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Bill's post talked about people in their late 40s and I am in my late 40s and that is what I am responding to. I'm talking about my own experience at companies where we have hired people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. My experience is not invalid. I have never worked at a company that has the demographic you describe. Sorry it seems so awful. I am at a company now that develops software but is NOT a software company. We have people from their 20s to 70s. It is refreshing.
I also admitted ageism exists. Not sure why I should be spanked.
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 07:47:36 -0700
From: poshedly -at- bellsouth -dot- net
Subject: Re: tech writing recruiters
To: katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com; bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
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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