Recruiting Animal

Are Young Workers Better

From: The Possibilian by Burkhard Bilger

Mathematicians, like rock musicians, tend to do their best work in their twenties and thirties. Not so neuroscientists.

The Nobel Prizes in the field are usually earned in mid-career, after a few false starts and fruitless sidetracks.

“Biology is special that way,” Eagleman says. “It takes years for people to get a feeling for the organism—for how nature actually works.

Young people come in all the time knowing a bunch of fancy math. They say, ‘What if it’s like this computational model, this physical problem?’ They’re terrific ideas, but they’re wrong. Nothing works the way you think it should.”

Age Discrimination

On JibberJobber radio Jason Alba and Karen Katz looked at the lessons the US election holds for job hunters.

I called in and since John McCain is 72, age was a major issue.
You can hear 5 minutes of the audio here.

Me: Recruiters assume that any 40+ worker who is not in an executive role is not a superior candidate.

Karen: An older candidate in that position could sell himself as someone for whom career advancement is not an issue. He just wants to do his job well.

Me: An older worker wants more money because of his greater experience and this makes him less attractive.

Karen: Candidates in their fifties and sixties are not after big money. They care more about a good work life balance. Just like younger people.

Karen: An older candidate should sell himself as a mentor for younger staff members.

Me: The interviewer might not want a guy who thinks he's seen and knows everything.

An older worker has to present himself as someone who is as eager to learn as anyone else and who considers other people as peers rather than juniors who have to respect his greater wisdom.

Karen:, speaking from personal experience, said that older people are, in fact, less stubborn and more willing to learn than younger people.