Successful professionals come from all backgrounds and industries with ranging skillsets and strengths that companies desire. So it can be difficult to stand out in the crowd when searching for a job. However, sometimes it may seem like you’re the perfect fit for a position, but then are passed over for someone else seemingly for only one obvious reason. While age should never be a determining factor when choosing a job candidate, some professionals have experienced age discrimination while on the job search. Whether you are a young professional or seasoned expert, have you ever felt that you weren’t hired because of your age? Let us know by voting in our poll!
Age discrimination exits – I have experienced but I also people do it without realizing it – sort of an unconscious bias they have that is not recognized. Often HR folks are not part of the interview process when this occurs – one can just smile and move on –
Unfortunately HR has been just as guilty in discrimination as hiring managers in my experience. The perception of the older generation verses the younger has many people making hiring decisions not always based on the best candidate for the position.
I have found a correlation between the ages of the hiring managers’ kids and their hiring practices. Those with college kids want to hire a “young kid out of college”, specifically male hiring managers. When their kids were younger, they wanted more experienced workers – older than 45. I’d love to see a study like this.
Younger leadership is intimidated by staff that is older than them. This pervails in many Fortune 500 companies.
I have seen age discrimination go both directions but honestly for me it has been worse when the interviewer was younger and felt my presence would slow down the office and my expertise held little to no value. HR is of little help unless you are already part of the company and depending on the company culture can be worse then the interviewer.
When a musician auditions for a symphony seat in an orchestra, they do so behind a shield, so only the skill set of the musician is judged, not if female or male, because women in the past were so badly discriminated against. They should do this for all hiring, which would eliminate age discrimination and actually all discrimination.
I have had a former VP of HR tell me not to hire an older worker for a labor job. I was able to prove him wrong at the pre-employment stage when this applicant passed a physical agility test with flying colors compared to a 25 year old man. I have also experienced this myself when an HR Director would make comments about needing new fresher faces even referring to younger workers. As an HR Director myself, I am very cautious of this and focus on experience and talent, not age.
I agree. There have been times when I missed out on a prospect that I was perfectly competent to accomplish, but overlooked due to my age.