Reply to What's all this ageism talk??

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ageism in tech is real, but you don't see that as much in DC.

A lot of what gets called ageism here is really hesitance to hire people with insufficient experience given their age. Sorry, but if you're over 50 and haven't advanced past lower-mid level, people are going to look at you funny. It doesn't matter that the 29 year old has the same experience as you. You've had a lot more time to advance yet haven't, and that sets off alarms.[/quote]

Agree that ageism in the private sector is a problem.  In general, tech changes constantly and frankly, younger people in their 20's and 30's learn faster and learn what's new and in demand better.  They've grown up with more of the technology that is important.

However, if you work in certain public sectors, then being older can be an asset.  I just passed my 25th anniversary at my federal agency and frankly there is enough that is unique about my agency and how things are done, that I and many of my peers are in high demand because we have institutional knowledge about how to get things done, quickly and still adhere to the myriad of agency and federal policies, practices and requirements.  I was forced out of my last job due to some specific localized politics and had a job in about 2 weeks that included a raise and better working conditions, so I landed easily on my feet.  I beat out several other candidates for this position, all of whom were younger than me because specifically I've been working in the IT security environment of the agency for several years, know what this group needs to do and could basically start with almost no ramp up time.  My security credentials with the agency just had to be reapplied for under the new job and were approved in days when someone from outside the agency might have needed 2-3 weeks to get approvals.  And I have connections throughout the agency to get work done quickly because I've been doing this for so long.  The other system administrators and IT specialists from outside would not have been able to accomplish all that I accomplished in the first 4 weeks because of the ramp up time.  Some other internal candidates might have also had a short ramp-up time, but the job said they liked all the institutional knowledge and experience that I brought.

I had my last job for 4 years and was in my late 40s when I got that job.  And again, I got the job because of my knowledge and experience and the fact that I didn't need to ramp up.  In that job, I was also very productive my first several weeks, much more so that outsiders could have been in the same time frame.
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