Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Jose
 [Register]
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.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-23-2014, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
6,288 posts, read 11,747,493 times
Reputation: 3369

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Azmordean View Post
I'll just jump in to say of course startups are a youth culture.
Most wannabe startups are a youth culture.
Most successful startups are a 40+ thing.

Need to have experience and capital to turn an idea into a business.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-23-2014, 12:44 PM
 
Location: Boulder Creek, CA
173 posts, read 254,339 times
Reputation: 249
Quote:
Originally Posted by 80skeys View Post
Most wannabe startups are a youth culture.
Most successful startups are a 40+ thing.

Need to have experience and capital to turn an idea into a business.
Yep, I agree. I've been working in startups here for the past 20 years (one went public, all the others were acquired). I still work at a startup and I'm almost 42. I'd say the majority of the staff here is over 40, though we certainly have younger folks as well. We don't seem to have any issues with age as far as I can tell.

I also have a handful of friends/ex-coworkers that were some of the 1st engineers at Google and Facebook (all retired now) and all of them are well over 40. One of them is over 60.

I can't see any successful company denying employment if you've got the talent and personality. If they do, well, they're fools.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-23-2014, 03:08 PM
 
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
13,562 posts, read 10,309,820 times
Reputation: 8252
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azmordean View Post
I'll just jump in to say of course startups are a youth culture. Most folks over 40 - especially if they have a family - aren't eager to sign up for long hours, low or no pay, no stability, and high risk. As people age they crave stability and steady employment more and more for a variety of reasons.

The only exception would be someone independently wealthy doing a startup but that's not most startups.

I'm fairly young (33) and single, and I wouldn't do a startup, because I just don't have the personality / interest for it. I prefer steady employment.
It really depends on what kind of a startup and who is doing the "starting up".

If it's one of those that gets started up by some Stanford guys (yes, most of them are male) in a dorm room, then it's likely to be a younger staff demographic. If it's a company that draws from folks who have worked for a number of years in a certain industry or corporation, then the founders and the hires will likely be more mature. I've worked for startup companies that were started by industry veterans in their fields.

Heck, Col. Harland Sanders started KFC in his 60s.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-25-2014, 06:13 PM
 
926 posts, read 974,423 times
Reputation: 346
it is unfortunate that tech companies are on race with each other to release product faster rather than releasing quality product. probably reason why so many flashy smartphones, laptops, pcs that fails after a year or so.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-25-2014, 06:59 PM
 
55 posts, read 83,485 times
Reputation: 59
I find no "ageism" in SV at all. I work inside all the fortune 100 companies in the bay area see and interact with their employees every day. Funny that someone mentioned Facebook. One would think that a company like that would be full of bro's coding from beerkegs, but it just isn't true. The hiring managers simply looked for the best, most experienced people they could find and it just so happened that many of them turned out to be older. The tech industry is rather free of the types of problems that many industries are plagued by.

What is true is that high end companies will simply look at what school you went to and reject you automatically if you are a budding engineer. I had a hiring manager at a well known software company tell me: "If their resume doesn't say Stanford or Harvard...the resume goes in the circular file cabinet"
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-05-2014, 01:15 PM
 
7,302 posts, read 3,382,669 times
Reputation: 4812
Quote:
Originally Posted by LexusNexus View Post
Besides the severe and insidious form of racism against blacks and Hispanics in Silicon Valley's tech industry, AGEISM is rampant. Thoughts? Experiences?

Silicon's Valley's Brutal Ageism | New Republic
It sounds like the only thing that is insidious is the racial agitation and exploitation exhibited in your rent seeking opinions. Don't worry, your opinions were likely given to you by exploitative, low skilled agitators. It's not your fault. Competent, competitive minorities have been doing real work in Silicon Valley for a long time.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-06-2014, 06:29 PM
 
Location: Florida
2,026 posts, read 2,758,471 times
Reputation: 1382
Ageism is really a set of assumptions:
- Young, can have original ideas, but no experience.
- Old, no genuine ideas, but has experience.
4 assumptions.
I have seen examples of exceptions to each. I am an exception to one of those, and see the problems time to time with ageism-assumptions.
Now some industries like software focus on ideas, they go with young. Even though there are a few older people with better ideas, but they are outside of the statistical distribution, so corporate meat-processing plants don't bother correcting a few percent error. The same with younger people and experience. Statistically more years is more experience, but they ignore the fact that the speed of gaining experience and the stating point of gaining experience in a certain field (graduation date, or a later promotion, or even during someone's studies) vary a lot.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-06-2014, 09:19 PM
 
Location: Corona the I.E.
10,137 posts, read 17,432,484 times
Reputation: 9139
I sell tech for a SV based company and I am over 40, I agree with ccm.

Now here's what I have noticed. In a tough economy the expectations of some companies for the sales force requires someone under 30. I looked at their activity requirements, ie. 40 door knocks a day, cold calls back in office. No thanks, been there done that in late 20's not happening now.

I now work smarter not harder and get more done, but some companies want a cold calling machine and that doesn't favor an older, more exp. sales pro.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-07-2014, 01:34 PM
 
Location: Colorado
2,483 posts, read 4,361,032 times
Reputation: 2685
I just go by what I have seen in the desktop software biz. When I was in my late 30's I worked for a time on a team where most everyone was younger than me (not by a lot necessarily, but younger). That product no longer exists an most of those people are gone from the company. The product was good, but the team was inexperienced and they weren't able to weather it thorough long enough to see much adoption from users. I'm still at the same company, but now I'm in my mid-40's and on a different product team. At least half the folks are older than me (not by a lot necessarily, but older). The product we work on is over 20 years old but it's a the top of its game with no signs of slowing.

So I'll take experience over youth any day, regardless of the risks.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-07-2014, 03:26 PM
 
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
6,288 posts, read 11,747,493 times
Reputation: 3369
Quote:
Originally Posted by otterprods View Post
So I'll take experience over youth any day, regardless of the risks.
I basically agree. Experience knows how to make money, get results. Experience knows when to be patient and when not to.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
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.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Jose
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top