Is there subtle Ageism at Tech companies?
I've always wanted to work in the gaming industry. Unfortunately when the gaming companies first formed, most were on the west coast and since I was a Mom and lived on the east coast, transferring across the country wasn't much of an option. So I dreamed, and wished, and "le sighed" a lot.
Now when I check out my Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms, I notice a depressing sight. In all the pictures of the companies with shots of their people (usually showing off fun events, big announcements, new interns, etc.), there is a decided lack of older people in the pictures.
It's like playing "Where's Waldo", only more difficult. BTW, Waldo cannot be one of the founding members, or an owner of the company. That doesn't count.
I realize the younger generations may be thought of as more tech savvy, or perhaps more cutting edge in their thinking, but older generations who have played video games might have a different appreciation as to how far the video gaming industry has come along. With that appreciation, their perspective might just bring about some ideas that would otherwise be missing from employees that never suffered through "Pong", never cursed out Sonic, or trashed a controller on the first Zelda game (hey some of the puzzles were frustrating. It was the early days of games).
Remember the game that had no video, just words? You had to type "go left" or "look up" or "explore the floor"? It was a dungeon crawler game, without the dungeon. lol Just a screen where you typed instructions and it responded back with "Nothing is there" or "You found a torch". It was amazing at the time and one of the first games that had me hooked. It actually came standard on some of the earlier computers. (This particular game, I actually discovered on my computer at work! Ooops, Mr. IT guy, sorry.) After that, there was no looking back, and computer games became almost an obsession for me.
But back to hi tech company demographics. Forget about the development roles, what about admins, hardware techs, research, or artist positions? There does not seem to be a reason that an older worker should not fill these roles. So where are they in the pictures?
As an older worker, I realize we tend to stay at jobs longer, but is that a bad thing? We won't be taking maternity leave; we would be (probably) more appreciative we're working at a GREAT company and not looking in 3 years to jump companies for better pay or a better title. Just a thought and perhaps a blanket statement opinion with no data on hand to back these thoughts up.
This is after all a Blog. And a simple Blog at that. A blog to write my thoughts, ideas, inane observations; not a professional site, just a personal one.
But, I'd be curious to see the workforce demographics, turnover rate, time off studies, etc. of the high tech companies where the majority of employees are under 35-40 as opposed to a similar company whose workforce has a higher percent of employees over 35-40, if there is a similar company.
I'd like to think that ageism isn't the norm in high tech companies. And that should an "older" applicant land a job interview, questions like "Tell me about yourself" isn't being used to find out how old their kids are, in order to estimate your age range. But in reality, we all know it is. Along with some other subtle questions HR employs in the interview process.
I want to "find Waldo" more often in a high tech company's social media post. And if Waldo is wearing orthopedic socks with sandals, that's bonus points! (In spite of it being a bad fashion choice.)
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