Communications of the ACM
Silicon Valley's Dirty Secret – Age Bias
A 20-something CEO was taken aback when 61-year-old Jeff Spirer walked into a job interview.
Credit: Robert Galbraith / Reuters
When it comes to hiring for senior executive positions, Silicon Valley may have an age bias, according to tech industry insiders. As a result, some older candidates are taking steps to appear younger — whether it's dressing differently, owning the latest tech gadgets, or actually changing their physical appearance to look younger. Such are the pressures in Silicon Valley, where the start-up ethos extols fresh ideas and young programmers willing to toil through the night and many investors state bluntly that they prefer to see people under 40 in charge. The concern among many is that this emphasis on youth undercuts another of Silicon Valley's cherished ideals: that anyone smart and driven can get ahead in what the industry likes to think of as an egalitarian culture.
There are some disturbing indications that age bias is now part of the culture in Silicon Valley. This is especially visible in the cachet attached to the young entrepreneur, especially by investors who state their preference for 20-something founders. According to experts, the age discrimination is 100% due to the new, young, tech start-up mindset. Regional data on age discrimination are hard to come by, making it hard to establish precisely how Silicon Valley stacks up against other parts of the United States. Of the 18,335 employment cases filed in 2010 with California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing, one-fifth cited age. That puts age below retaliation as a discrimination claim, but above racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual orientation.
Some technology recruiters say unequivocally they see bias at work, where some companies use age requirements as a starting point when creating new job openings. Age discrimination is notoriously difficult to prove. Lawyers say they typically do not have smoking guns such as emails saying the candidate or employee is too old, and need to be able to show through other methods such as statistics that the company is making employment decisions based on age. In some cases, there are reasons other than bias for preferring younger workers in a startup setting. People with young children can be strapped for time and less able to work long, late hours. Younger workers are more likely to be expert in the newest software programming protocols.
From Reuters
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