Almost half of tech workers worry about losing their jobs because of ageism | Hacker News Reader

Almost half of tech workers worry about losing their jobs because of ageism

siliconbeat.com

58 pointsscaryclam12 comments

I'm moving into my 50s and have never had any issues yet with ageism, but I work in the mid-west.

A lot of guys and gals my age aren't helping themselves by letting their skills go stale and to continually skill up with skills relevant to the current environment.

One thing I've seen with peers my age is that they will get laid off due to their skills being out of date or maybe just stuck in a loop of doing the same things day in and day out.

IMO, if you are afraid of aging out or ageism start working a development plan every single remaining year of your life to remain relevant. Also, view your work as a career, not job. IMO, you can lose a job, but not a career.

Employers can afford to be ageist when they can employ from a virtually unlimited international market. But of course the "talent isn't just there" and we need more H1Bs.

I'm 25 and got turned down by a start-up for being too old.

Did they offer any rationale? Was it a bunch of high schoolers or something?

This seems like a perfectly valid excuse to name and shame that startup.

I suspect it was not age, but more about the desire to mold fresh college grads who never worked anywhere else before. It is easier to get employees to work long hours and adhere to their culture, if they don't know what to compare it to.

Did they put that in writing?

They could -- it's only illegal if you're over 40.

I have seen this happen to a lot of people that worked the same job for many years in the tech field. I'm sure ageism exists, but a lot of it is about how fast your skills become outdated.

I've always rode the bleeding edge of web tech for the fun of it. But if I don't make it into management track in another five years I'm moving to systems programming. There, I can learn my craft once and spend the rest of my career without recycling my skills every few years.

They should be. It's really happening.

http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q42

This comment provides very little value by not having content.

Are you supporting low age founders, attempting to contradict it?

Additionally what does the age of a founder have to do with people losing their jobs as they age? Maybe you're answering it, but again it's not clear to me at all from your comment.

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