cronereport.com

I posted the other day about age discrimination. A 50+ friend of mine who has struggled with this issue commented to me via email—he didn’t want to make a public post lest some employer find it via Google. He also sent me a link to this article.

The gist of the article is (1) people don’t want to hire you if you’re old, (2) pretend that your experience magically came to you one night and was not the result of decades of experience, specifically by deleting 10-15 years from your resume, as well as all dates, (3) you don’t need to look younger, except that you do.

What’s the flaw in this thinking:

Many mature job candidates rest on their laurels and fail to create a modern image…Looking young isn’t the key: Attitude and knowledge of today’s world are just as important…To show she’s as hip to new media as her 20-something rivals, Ms. Johnson Mandell launched a video-blog site, LisaLiveinHollywood.com, with the help of a young Web designer she found on CraigsList.

Notice that she found a “young” web designer. Because there are no 50-year-old web designers around. Ahem.

When her husband suggested she hire a stylist and photographer to shoot photos of her, Ms. Johnson Mandell asked a 20-something friend to come over and root through her closet for a handful of young-looking outfits. Ms. Johnson Mandell wound up with at least one that she would never have chosen herself: a studded T-shirt and jeans.

A studded t-shirt and jeans? This is her youthful look? The last time I saw a studded t-shirt was on my boss in San Francisco in 1983. And jeans? In the late mid-90’s a 20-something I worked with recoiled at the 30- and 40-ish engineers’ dress code with the wail “I’m lost in the land of stone-washed!!!”

Although this article is based on the premise that “attitude and knowledge of today’s world” are what’s important, the advice is clear: (1) lie about your age, but by omission, and (2) pretend to be younger than you are. Because nothing is as attractive or employable as a 50-year-old dressing and talking like a 20-something.

The author of the article raises the question:

But is employers’ apparent preference for youth really about wrinkles? Or do companies simply want workers who keep pace with the times?

Here’s my take on that:

1. Younger workers have the energy to work 12-14 hours a day.
2. Younger workers are ambitious, stupid, scared, excited, desperate, etc. enough to work 12-14 hours a day without saying “Hey, I think I’d rather have a life.” (Younger workers who are also single and childless and want to stay that way are especially attractive).
3. Younger workers want to work with younger workers, because middle-aged people are boring stick-in-the-muds who want you to turn the music down. Which is totally true, by the way.
4. Older workers have never used a computer or a cell phone. They think HD means Hot Dog! They don’t know XHTML from XML, or C++ from C#, or jpegs from gifs. They all use typewriters and dial phones, and if you shown them your facebook page they say “Golly! What kinda new-fangled gizmo is that?”

OK, I don’t really believe the last one. But I think some of the hiring managers do. Otherwise, wouldn’t the woman in the article have found a web designer her own age?