At my place, we have plenty of older folks(40-50s), but a lot of the older guys suffer from either NIH syndrome or do-not-want-to-innovate syndrome or barely surviving-syndrome. Some of them are in management and also just don't get it. This definitely biases myself against older folks if I ever have to interview, but usually interviewees can barely pass a phone screen anyway regardless of age.
It's frightening since I'd imagine that these things I implement now may be irrelevant 10-20 years from now and would imagine myself butting heads with the next gen of kids as an older guy.
I guess we will have to see if ageism becomes irrelevant as time goes on and the current generation of 20s kids that become the hiring managers 20 years from now lose their bias as they age. I'm hopeful as tech has had a lot of growth and the current 20-30s technologists value the older folks.
Well, at my place I'm the "older" guy wanting to innovate :) I don't think either NIH or not wanting to innovate is an age thing. It's a mindset. Plenty of young people have that as well. Plenty of older innovators.
There are a couple of older innovators in management positions as well. The guys who really want to innovate and make a difference have gone to other places unfortunately. I guess we are merely left with older guys who are comfortable.
Being in "regulated" finance makes for a lot of guys who have golden handcuffs. Great salary and benefits and no strong desire to ruffle the bureaucratic obligations placed on them. A very common theme is, "Hey can you work on this X feature? Would be really useful." "That sounds like a great idea! But sorry, I can't unless there is a billing code dictated by the business for that idea"
It's frightening since I'd imagine that these things I implement now may be irrelevant 10-20 years from now and would imagine myself butting heads with the next gen of kids as an older guy.
I guess we will have to see if ageism becomes irrelevant as time goes on and the current generation of 20s kids that become the hiring managers 20 years from now lose their bias as they age. I'm hopeful as tech has had a lot of growth and the current 20-30s technologists value the older folks.