How to Start Closing Silicon Valley’s Age Gap | Hacker News Reader

How to Start Closing Silicon Valley’s Age Gap

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25 pointssteven12 comments

I've come to suspect the main reason silicon valley startups don't hire oldsters is that we are far less likely to fall for "low salary/long hours because we are gonna be rich!!!!!!!!"

I think its a combination of a few factors:

1. Older candidates are more expensive. Tech isn't that hard to learn. You can get pretty good at a particular tech within 2 years of learning it. Why pay an older candidate tons of money, when you can hire a new one that is just as good?

2. Older candidates don't know the latest tech. They spend their evenings with their families / kids whereas young folk are constantly learning the latest stacks at home.

3. Older candidates don't pass the 'beer test' with young co-founders.

Replace 'older candidates' with 'candidates who are less likely to sacrifice their work/life balance.'

1. Candidates that demand compensation for sacrificing their work/life balance are more expensive. Tech isn't that hard to learn. You can get pretty good at a particular tech within 2 years of learning it. Why pay a candidate tons of money for them to give up their work/life balance, when you can hire one that will give it up for little?

2. Candidates that value their non-work time don't know the latest tech. They spend their evenings with their families / kids / friends / hobby whereas those who do are constantly learning the latest stacks at home to benefit their work.

3. Candidates that would rather go do something not work related after work don't pass the 'beer test' with those who's life choices are work-centric.

I think that's pretty dismissive of people with experience. Learning the latest stacks isn't particularly hard, and it's really not that valuable (especially if it's in webdev)

It depends on what you are doing, tech is hard to learn when its in a difficult discipline that takes time to do well. It also depends if you need a lead, or not. If you need someone to sling javascript, maybe you get away with someone younger.

If you need a lead to help you build a database kernel, or build a globally distributed system that needs strict SLAs and extreme performance, you are probably going to need someone with experience. Putting someone with 2 years of experience into that role is asking for a disaster.

Most startups aren't doing anything super difficult from a technical point of view, and don't necessarily need their systems to last, so hiring younger people, paying them less, giving them equity that isn't worth anything and burning them out is a winning strategy.

A lot of times, the extra years of experience teach you what not to do and what to watch out for, not what to do. Those are expensive lessons.

I completely agree. Looking for a new job, everyone expects me to do some algorithmic coding test rushed in a couple of hours. Thats not the way to write reliable stable code in my opinion. Think deeply about the problem and potential pitfalls. Choose an appropriate data model, and then start coding.

> Older candidates don't know the latest tech. They spend their evenings with their families / kids whereas young folk are constantly learning the latest stacks at home.

Do you feel this is any more justified or fair to individuals than saying:

"Female candidates don't know the latest tech. They spend their evenings with their families / kids whereas men folk are constantly learning the latest stacks at home"

I think both statements are completely unfair to an entire blanket group of people, many of whom don't fit the stereotypical profile.

The "beer test" thing is really sad. Like, why do people require their co-workers to hang out with them in their off hours? Friendship is supposed to be voluntary; don't they have friends of their own?

I've never had the opportunity to confront ageism directly in an interview, but if I did, I would ask the (young interviewer) if they thought they would be (a) more, or (b) less skilled when they had 10 more years of experience.

Stop buying into the "lack of talent in tech" myth and lower the H1B cap to force tech companies to hire workers (old, black, women, whatever) currently in the national workforce instead of importing cheap labor from overseas.

>But there is one talent that does decline over time—our willingness to take risks. For evolutionary reasons, risk-taking peaks between the ages of 17 to 27, then drops off precipitously. [...] risk-taking is so important to business success today, that it is better to sacrifice the improved skills, enhanced problem solving abilities, and considerable emotional control that comes with age, for the risk-philic-ness that is a by-product of youth.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler/2015/02/14/is-silic...

I subscribe to the idea that every occurrence of misbehaviour will ultimately turn into its own punishment. If they are not misbehaving by discriminating against older candidates, nothing will happen. If they are mishaving, all you need is patience, and you will see how it will eventually backfire. Furthermore, I really would not want to get hired by people who, in fact, do not want to hire me. I'd prefer them to tell me upfront: In fact we do not like to hire people like you. It will undoubtedly spare me from much worse than just not getting hired.

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