Special Report: Silicon Valley’s Dirty Secret – Age Bias
28th November 2012
When Randy Adams, 60, was looking for a chief-executive officer job in Silicon Valley last year, he got turned down from position after position that he thought he was going to nail — only to see much younger, less-experienced men win out.
Finally, before heading into his next interview, he shaved off his gray hair and traded in his loafers for a pair of Converse sneakers. The board hired him.
“I don’t think I would have been able to get this CEO job if I hadn’t shaved my head,” says Adams….
They’d have hired him faster if he had grown a goatee as well. That would have made him look Hip And Trendy.
Adams has supplemented his makeover by trading in his button-down shirts for T-shirts, making sure he owns the latest gadgets, and getting an eyelid lift.
After all, nothing says technical competence like dressing like a kid who lives in his parents’ basement.
On the other hand, in a field where everything technical you knew five years ago has no value today, it’s hard to say that the people who prefer kids don’t have a point.
Plus they’re cheaper, of course.
And who wants to work someplace that’s run by Old White Guys? That’s not the Obamanation, where all the Hip And Trendy people live.