Posted on 10/26/2012 8:50:06 PM PDT by null and void
We all know it’s out there. Lingering. Waiting to impede. Still, I wasn’t expecting it for at least another five years. I’ve heard it hits women earlier than men, but now, already? And on my birthday, too. Ouch.
When having coffee with a long-time friend, who also happened to be one of my first managers, an open position at her company came up in conversation. She and I have maintained a good relationship since I worked for her back in the 1990s. We make an effort to follow each other’s careers, even though we haven’t worked together in more than 15 years.
She wondered if I knew of anyone for the job and said: “We’re looking for someone just like you, who can do all you can do, except young.”
Excuse me? I pointed out that at just having blown out the candles on my 35th birthday cake, I am young, or at least on the younger side. Certainly not “old.”
Now, I have to admit, I had watched some Matlock that morning, I knew there was a storm coming because of some knee pain, and, yeah, the photo run with this blog was taken many moons ago when I was, by most definitions, young. But old, no -- Not over the hill, not stuck in my ways, not without the spirit and attributes many assign to youth: ability to learn quickly, willingness to experiment with new ideas and to conform with new corporate cultures, freshly educated, and up on the latest processes.
Had I turned 35, 45, 65, or 85, was not the point. These attributes are not defined by one’s age on a driver’s license but by mindset and dedication to one’s career.
My friend’s reply was short but not sweet: “You’re old. Get over it.”
My coffee had turned bitter and so had I. If she wanted someone who could do all I could do, she wanted someone with more than a decade’s worth of experience. You don’t get that in a 20 year old.
Just a few years after I had worked with this woman and in between full time jobs, I worked with a career strategist and wrote resumes for some very experienced people. “Mask their experience level,” I remember being told because, although this was sugarcoated, age discrimination exists. If you list 20 years of experience on a resume, it’s presumed the candidate is either at too high a salary level or out of touch -- just plain old.
In the time since this blog’s headshot was taken, I’ve been honing my craft, solving problems, working with engineers and other editors on a daily basis to grow my experience, and become a more well-informed force than would have been possible when I started my career.
Unfortunately, we live in a world of Mark Zuckerbergs, where the flashiest new idea often comes from someone not old enough to remember the Reagan years, let alone be born before them. These shining stars are allotted tremendous power and influence over industries. I’m scratching my head, gray hairs and all, and wondering why.
Why value the inexperience and ignorance that often accompanies youth? Why not hold higher the experience, knowledge, and sharpened creativity that only comes from decades in a field?
There are plenty of smart young guns out there who deserve respect. We at EDN often make efforts to bring the next generation of engineers along and encourage them to make the commitment to engineering that develops into 20, 30, or more years in a career. But for the current generation of engineers, it’s a disturbing fact that age discrimination undervalues know-how and insults the importance of careers and ingenuity.
Sickeningly, I suspect many reading this have been the victim of age discrimination in some form or another. Even in such a minor brush as experienced over this birthday coffee, age discrimination hinders the ability to share experience and knowledge. Ultimately, that dampens the strength of employees and weakens the field of engineering.
We’ve had two high-level members of the electronics industry announce plans to retire in recent weeks after long, stellar careers that made massive contributions to electronics: TI’s Gene Frantz, who you can read about here, and Avnet’s Roy Vallee, who we spoke with a few weeks ago.
Vallee pointed out in the interview with EDN that careers are marathons, not sprints. Honor and recognize those who run the marathon over decades, who have proved their strengths and dedication to engineering and design, not just those starting the race.
:) Nobody EXPECTS “pretty” at this age—unless they’re in Hollywood; but I laugh at them more than they can scoff at me. ;)
I’ve grown to be a creature of comfort—and there’s great success in that endeavor! Hollywoodies are fighting a battle that they cannot win; and I’m playing a hand that I cannot lose.
I kept them because I might have to eventually go out somewhere without a shirt on.
Date night? Pool party? Not without ironing my skin first. ;)
/johnny
Preacher is talking about enemies at the rostrum... He's fired up. Asks if anyone in the congregation doesn't have an enemy....
Everyone is silent, but a hand slips up on the third row.. Miss Annie.
The preacherman is flabbergasted, and says "Miss Annie, come up here and tell the congregation how that it is you don't have any enemies".
The geriatric crowd helps Miss Annie to her walker, and shuffles her up to the podium....
She leans into the microphone and says...
"I outlived all them bitches"...
/johnny
You need to set your sites a little higher; trust me...
You need to set your sites a little higher; trust me...
If people in their 30s are unhappy because they think no one will hire them due to their age, why not start a company of their own and hire. . . people in their 30s.
It seems to me there are just as much “older” as “younger” people out there. “Older” can hire “older” if they like.
Start their own business if needs be.
She sound kinda thick in the skull.
We are hiring experienced people.
I work in the electronics industry.
There are still a lot of things that I have learned that are great as I get older, like Shortcuts!!! I have honed the art of finding a way to do most things easier, and with less physical, emotional, effort.. HA!
Next, I find I have little patience for excuses, not that I don’t make my own excuses, usually I use the reason, because I am too old.. LOL
I just can not accept reasons for incompetence, when I know from experience that most people find that their dissatisfaction in life has more to do with their own refusal to do what has to be sacrificed to better their conditions.. I know that because I have used most of those reasons..
Also, I love being OLD, because I now can say anything that I want, and most people let me get away with it because he’s harmless, and just an old fool!!!
Lastly, it’s great being old, nobody expects you to do much of anything, because .. DRUM ROLL... your too OLD.. ! :)
Oh! and by the way, a lot of these young “potential” superstars have not got a clue about the “industry”
I had a 4.0 college grad ask me what solder is.
They know how to use matlab, but us old guys tell them what to use matlab for.
And quite frankly we did that stuff without crutches.
ever catch yourself looking into the fridge and not know if you're are taking something out or putting something back???
Any chance he was just joshin'?
My organization is full of twenty and thirty somethings and we can engineer the hell out of anything.
Over 70 .. Not old .. Chronologically challenged .. !
You know, when they were saying Dick Chaney had that, I wondered if it was fatal...
So far it hasn't been..
I finally got my dad out of Detroit at the age of 83...He told me one day that the apartments were full of old foggy’s. I had a laugh at that one...learned old is anyone older than you...
We can have stuff done before your old fogey ass even has time to put your orthopedic shoes on. Matlab is just one of many tools at our disposal.
Nope.
Serious as a heart attack.
Smart guy , but NO experience.
They sent him to me to learn the ropes.
Why calculate a circuit, send endless email, negotiate what needs to be done, waste a pile of time, Get planning involved, cut a new work order, to change a value on a resistor when I can slip in a pot, tweek the thing and solder down a new resistor in .5 hours?
Greenhorns!
Hey kid, I just turned 75!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.