I was recently chatting with two young men who were telling me of their struggle to hire older employees.
“The rest of our office is young. They just don’t fit with our culture,” the first one admitted.
“Our industry is brand new,” said the second. “Older candidates don’t bring any relevant experience, but come with a higher paycheck.”
And then: “I’m not sure if an older employee would be able to adapt and learn quickly in our fast-paced work culture.”
I nodded in agreement. All these things made sense. Then one of them interjected: “I don’t want to feel like we have an office mom!”
Suddenly I felt a pit at the bottom of my stomach. I am a real-life mom. Oblivious to my reaction, the two men went on talking, genuinely trying to find a solution. One said: “We actually did hire an older employee recently. I was nervous about whether he would fit in, but so far, it’s going okay. He’s 40.”
The sinking feeling in my gut turned to all-out panic. Throughout this conversation I had been picturing a gray haired 60 year old. But no, “old” in tech is someone in their 40s. Until this point, I’d never thought of myself as too old for tech, but as a woman in her late 30s who is also a mother to three young children, I suddenly realized what others might be thinking when I walk in the room.
The data says ageism starts young in tech
There’s no getting past the fact that tech is a young industry. Studies show that age bias is rampant in tech not just once one hits their 40s, but by age 36. When VC firm First Round Capital polled a wide range of US startup founders in The 2018 State of Startups report, age was cited as the strongest investor bias against founders, with 89% of founders saying older people face discrimination in tech, followed by gender. And older women have double the odds. In a 2017 Indeed survey, 43 percent of tech workers said that fear of losing their jobs due to age is a real fear. (...)
Pregnancy and ageism create a double penalty for women
Ageism impacts everyone, but women bear the unfair brunt of this trend. In this same survey of early stage founders, the amount of capital raised by male founders peaked between ages 30 and 45. But for female founders, the amount raised doesn’t spike until the late 30s and it peaks soon after, by age 45. Founders of both sexes experience a drop off in funding after they hit their 45th birthday. For women, this means a very narrow window in which to maximize their fundraising. (...)
Why is youth so coveted in tech?
Unlike other industries, tech’s hallmark is change and innovation. For this reason, professional experience is not valued as much as the ability to think outside the proverbial box. Fresh young talent has a leg up in an industry where bold new ideas are valued above all else. Tech is an industry of and in disruption, not beholden to status quo ways of doing things.
In the war for talent, tech culture targets young recruits, particularly those that don’t have family obligations at home. Tech campuses are built like all-inclusive resorts, enabling — no, encouraging — recruits to stay on campus as much as possible, a la The Circle, Dave Eggers dystopian novel circa 2013. Apple Park, Apple’s multibillion-dollar new campus in Cupertino, is colloquially known as “the Spaceship Campus” because of its design — but also because it’s a self-contained destination one could conceivably stay airlocked inside forever.
These tech cultures offer “work-life balance” only in the sense that you can theoretically manage your entire life from campus, with no need to go elsewhere to exercise, do errands, eat out or meet up with friends (why be friends with people outside of work, after all?). The caveat here is these perks tend to fall short if your life responsibilities happen to include small people who are dependent on you. (...)
But what are we collectively missing out on because of all this?
But the even bigger issue is that tech’s myopic view causes it to miss out on many billion dollar opportunities.
The stats on this opportunity are things we’ve all heard before: baby boomers control more than ⅔ of the disposable income in the US and will inherit $15 Trillion over the next two decades.
What is surprising is that the tech industry hasn’t taken more notice of this rapidly growing market underserved by tech. Instead, VCs are distracted by apps for millennials like private chefs, valet parking and skipping the line while clubbing (yes, there is a new app for this).
What about instead building technology focused on working parents, second careers, menopause, retirement and senior care?
by Maren Thomas Bannon, Forbes | Read more:
Image: Getty
“The rest of our office is young. They just don’t fit with our culture,” the first one admitted.
“Our industry is brand new,” said the second. “Older candidates don’t bring any relevant experience, but come with a higher paycheck.”
And then: “I’m not sure if an older employee would be able to adapt and learn quickly in our fast-paced work culture.”I nodded in agreement. All these things made sense. Then one of them interjected: “I don’t want to feel like we have an office mom!”
Suddenly I felt a pit at the bottom of my stomach. I am a real-life mom. Oblivious to my reaction, the two men went on talking, genuinely trying to find a solution. One said: “We actually did hire an older employee recently. I was nervous about whether he would fit in, but so far, it’s going okay. He’s 40.”
The sinking feeling in my gut turned to all-out panic. Throughout this conversation I had been picturing a gray haired 60 year old. But no, “old” in tech is someone in their 40s. Until this point, I’d never thought of myself as too old for tech, but as a woman in her late 30s who is also a mother to three young children, I suddenly realized what others might be thinking when I walk in the room.
The data says ageism starts young in tech
There’s no getting past the fact that tech is a young industry. Studies show that age bias is rampant in tech not just once one hits their 40s, but by age 36. When VC firm First Round Capital polled a wide range of US startup founders in The 2018 State of Startups report, age was cited as the strongest investor bias against founders, with 89% of founders saying older people face discrimination in tech, followed by gender. And older women have double the odds. In a 2017 Indeed survey, 43 percent of tech workers said that fear of losing their jobs due to age is a real fear. (...)
Pregnancy and ageism create a double penalty for women
Ageism impacts everyone, but women bear the unfair brunt of this trend. In this same survey of early stage founders, the amount of capital raised by male founders peaked between ages 30 and 45. But for female founders, the amount raised doesn’t spike until the late 30s and it peaks soon after, by age 45. Founders of both sexes experience a drop off in funding after they hit their 45th birthday. For women, this means a very narrow window in which to maximize their fundraising. (...)
Why is youth so coveted in tech?
Unlike other industries, tech’s hallmark is change and innovation. For this reason, professional experience is not valued as much as the ability to think outside the proverbial box. Fresh young talent has a leg up in an industry where bold new ideas are valued above all else. Tech is an industry of and in disruption, not beholden to status quo ways of doing things.
In the war for talent, tech culture targets young recruits, particularly those that don’t have family obligations at home. Tech campuses are built like all-inclusive resorts, enabling — no, encouraging — recruits to stay on campus as much as possible, a la The Circle, Dave Eggers dystopian novel circa 2013. Apple Park, Apple’s multibillion-dollar new campus in Cupertino, is colloquially known as “the Spaceship Campus” because of its design — but also because it’s a self-contained destination one could conceivably stay airlocked inside forever.
These tech cultures offer “work-life balance” only in the sense that you can theoretically manage your entire life from campus, with no need to go elsewhere to exercise, do errands, eat out or meet up with friends (why be friends with people outside of work, after all?). The caveat here is these perks tend to fall short if your life responsibilities happen to include small people who are dependent on you. (...)
But what are we collectively missing out on because of all this?
But the even bigger issue is that tech’s myopic view causes it to miss out on many billion dollar opportunities.
The stats on this opportunity are things we’ve all heard before: baby boomers control more than ⅔ of the disposable income in the US and will inherit $15 Trillion over the next two decades.
What is surprising is that the tech industry hasn’t taken more notice of this rapidly growing market underserved by tech. Instead, VCs are distracted by apps for millennials like private chefs, valet parking and skipping the line while clubbing (yes, there is a new app for this).
What about instead building technology focused on working parents, second careers, menopause, retirement and senior care?
Image: Getty
