—– Ageism in Tech? They almost killed me because of this.
—– SCORES – I once suggested to the university career center that current OWLS, older learners, re-test while the testing is free. Then they can differentiate themselves from older workers whose degrees are more than 20 years ago. They refused, but I re-tested anyway for free. [Donate online to KeepYourHouse]
LinkedIn’s editor Caroline Fairchild wrote the online article called NO ONE IN TECH WILL ADMIT THAT THEY’RE OLD (C. Fairchild, 2016). I wrote this essay to follow hers.
—– CURRENT – I got my BBA at 43, now 57. And I got my BA at 48. So both of my degrees are new, although they aren’t really really new. But we are never as smart as when we graduated university or high school. But still, the degrees of my 50s and 60s peers have aged 30 and 40 years ago. And my degrees are ten and fifteen years current. [Donate online to KeepYourHouse]
—– DISABILITY – Many of my peers are leveraging for SSI and Disability Insurance. That umbrella really hurts active viable older workers who have not yet given up. They are trying to beat the age requirement of 62, while they are relatively still young men and young women.
—– But wait, because there is more. [Donate online to KeepYourHouse]
—– SMARTER – I agree that active older workers play drag-butt with most of their fellow older workers. I play Lumosity, and several other neuro-science/neuro-plasticity computer games. Their statistics say that the smartest players are 20-25 years-old. And the statistics go down hill, in performance, from there. I now score in the top 25 percentile of the 20-25 group, because that is important to department heads and recruiters.
—– SINGLES – I started my own pro-employment marketing campaign called SNAK – Single No Kids. It included the empty-nesters and the divorced. It also included Generation Jones, the younger part of the Baby Boomers. I made in-roads with important people. [Donate online to KeepYourHouse]
—– Yes. And there is yet more than that.
—– PROCESSES – Many older workers stay with old legacy processes. But younger workers learn on new processes because they constantly hang in schools with academia. Their legacy processes are two to five years old, instead of 20 to 30 years old. It is just a matter of scale. Younger workers are not deliberately creative or inventive; they just fall into it. [Donate online to KeepYourHouse]
—– MEMORY – Younger workers deal with short-term memory while older workers deal with long-term. Really? Older workers enjoy Carly Simon and Journey. And younger workers enjoy Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Rhianna. But if older workers wanted to listen to current music, they can just turn the dial if they want.
—– There probably is some aggressive ageism in tech. But everybody enjoys a good fight, from the moment we enter the building until the time we leave the building. While the boss didn’t start it, they can enjoy watching us leave blood on the floor. [Donate online to KeepYourHouse]
jaycramptonwillis 