly. If you are just
> a regular sort of employee, odds are greatly against you getting a direct job at that age.
>
>
>
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