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Comment by asdfologist | Hacker News Reader

>I myself have had a difficult time landing an interview over the last year despite having two decades of experience.

Unfortunately many employers see that as a minus, not a plus.

Indeed - I've legitimately considered creating a fake profile at this point to make myself look more Jr with about 10 years of experience. I don't really have much to lose in trying it.

I've been at the receiving end of ageism, and what i now do is drop off some of the older experience(s) from my resume, etc. Also, i try to avoid listing my graduation year from university. Some people suggest even if not fighting off ageism, its only relevant to list the last decade of experience on a resume anyway...so if i ever get questioned, i'd use that as an excuse...but, my strategy is simply to get my foot in the door to an interview without getting caught by the "age police" in HR. (If someone thinks that there's no such thing as a sort of filter - what i called "age police" - within HR, then you have wool over your eyes.)

So, my suggestion is maybe there's not a need to create a fake profile, but maybe trim yours a bit. Good luck!

Thanks - good advice I'll give this a try.

I'm in my early 40s and struggle at times because although my hair is black, my beard is entirely silver, which (I think) adds 10+ years to me.

And while I'm at the IC5/6 level in Product, I still worry about it, and think if I had to find a new job, sorry, fiancée who loves my beard, it has to go, or I think I'm going to have a hard time.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but did you consider dyeing your beard a different colour?

Truly a suggestion fitting of an employment apocalypse.

Yeah, if i were you and needed to win job interviews, i'd simply trim it - if only temporarily. Although, its sad of me to say, i agree with @logicchains that it might not be a bad idea to dye your beard....but i suppose might be easier to simply cut it. /sigh

Good luck!

This is sad but good advice. I'm in my late 40s, and my hair is getting pretty gray, so I've started using comb-in color to tone it down. It's not about vanity; I just want to avoid standing out as older than many people around me.

I've had some amazing experiences in my career, but I've started dropping off some of my older work. I don’t include my graduation date on my resume, for example. I have nearly 30 years of solid, relevant experience, but I need to trim it down to the last 12 years or so.

Ageism is incredibly difficult to prove. Plus, you don’t want your name in the paper as someone who sues employers; it can make you seem toxic to future employers.

The whole of it is sad...I mean, that fact that all of us beginning at a certain age need to begin to activate some life hacks is sad in so many ways. I wonder also, what did our peers 1 or 2 or 3 generations ago do at a certain point in their life to cope against ageism...assuming ageism was even a pronounced thing? (I say "pronounced" because i assume there has always been a thing of kicking the older folks to the pasture, but not sure if it was the same as nowadays.) /sigh

Why? Is it because they’ve tasted freedom and are more likely to be rebellious when they go back?

Ageism. Two decades of experience, depending on your role, might be seen as a downside. E.g, if you have been an engineer for two decades (not staff+), the question is why that person is not “motivated” to grow. Another reason is that juniors can be cheaper and easier to mold.

Two decades of experience for someone looking for a VP position is a different story, with different challenges.

I wouldn't even call it ageism. Its crazy-making x nepotism. People have stopped treating companies as a vehicle to deliver something into the economy, instead its like a great big Mastadon to be clung to like a tick and sucked dry. Fuck the accountant regime.

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