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Comment by alex-yo | Hacker News Reader

Well, a funny thing, I'm not old, I'm just 37. In my country I need to work for the next 30 years to retire.

However companies don't want to talk with me about getting a job regardless my 14 year of commercial experience. Sometimes I hear during an interview "oh, you did so many things, I wish I could have the same experience". And then I don't get this job.

And no, I'm not expensive. I usually don't get to the point where they ask me for the money.

I'm thinking about starting my own company with my own products. This will be much harder, but it's better to have this kind of job than none.

And I just stopped replying to the job adverts with "young team".

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No joke, I'm 31, only 2-3 years ago the companies were all over me, I would get offers right and left. Now, not so much, I've noticed a pretty huge difference.

So you're saying you post your age in your profile?. This has no correlation

I usually mention it in my cover letter. I wouldn't want to work in a place that discriminates based on age (or on any other factors, for that matter)

> And no, I'm not expensive. I usually don't get to the point where they ask me for the money.

Same (a bit older now but it started at the same age). I don't care about the salary: it is always more money that I can spend while working, and at the same time I am not going to get from any honest job the kind of money needed to do what I'd like .

The only time I got an interview, the guy wanted me to fill a leader/manager position. I had not applied for it, I had not written I wanted such a position, I had explicitly described the grunt work I wished to to. But that would contradict his mental model: "But... with your age, your experience, we thought you'd be a leader". Well, that's not what I wrote, that's not what interests me, that's not what I am good at. Impossible to pull this idea out of him.

For other applications, I don't know since I get no answer or off-topic answers sent by human robots fresh out of school. So I can just make hypotheses, like too many experiences abroad that doesn't fit the mould of my country, in too varied domains, with studies in different domains, and of course 'why on earth am I not a manager at my age'. I was recognised (at my own surprise) as a top guy in my previous job but I don't get a single chance to (at least try to) demonstrate it again.

So, basically, after only a quarter of the carrier our leaders now expect us to do, we are trashed.

During one of my interviews, a couple of years ago, I heard something like "Oh, you're over 30, and you were not a manager yet? Look, I have lots of CVs of people at your age, who are managers. If you are not, then it seems like your employer was thinking that there is something wrong with you. That's why we won't go with you further in the process".

I was arguing that in my previous job I was in fact a technical team leader, I was spending half of each day on showing people how to use databases, I was organizing trainings and conference talks. I just didn't get the job of course.

The most frustrating thing I experience now is that companies don't want to have a programmer in my age. And I cannot be a manager "because you don't have any experience in managing people".

That's sad, frustrating and depressing. Especially that I'm looking for a job now.

Sounds like a bullet dodged. Anyone like a Bill Lumbergh on the interview team is a warning sign to stay away.

And there are some professions where someone has only recently started being truly useful in their '30s. I'm not in Silicon Valley but it sounds like a warped, sad place.

http://www.meetup.com/DenverIPhone/messages/boards/thread/25...

The funny thing is that in most industries and in most parts of the country, 37 is pretty young.

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