Steve Jobs Illustrates Age Discrimination by HR Employment Recruiters In High Tech Unwarranted

Israel News Agency / Google News ^ | October 7, 2011 | Joel Leyden

[IsraelBeach]

Steve Jobs Illustrates Age Discrimination by HR Employment Recruiters In High Tech, Social Media Unwarranted

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Ra'anana, Israel --- October 7, 2011 .... If Steve Jobs answered an ad today for work on LinkedIn.com or Monster.com chances are he would never even get a response.

At the age of 56 he would be deemed a dinosaur who would be completely out of touch with modern technology and integrated marketing channels. That at 56, he would be lucky if he was using email. HR and executive recruiters in high tech, SEO, social media and digital marketing have instructions by most companies not to engage anyone over 45.

Steve Jobs, the man who founded Apple and turned it into the world's must successful high tech, computer company died of pancreatic cancer yesterday. Jobs, with an estimated net worth of $7 billion dollars, was responsible for creating the personal computer industry, teaching people how to use a mouse to click on objects and how to make hardware easy to use. Steve Jobs created the iPod portable music player, the iPhone (telephone, Internet communicator, music player) and the iPad tablet. Consumer products which changed how we use and consume content in the digital age.

In addition to technology, Jobs served as served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios and became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company.

But yet, if Steve Jobs had not been so lucky in creating some of the first computers out of a garage in Mountain View, California and was simply a hard working, marketing professional who worked for Microsoft or HP and was laid off due to a recession where would he have been in the last few years?

Regardless of how deep his knowledge of software, hardware and marketing may have been - he could have wound up selling shirts at Macy's or frozen food at Walmart. If Jobs had not acquired the personal contacts that he accumulated over the years and simply relied on a resume to secure a hi tech position in 2011, he could have been collecting unemployment.

Many assume that those over 40 or 45 are not in touch with modern technology yet Steve Jobs was one of those middle aged professionals leading modern technology. Many social media, digital PR and SEO employers assume that in order to secure fresh ideas one needs to tap into a market of 20 - 30 year-olds. That those who are over 50 are completely obsolete.

When has youth had a higher value over experience? That those high tech marketing professionals who have made the jump from conventional media to online sales and integrated marketing channels are to be ignored?

One highly respected tech professional recently interviewed for a chief operating officer position with a West Coast technology company. The headhunter was very positive and told him that he was "the leading candidate". The CEO congratulated this 50 years plus professional on his stellar technology background. Then he heard nothing for two weeks. He then called the headhunter, who then told him that the company was seeking "a person with more technical experience." This candidate writes for CNET!

Age discrimination is alive and well. In fact age discrimination is killing high tech.

There's a TV commercial being aired on ESPN right now that illustrates two hiring managers discussing the two job candidates sitting in the lobby. We only see the backs of these candidates' heads. One is dark brown and lustrous and the other brittle and gray. The HR recruiters debate should they go with the experienced candidate though "he won't have energy" or hire the fresh young guy? And then we see that the two candidates are the same person before and after a hair dye job.

More than two-thirds of tech professionals over 45 have said that ageism is a "significant problem" according to a study released a few years ago. That nearly one in three workers over 45 said they have either witnessed or experienced "age bias."

During the next ten years, mature workers will overwhelm the high tech industry by their sheer numbers. According to American Demographics, seven baby boomers will turn 50 every minute in the US from now until 2014.

Steve Jobs at 56 was still creating, producing and marketing new consumer products at the time of his death. Jobs was widely described as a visionary, as a pioneer and perhaps one of the key leaders ever in the field of business, innovation and product design. Many say that Jobs had "profoundly" changed the face of the modern world in having revolutionized at least six different industries and was the finest role model for all chief executives".

Jobs was working smarter, faster and more creative than those half his age. Steve Jobs does not just leave us with an iPhone or graphics that you want to lick, but with the life example that experience and hard work is still alive after 55.

Steve Jobs will be remembered for many things and many quotes but perhaps these words are the most fitting: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

And excellence, like a fine wine, takes time to achieve.

[Tax Government]

Also working against older technical people is this: Managers feel threatened by older workers, and conspire to give them impossible-to-complete assignments, in the hope of removing them from the workforce. The solution, again imo, is to move away from larger organizations with formal management teams, and toward more entrepreneurial, smaller, newer, and often privately held companies. Once a person acquires sufficient expertise in a niche (a.k.a. specialized domain knowledge), this becomes less important.

[dfwgator]

Ten years ago, coders over 45 were much more vulnerable, because they tended to be more into older languages, like COBOL and C++, which were beginning to lose share in favor of Java and .NET.

But now, coders that age, tend to be fluent in Java and .NET, which are still going strong.

[Tax Government]

I am of this opinion... Every time Microsoft or other major software company releases a new technology, many developers quickly try to become professionally involved with it, which creates gaping holes in the support staff of organizations that still use the old technology. That spells opportunity for those who want to learn the old technology. The newercomers to the old technology may get more important assignments than they would, if they always chased the latest thing. Example: .NET created a shortage of COM expertise, and opportunity for developers to learn COM.

[dfwgator]

On a daily basis, I support apps written in PERL, Java, .NET (VB.NET and C#), classic ASP, VB6.

A good programmer shouldn’t have a difficult time learning new languages, even those they’ve never used before. Also today, being a “heads down” coder isn’t enough....you also need to be a business analyst, and a project manager, and interface with your users.....”Heads Down” coders get outsourced.

[Tax Government]

Actually, I have to disagree about the “heads-down” piece a bit. Focus is, imo, the one ingredient most technical people lack. They are always hedging their bets by learning a little about a lot of different things. Finding, and staying centered on, a few things and acquiring real depth in those areas is uncommon and therefore valuable.

[cynwoody]

I visited an Apple Store for the first time ever yesterday afternoon, before I learned the news (which I learned from the screens there) (how about that for strange coincidences?!) and among the many blueshirted employees, some wearing jeans with torn knees, others dirty sneakers, evidently the dress code applied only to the top of the body, among them all I noticed two fellows who were clearly over 60, one of them possible over 70, and this is a brand new store, so presumably they were new hires. What was going on there? I didn’t find out, they were both busy, and I didn’t speak to them or to anyone there.

The musings of a famous Apple user, who is willing to walk to an Apple store (he has a Gulfstream for longer treks):

"What do you mean? Steve, you can't sell your products in a retail store! You don't have a wide enough variety. Don't go retail, Steve. You don't know about retail. You can't. Don't even mess with it. You've got a great model going here." My point is that even Steve Jobs after all of these countless years of over-the-top success had people telling him, "You'll fail if you do it."

Today there are 327 Apple stores, retail stores around the world, and starting Thursday night, people are gonna be lined up for blocks around a lot of them trying to get this new iPhone. There are people that go into Apple stores like kids go into toy stores; and I think that's one of the unspoken answers to what is considered the magic of Apple and the whole aura of the place. It's tough to get into an Apple store on a Saturday afternoon. I've only been into one (it was in Boston) 'cause I don't shop. I don't do retail. But I was walking and I said, "There's gotta be one near here." It was on Boylston Street when I was staying in a hotel. I said, "There's gotta be an Apple store nearby here, just has to be." So I got out my iPhone and went to maps: "Tell me where the nearest Apple store is?" It was two blocks away, three blocks away. Pfft! I took the Hoof Express, went down there, and there were -- yep, three blocks, wasn't far -- and there were people there. (interruption) I will walk to an Apple store. Yeah! That's my point. (chuckles) I barely will walk to the bathroom, but I will walk to an Apple store.

I approve of his point of view.

[dfwgator]

You know what I love about the Apple Store, if I have a problem with my Mac, I take it there, and I get it back next day. No shipping it off to God-Knows-Where and getting it back in two weeks or any of that garbage.

[Tax Government]

There is a lesson in the life of Michael Burris. Look him up. I won’t tell the story, except to say this person is focused to a degree most people don’t aspire to. I personally also focus, and have deliberately refused to be involved in many common activities, just because they are on balance a waste of time. My life, imo, is stronger because of this. Some things I do are indeed a waste of time...except that after doing them for 10 or so years, one develops a kind of accidental expertise in that area. Go figure.

[desertfreedom765]

“This is, folks, how the political system can begin serving the interests of American citizens first.”

What a concept /s

[goat granny]

When you hit 65 and over,its not just a job, your body cannot do what it use to...so raising the age doesn’t help much those in that age bracket...They better have the where-with-all to take care of themselves before medicare kicks in....The idea of Bill Gates and Buffet or Perot collecting social secutity is ridiculus.....uber-rich should not be collecting.

[Tax Government]

Duh, his name is Michael Burry.

[goat granny]

I considered getting an Mac but no stores within 2 hours of where I live if it needs fixing...

[cynwoody]

Ten years ago, coders over 45 were much more vulnerable, because they tended to be more into older languages, like COBOL and C++, which were beginning to lose share in favor of Java and .NET.

Java and .NET are the Cobol of today. And, as for C++, give Objective C a whirl first. Steve did. It's behind that X in OS X.

If you sincerely want to avoid Cobol, you should really should go back to 1958. If the parens put you off, consider JavaScript, Lua, Ruby, Python, Clojure, Scala.

[dfwgator]

One of the problems is that twenty-somethings are suckered into believing they have to purchase a house.

Money should be saved so that when they are 40, they can invest that money either in their own business, or purchasing something like rental properties that can generate income. Because by that age, you simply cannot rely on working for somebody else anymore.

[dfwgator]

I like Scala a lot. Eventually the Java language won’t even be the language of choice people will write for JVMs. I like Ruby as a language as well.

[cynwoody]

The idea of Bill Gates and Buffet or Perot collecting social secutity is ridiculus.....uber-rich should not be collecting.

Why not? They contributed, didn't they? They're entitled. Period.

Once you means test, it's welfare! Which means, if SS is means-tested, anyone collecting a check is on welfare! LOL!

SS should be phased out.

[goat granny]

Your right and for many, they have to have a big house like their parents did...My in-laws rented for 20 years and paid cash for their home...of course that was a long time ago but their generation believed in saving having gone through the depression and they didn't trust banks...My father in law took me into the basement and showed me where money was hidden in case he and my MIL died...At the time he trusted me more than his daughter. They didn't get along too well...No one could have found it, he had it so well disguised.....they lived on just SS quite comfortably...

After working in the same shop for 28 years, one day he went to work and the company was closed up...none of the employee's were notified and all lost their pensions...

My husband got him a job through a friend as a janitor in the school system for minimum wage and he was grateful for the job....today no one would consider taking such a job at his age. He had been foreman for years at the shop....(that is until we had the Obama economy kick in....

Our first home we had to have 25% down. Not zero and didn't take equity out like many have done.....

[goat granny]

My husband paid into SS from the time he was 16 and passed away at 51, he never collected it..If we had been able to take that money and invest starting in 1955, we'd have been far better off than SS. Those that collect welfare contribute zero to it.....its not even close to being the same.

He was also in the saving plan when 401K came into law, and when he passed he had over 300,000 dollars. He took a buy out and 401K plus buying AT&T stock when it was one of the 10 blue chip stocks.. If he had been investing SS money in his own name, it would have accumulated more than that...

Get tired of people putting SS and welfare in the same catagory.....

[cynwoody]

Get tired of people putting SS and welfare in the same catagory.....

SS has been sorely misrepresented from the get-go. They want you to think it's a prudent retirement program. But it's actually just another tax, paying into the same piggy bank they feel entitled to rob whenever they feel the need to buy some more votes. A Ponzi scheme, in other words!

A proper retirement system would be something like a 401K or IRA. You would have an ownership interest. You would have control. Your heirs would inherit it, should you be so unlucky as your husband or Steve Jobs. If it did fabulously, you would be comfortable. If not, you would be on welfare. The cookie needs to crumble one way or the other.

[goat granny]

That is what I said, we had a 401K that became his IRA. If he had been able to take the same amount as he had to pay in SS, he would have had a lot more retirement that the 300,000 he got from his savings over the 35 years he worked.

But he personally collected none of the SS as he died at 51. SS taxes paid would have been in his name if done properly with the investment he choose to make.

The government put all the FICA in the general fund and spent it mostly on the Johnson War on Poverty and poverty won that war with the citizens money and they paid not one red cent for what the government handed them.

It was income re-distribution long before Obama was talking about it....take from the producer to give to the none producer... A lot of people that complain about SS never take into consideration that people like me (72) are still paying to put your kids through school, even tho 5 of my grandchildren went to private school and still had to pay for other peoples education to learn how to put a condom on a banana....My sister at 80 still pays school taxes....for your kids...Is that giving you welfare for your kids education?