Silicon Valley's Dark Secret: It's All About Age

J

jinxu

An interesting paradox in the technology world is that there is both a shortage and a surplus of engineers in the United States. Talk to those working at any Silicon Valley company, and they will tell you how hard it is to find qualified talent. But listen to the heart-wrenching stories of unemployed engineers, and you will realize that there are tens of thousands who can’t get jobs. What gives?

The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers.

And engineering is an “up or out” profession: you either move up the ladder or face unemployment. This is not something that tech executives publicly admit, because they fear being sued for age discrimination, but everyone knows that this is the way things are. Why would any company hire a computer programmer with the wrong skills for a salary of $150,000, when it can hire a fresh graduate—with no skills—for around $60,000? Even if it spends a month training the younger worker, the company is still far ahead. The young understand new technologies better than the old do, and are like a clean slate: they will rapidly learn the latest coding methods and techniques, and they don’t carry any “technology baggage”. As well, the older worker likely has a family and needs to leave by 6 pm, whereas the young can pull all-nighters.

At least, that’s how the thinking goes in the tech industry.
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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/28/silicon-valley’s-dark-secret-it’s-all-about-age/

Is this true???
 
not sure about silicon valley but i see this in trading firms. the firms that hire only cheap programmers right out of school tend not to be very technical firms. however, there are other firms that are technical and pay up for good people. it depends on what the firm's goal is
 
it's very much the case. If you are 40+ you better make sure you're in stable position, preferably with management responsibility. Very hard to get hired in the bay area over 40 unless you happen to be well connected.
 
Quote from vikana:

it's very much the case. If you are 40+ you better make sure you're in stable position, preferably with management responsibility. Very hard to get hired in the bay area over 40 unless you happen to be well connected.
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Unless u own your own business, 40 is a good age to make a transition to a public sector job.

Prop trading firms do not want anyone new over 40, IT do not want anyone over 50....even minimum wage work prefer the young with speed and smiles.
 
Quote from jinxu:

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/28/silicon-valley’s-dark-secret-it’s-all-about-age/

Is this true???
More...

very very true. older workers earn more, cost more in benefits like healthcare, and worst of all to the management, are more likely to resist when they see something they don't like or agree with.

companies love college hires because they're naive, and 90% of them will gladly do what you tell them, with little or no questioning. management can come up with the most lame coding process or a useless/dumb design, and they'll happily implement it, no questions asked.
 
'Now, anyone here has a Series 7 license?'
'I have a Series 7.'
'Good for you. You can get out too.'
'Whaat? Why?'
'We don't hire brokers here. We train new ones.' :cool:
 
Let's face it, tech positions are not created equal. You can't have the entire populace of engineers in the valley being elite hi-tech creative geniuses.

Most of the positions, categorized as engineers and advertised as tech experts, require skills that are readily acquirable in short amount of time. However, they still consider themselves hi-tech workers, with skills that are hard to come by, because that's how the media paints it. For them lives are destined to become miserable as they age: they don't realize how replaceable they really are.

On the other hand, I've seen and worked with engineers in their 40's and 50's that are very much appreciated by their employers and are considered non-separable from the firms.

The fact is, working in silicon valley is not a one way ticket to financial stability. Anybody would have to struggle as hard as in any other sector.
 
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