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How old am I ?!?

I just have to share this afternoon's experience.  I will omit the company's name to protect the guilty (maybe I shouldn't ?)

I got an email this morning from someone who said that he got my name and address from some Microsoft web site and that if I was interested in some development projects I should give him a call.  Being someone who doesn't easily ignore a marketing opportunity, I write down the numebr so I can call later while driving to some meetings.  I checked out the company web site and see that it seems to be a real business with offices in several other countries.

When I called and asked for the person who emailed me, someone else answered and said that the sender was out of the offiice but if it is in reference to the development projects, I could talk to him.  Fine.  What is then the first question he asked me ? Not anything about my company or my experience - he asked me how old I was !  I actually recovered from the shock of that very quickly  and asked what difference that made.   His next line is what really blew me away: "I guess if we work together we aren't going to know anything about you !" 

Wow - talk about running, not walking, away from a prospect !

 

5 Comments

  • Turn them in to the department of labor, very illegal question to ask.

  • Sure, you can't discriminate on age, but let's be realistic. If you went into a job interview, you are guessed in their mind how old you are.



    There are alot of younger folks (I'm talking 10-15 year olds) who are starting to design and develop code, but lack the experience in managing projects and deadlines.



    Who knows, maybe this person got burnt before?



    You did not need to tell this person your age, but certainly, you could have approached it another way.



  • I forget the name but a company was mentioned lately in the blogsphere as having a maximum hiring age of 25.

  • Sure, I realize that in an interview that is soemthing that the interviewer will guess and consider. But the first question ?!



    There were also some other issues in this guy's attitude that said "run real fast", that I didn't list in my post.

  • "There are alot of younger folks (I'm talking 10-15 year olds) who are starting to design and develop code, but lack the experience in managing projects and deadlines."



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    That's me in a nutshell :) Usually, once they get me on site and working on projects, they see that I have more experience in the technologies then some of the guys that've been there for 5-6 years doing the same stuff. But yes, in a sense, (and I know enough about myself to admit) I am perhaps too immature and inexperienced when it comes to project management (turned 23 this year).



    At one location, I was on a project and asked to estimate how many man-hours I needed to get it done. This same discussion ultimately spiraled out of control and led to my firing as I pretty much *refused* to put a hard number on a project that was using an entirely new framework (Plumtree Portal; it wasn't just portlet development, it was framework customization).



    So yeah, nowadays, as "kids" are getting into technology earlier more than ever before, it almost seems relevant to ask about age. I admit, I normally don't wear my wedding ring, but I always do when I go into an interview.



    The thing you have to realize that a lot of these firms are just out to make a buck of off you. I've dealt with some *very* rude recruiters and I've also dealt with some very nice ones. Seems like you got a bad apple this time.

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