But is she a cultural fit? Does he have the energy? A bit too senior?
I imagine it plays out like that too much the same effect.
I was a recruiter for 9 years. Discrimination at an individual level is rampant, but the type of discrimination varies.
One hiring manager told me a woman was the best he’d interviewed, but he heard kids in the background & wouldn’t hire her because he didn’t want to risk her going out on maternity leave.
A manager told me he threw out all resumes with names sounding like they’d be from a specific country because he thought they all had poor communication skills.
It’s really common for hiring managers to insist on 3 to 5 years of experience because they’re likely to be young and willing to work a lot of unpaid overtime.
They wouldn't throw it away publicly in a meeting since it's illegal, but when a recruiter is browsing LinkedIn profiles trying to find potential candidates to interview, I'm pretty sure they dismiss older candidates as they don't perform as well in the coding interviews.
That being said, I know FAANG make a big deal of trying to interview as many minority candidates as possible and incentives recruiters to do so but AFAIU older candidates don't fall in the "minority" category.