Age discrimination is ever present in our society today.

17 Comments

1. AnonymousAugust 19,2022 at 1:21PM UTC

   Sorry for my typos.

2. AnonymousAugust 19,2022 at 2:25PM UTC

   I worked part-time (and sometimes full-time) when I was in school from high school on. After school, it took me a couple of months to find my first full-time job and from then on I worked a full-time until I was 52 - getting good reviews, learning new skills, and being promoted along the way.

   Then I was laid off along with most of the senior members of my team. We weren't all older, but out of about 8 of us, we all had significant time with the company. Of the 8, 6 were 50 or older, 1 was 7 months pregnant, and the 8th was managing a remote team in a cheaper-staff country. Afterwards, I was working at another location where there were several people from my previous company. All 3 of us had been laid off just before a major anniversary with the company, which would have entitled us to additional vacation.

   I've known several people who left off years of their experience in order to get a job. They felt they got more interviews, but that once they had an interview and their additional experience or other indicators of age, they didn't get the job.

   One gentleman I know intentionally put those older dates back in, so he wouldn't have any more of those interviews. After that, he had an interview where he did get the job.

   So yes, I think I've experienced age discrimination. And I think it's a serious problem.

3. AnonymousAugust 20,2022 at 1:33PM UTC

   I agree the problem exists. I am glad you shared your story it means so much. Thank you.

4. Barb HansenAugust 19,2022 at 4:28PM UTC

   In my early-50's (about 5 years ago), I started looking for a new job.

   I work in startup tech.

   I've been working (as a practitioner and leader) in startup tech for over 20 years.

   If I was a man with grey hair I would have been snapped up in a minute - can you imagine hiring a person who has "been there, saw that, built this, and survived it all?" What company wouldn't want that sort of experience on their team?

   For over six months, I threw my resume out to jobs I was exactly qualified for.

   Did I get an interview? Nope

   I decided that perhaps my resume wasn't telling the right story. I had been using the same resume for years but perhaps I needed to change my resume to look more like that resume of an older white guy with my experience. I had my resume rewritten by an excellent career coach (Angie at Careerbenders.com <-- she is a member of fairygodboss. They offer a free session so there is no harm in setting an appointment with her)

   And I decided that I needed to reframe how I thought about the value I brought, so when I got an interview, I knew how to pitch me. With Angie's help (as we went through my resume, she helped me think about my career differently), I started to look at my extensive experience as my superpower.

   Being an older women in the technical side of startups, I'm literally the same age as some recruiters mothers. The same people they know who don't know how to use a cell phone or have any clue about what a TikTok is.

   And no matter how good a resume is, I still need to get past the gatekeepers (the recruiters) before I can get to the hiring manager, so....

   I wrote out responses to most standard interview questions that showed not only that I know what they are talking about, that I use this technology daily, that I worked on and built some of the processes that are now commonplace. I had stories at hand about how I handled problem ABC or dealt with issue XYZ (without sounding like an old man sitting on his front porch yelling "back in my days... ")

   When I changed my resume (thanks to Angie) and I changed how I spoke about my experience, I started to get quality interviews for jobs that I wanted.

   Did I get offers in every instance? No.

   Did I still run up against young recruiters who rudely dismiss me? Yes

   Did I get a great new job? Yes.

5. AnonymousAugust 20,2022 at 1:32PM UTC

   Great advise. Thank you fir sharing your story.

6. JJAugust 20,2022 at 4:51PM UTC

   More than one recruiter has told me to take the old jobs off.
   My MBA was late career so I list that as my education. Because I look really young (thanks ancestors!) they assume I am the age they imagine based on my MBA and listed jobs. Obviously my formal applications and company information has my actual birthdate and I have seen many an HR managers jaw drop wide open in shock when they had to fill in my birthdate. We are a society that focuses on being young and many employers still care about that.

7. Crystal HowellAugust 20,2022 at 8:15PM UTC

   no, try AARP website for senior jobs.

8. AnonymousAugust 20,2022 at 10:55PM UTC

   As someone who's been looking for someone with experience for an administrative role. The opposite has been true for me. Have had many people in their 50s tell me that our company is too "youthful" and they don't feel THEY are a good fit. My advise is to come into an interview being confident in the job you can do and be yourself. If you put the age barricade up before you even walk in, you are doing yourself a disservice.

9. AnonymousAugust 21,2022 at 9:48AM UTC

   Unfortunately, Age discrimination does exist, but hard to prove if you have been a victim of Age discrimination, mostly it's very subtle. like asking for "recent graduates", in a job description or if you apply for a job you have too much experience on your application most likely you will not hear from HR, If you are already on the job and you notice that they promote or give extend offers to younger employees. HR never talks to you about growing in the company.

10. JC LindquistAugust 21,2022 at 12:53PM UTC

    This is a VERY real issue in the job market. I’ve been experiencing it myself for several months as well. I do the best I can to stay positive about the situation but it is hard.

11. CJAugust 28,2022 at 4:27AM UTC

    Thank you

12. AnonymousAugust 21,2022 at 6:05PM UTC

    Yep, it's out there. Yep, it's doable to get good jobs. Per recommendations I put 15+ year experience and took dates off of anything prior to that including schooling. Also on LinkedIn. I included "Previous relevant experience" (fictious date). I'm in my early 50s and I got a job recently with a 35% increase (made up for previous severe gender pay gap I had from staying at a toxic workplace too long). My dad at 60-some was told by a recruiter that he'd never get another job in his field at his level. He got three more (typical 3-5 years in each for his industry). My mom got a job at 70 and the application required dates, so she entered "1990" for every single one. I have two friends who are 70 who just got contract jobs ($40/hr). Both work part-time on occasion are not. The one had removed all dates from her resume - since she's been underemployed recently and reported her transferable skills as "Consulting ---current". I suppose I have some good role models. Wishing you find some, or make your way to be one!!

13. CJAugust 28,2022 at 4:27AM UTC

    Thank you

14. Amy HolmesAugust 22,2022 at 12:12AM UTC

    People aged 40+ years are a federally protected class against job discrimination. So if you’ve been laid off along with a bunch of older employees or someone let you go because you were too “old” or refused to consider or hire you because “they are a young company”, you might consider a lawsuit against the company.

    It depends, though, on how you feel about suing them and whether or not word gets around that you are “litigious”. But they sure deserve an education regarding discrimination IMO.

15. CJAugust 28,2022 at 4:27AM UTC

    Thank you

16. Diane SeiderAugust 25,2022 at 1:13PM UTC

    I changed jobs/industries a little over a year ago and had several offers and many interviews. I am 58, so I have not experienced it. Having said that, I graduated college at age 32, so my resume may make me look younger, and that could be the reason why. Good luck!!

17. CJAugust 28,2022 at 4:26AM UTC

    Thank you