The BBC has a sad article on people in their mid-thirties being affected by ageism. Its the usual story: employers don’t want to employ an experienced, thirtysomething worker when they can get a fresh graduate for much less, and expect them to work stupidly long hours too. You hear about this a lot in the software business.
Why do the suits do this? As a developer, I’m much, much more effective and productive than a twenty-one year old straight off a CompSci degree course. And that’s largely because I’ve been in this industry for twelve years and have acquired some degree of experience. The kind of experience that (hopefully!) prevents projects from turning into disasters. Yes, some people slow down and loose interest as they get older, and you do not want even one such person on a development team. And yes, younger and fresher team members can stop the others from becoming complacent. But surely its obvious that you need experienced people too. Maybe the problem is young, fast-track-promotion managers who only want people younger than them on their team.
I don’t think I’ve ever been a victim of ageism, but how would I know if I had?