Older IT Pros Struggle With Age Bias

By Elisabeth Goodridge, InformationWeek

When Chuck Linn walked into a branch office of a large California bank last spring for an interview, he felt pretty confident about his chances.

His work experience as a computer programmer and IT trainer went back 25 years, and he had just completed a successful contracting stint -- extended three times -- at a company affiliated with the bank that manages investments.

"I was very attractive on paper," said Linn, 59. "But the 25-year-old who was interviewing me said they'd get back to me after seeing if I would fit in with the group."

None of the bank's IT trainers he met with appeared to be over 40, he said.

"Simply put, they unspokenly said, 'You're too old. You won't fit in,'" Linn said.

Six months later, Linn said, the position was still posted on a website advertising tech jobs.

Linn continues to work on a contract basis at various tech companies in the Silicon Valley.

"I can't find a permanent job," he said. "I've had plenty of interviews, and several times I've been perfect for the job until I've walked in for the interview. Their faces drop. It's a sure sign I won't get the job."

Linn thinks he's been discriminated against because of his age, represented by the long white beard he's worn for 25 years.

"I have been discriminated against in many interviews," he says. "If it was something I could prove, I would. But I can't."

For IT workers, the opportunities have never been better.

According to a recent study by the Information Technology Association of America, 1.6 million additional IT workers will be needed in the United States during the next 12 months, and more than 800,000 of those positions are expected to remain unfilled because of a lack of available workers.

The IT labor shortage is so acute that workers are demanding and receiving salaries at unprecedented levels.

Last week, Congress approved a bill that will increase the number of foreign worker visas during the next few years -- primarily to help fill open IT positions. President Clinton is expected to sign the bill.

But if filling IT positions is such a big problem for companies, then why do skilled, experienced workers such as Linn struggle to find full-time employment?

Though little quantitative data exists regarding the issue, some industry observers and workers point to a rampant rise in age discrimination -- starting as early as age 35 -- in the tech industry.

Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine, submitted written testimony to Congress in 1998 that the problem of age discrimination in IT is getting worse.

"Midcareer programmers often have a very difficult time finding programming work, so much so that large numbers of them leave the field," Matloff wrote in his testimony.

He goes on to debunk what he calls the "myth of a desperate software labor shortage."

In a 1998 study that analyzed employment status, experience, and age among IT professionals, the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers USA determined that more experienced workers -- primarily those who are older and demand higher pay -- on average search for six to nine months before landing a job.

Age discrimination is a tricky issue. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June makes it easier to prove age discrimination if the employer is found to have been untruthful about related issues.

But cases of age discrimination in the workplace are difficult to prove because the claim usually comes down to one person's word against another's.

The IT industry is among those exhibiting a particularly high number of incidents of age discrimination, said Laurie McCann, a staff attorney at AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) who specializes in such cases.

"The principal cause is that employers are supporting the stereotypes of older workers: that they can't learn new technology and are inflexible at the workplace," she said.

It's tempting to place much of the blame for age discrimination on dot-com startups, which are known for their youth-oriented cultures that promote relaxation at work with foosball tables and water-gun fights.

But the issue also affects large companies. Intel Corp. has been a defendant in several age-discrimination cases during the last five years, and the U.S. subsidiary of Siemens Corp. settled such a case out of court last summer.

Earlier this year, former Oracle Corp. executive vice president Randy Baker filed a civil suit against CEO Larry Ellison and executive vice president Gary Bloom, alleging he was dismissed from the company because of his age.

Issues that hinder IT workers of all ages seem to hit midcareer professionals the hardest.

Take the challenge of developing new skills, for example. New programming languages and skills requirements are constantly popping up, making the older languages -- and the older programmers who code them -- obsolete.

Many older workers are experienced with Cobol, the predominant programming language used in business for decades.

But as companies move more segments of their operations to the Web, the primary demand now is for programmers experienced in Java, HTML, and otherInternet-oriented technologies.

The perception across the industry is that many older workers are too entrenched in the past to easily adopt to the new languages.

"There's a belief in Silicon Valley that what isn't new isn't useful, and that goes for people as well as technology," said Bill Payson, the 76-year-old president of Senior Staff Inc., a recruiting firm that specializes in older workers.