Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was talking to someone who works in San Jose CA and has worked for a number of tech companies. He says once you are 35 or so, employers in Silicon Valley will look for reasons to get rid of you. You are no longer a good fit and you are made to feel like an outcast. If you don't get the hint, your supervisors will set impossible standards for you, which of course you will fail at- because they are impossible.
This sounds so bizarre and 35 seems so young. It can't be true, can it?
At your employer, if you work in tech, does this happen and if so how do they get rid of people who are old? (35+)
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,243,006 times
Reputation: 57825
Those companies doing software that appeals especially to kids and twenty-somethings such as social media and (google) do like to have younger people working there. On the other hand, in our business we require a lot of experience, and rarely hire people under 30 in IT. In fact we have some that should be retiring soon, and the average age is probably mid-40s.
I work in tech for a silicon valley based tech company, though I am in a diff state because the company is huge. The work requires highly specialized/highly skilled technical staff. Most of the IT staff that I deal with are older than 35 and many are in their 40s and 50s. It is very very rare to have younger staff and those tend to be in the junior roles and there aren't many of those roles.
My last several IT gigs(at well known Fortune 500 companies) also had mostly middle aged workers and it's very common to see gray haired tech workers and very very rare to see anyone under 30. One company did have a recent college graduate that needed constant hand holding and always got the grunt work that was more administrative/documentation than tech work. And even then the worker needed direct and constant guidance.
IMO, it is a false assumption that the majority of tech workers are very young. Anyone that says that either doesn't work in the highly paid part of the tech industry(maybe they work in junior roles or tier 1 or 2 tech support) or they only had 1 tech job right out of school and they looked around and saw other newbies and wrongly assumed that other companies do the same.
There is a lot of advanced tech work out there - that requires many years of experience.
Last edited by sware2cod; 02-28-2015 at 02:38 PM..
The whole "set impossible standards" thing is a standard corporate trick applied everywhere; it's not just for older workers. I imagine douchey Silicon Valley startups are very youth focused, but the more established companies (including Google) have plenty of older people.
I believe that this is not true in all cases. I work in Silicon Valley and we have plenty of 40-50 year old folks working in my company. They keep their skills up to date, so they are valuable to their employers. I know a former colleague who is 62 years old, and was just hired at Cisco, as a Hardware Engineer, as she keeps her skills (both technical and networking) current. It's not easy, but if you stay current and engaged, you should stay employed.
I'm 68 and still working as a lab technician at major pharmaceutical company. Of course they have not hired me on full time - but my part-time job, which was supposed to be a part-time job (I'm retired), is more of a full-time job! We are trained or re-trained virtually every day because of the changing demands of the business. While I might be one of the oldest employees; there are several employees that are up in their years. For some jobs they do look to experienced (responsible) employees. Many of our young are just too distracted - don't really care and performance is not predictable.
One of these days I will retire for good - but don't hold your breath. It looks like it could be a long ways away.
I personally wouldn't hire a database developer under 30. It takes time to develop the level of expertise that good developers require in order to write solid, maintainable code.
I know a former colleague who is 62 years old, and was just hired at Cisco, as a Hardware Engineer, as she keeps her skills (both technical and networking) current.
I'm not surprised. I was offered a job at Cisco last year while on a sales call with them! I'm 52 btw.
I'm not surprised. I was offered a job at Cisco last year while on a sales call with them! I'm 52 btw.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
