<p>"One major problem that I see in the articles which you posted is how you mix CS and IT jobs in there. "</p>
<p>Well, I did not write the articles. However, if you read Professor Matoff’s research on the topic, he has separated CS majors from other IT majors.</p>
<p>I think that the problem is CS and Software Engineering jobs - not the majors. There are lots of CS majors that take jobs in IT that essentially waste a lot of their knowledge of theory. We have mostly older workers where I work and we have hired many younger workers but they tend to job hop. It’s frustrating when you spend a year training them and then they start looking just as their work output exceeds the amount of effort that you have to spend on them. The older guys tend to stick around for quite some time as they are busy raising families.</p>
<p>I think that the East Coast tech companies tend to appreciate older workers better than the left coast companies.</p>
<p>It should also not seem surorising that there is age discrimination in tech. Unlike medicine, law, accounting, etc., technology changes very fast and companies are afraid (wrongly) that older workers are not up to speed with new technology. Oh yeah, younger workers are also cheaper than older ones. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned earlier that other professions hae safeguards to prevent agaisnt age discrimination. This is true. At law firms, you don’t have 26 year olds right out of law school as partners. Law also does not change that much. Attorneys still rely on court cases and statutues from the 1950s and 60s in fact (eg: Civil Rights Act of 1964). The same is true at CPA firms. And in medicine, you are going to have lots of older workers because ti takes a VERY long time to become a doctor when you factor in undergrad, med school, and your residency. So right out of the gate, entry level doctors are going to be much older than entry level workers in other professions. </p>
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<p>Tech companies prefer to hire young engineers. Engineering has become an “up or out” profession – you either move up the ladder or you face unemployment. In other words, even though globalization has compounded the difficulties for aging engineers, it’s not the culprit.Wadhwa notes that tech start-ups simply cannot afford to hire experienced workers. To save money, they employ recent graduates or others willing to work for relatively low pay and then provide on-the-job training to expand their skills.</p>
<p>Even tech companies that can afford experience may find that younger workers better suit their needs, writes Wadhwa. He cites software patent firm Neopatents, whose CEO says younger workers tend to be more creative, flexible and schooled in the latest technologies. In contrast, the CEO says some older workers expect to be paid for their experience – whether or not it is relevant to the job.</p>
<p>It’s against the Terms of Service of this website to provide links to
blogs.</p>
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<p>There are many technology companies that have very large code bases
(10 million lines of code and higher) where some technology changes
quickly but most of it changes at a slower pace compared to smaller
projects. You are at a substantial advantage working in this kind of
environment if you are an older employee because you will know a
greater chunk (nobody can know it all) of the overall codebase and
the people involved in the various pieces.</p>
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<p>Why don’t you post one of the articles on outsourcing lawyers? Or those
outsourcing doctors? Or those bringing in cheaper doctors from India?</p>
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<p>This is rubbish. I work in a building full of older engineers with some
younger engineers.</p>
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<p>They might. But they also might find that older workers better suit
their needs. It’s false reasoning to present the best case for one
side and the worst case for the other side.</p>