I think the underlying reason is when you have far more experience than your future boss they are intimidated by you.
I appreciate you're absolutely correct, age discrimination does happen. One thing to consider for older engineers is that, though your technical expertise improves through the decades, it's not just technologies that you have to keep up with but also cultural practices. That is, the bad culture fit isn't necessarily code for "We don't want you because you're old." but could be a genuine reason.
As an example, consider the book The Phoenix Project which dissects the reasons for discarding segregation of roles like developers, QA, and ops in separate teams into service teams of DevOps / T-shaped engineers. If you haven't worked in that environment or don't appreciate the difference, you may be judged accordingly.
if (candidate.canCode && !candidate.isAsshole) return true; return false;
https://benjiweber.co.uk/blog/2021/04/10/dont-hire-top-talen...
This is why I stress the importance of culture. I got into engineering because I loved coding, I loved problem solving, I loved writing programs and making things happen on the screen. It's so easy for the team sport aspect of software engineering to become a blindspot if it's something you're not interested in.
(except for performance requirements, sonar qube, etc)
In a way, all these are part of `!candidate.isAsshole`
That is so true; however, they tend to be weak managers with delicate egos and poor vision. Count yourself lucky you didn't waste your time.
There are plenty of managers who highly value experience and capability regardless of age. They are worth searching for. Such a manager's project is probably also more challenging and interesting.
Anytime someone younger interviewed me it never seemed to go well.
Recognize when to trust people and do just that--you know they're awesome, they know they're awesome, why not take advantage of that and build on it to create something more awesome? Learn to be wrong or make bad management decisions out of ignorance and accept when experienced people suggest or tell you otherwise--they may even give you a way out of a mess you created. Skilled people with that sort of experience often aren't trying to correct you to insult you, they're trying to help you, the team, and themselves by offering their wealth of experience and knowledge.
It's when experienced people like this are quiet is when you should really be worried. If they aren't making suggestions, unless you're sure of yourself, you've likely created or been subjected to an environment experienced individuals have given up on improving and are now in death marches on your project efforts, quietly updating their resumes and awakening their contacts, looking for new positions.
Here it is:
There is a difference between your identity being in something versus your heart being in something.
Identity is a very very cheap substitute for passion and integrity. ‘I am this, therefore I am correct in doing this’.
Young managers fundamentally will pay the price with identity, not anything else.
Biases due to profile picture adversely affecting marginalized is not new, Airbnb's black guests and owners have documented this under #AirbnbWhileBlack forcing the company to make several changes to how profile pictures and user names work.
But LinkedIn never acknowledged these issues and has instead doubled down on visual identity now like having 'Video introduction' as a primary feature. I wouldn't be surprised if they introduce 'Upload your video to Sign in'[2].
[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90460723/airbnbwhileblack-the-in...
It also cuts in all directions. There is a lack of culture fit with Chinese-run companies in the US hiring Americans, with African-Americans hiring foreigners, etc.
That obviously favors groups most in power, but there are places where it favors other groups, and who is in power changes over decades. Fixing the problem involves being able to discuss that nuance.
a recent AMZN innovation to optimize that process out - an explicitly stated max years of experience cap that thus effectively bars you even from applying (previous post with some replies https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27786601 )
You may be willing and qualified, yet because of age you can't even apply. Feels just nice.
BTW, SDE 5 isn’t an Amazon level. There is L5, which corresponds to SDE II, which is only one promotion from college hire. And there is Principal, which is L7.
https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Amazon,Google&track=Software...
Do you actually have any proof about what you're asserting?
I think it is an outrageous borderline illegal practice worth mentioning in related public forums, as I think it may become a widely accepted practice if not called.
If you think about it - i posted about multi-trillion dollar company with an army of lawyers what probably [IANAL] can be construed as libel if not true. Would i be posting it if i didn't have documentary support for it? ( AMZN has it on their email servers too so it isn't out if the blue for them)
I have 1 year experience. I also happen to have 2, 3, 4... etc. In total I have 15 but that includes any lesser number of years too.
https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/w14/implicatu...