‘He’ll be too slow, let’s go for someone younger,’ is what some hiring managers may think when they see the year of birth 1973 as they flip through CVs, while others may think ‘Finally someone stable and experienced’. Either way, age is always talked about in recruitment and it would be naive to pretend it isn’t. What’s important is how we think about it and how we can use it in companies for efficiency and success. The TITANS  database also includes IT experts of all ages, and we discuss this with clients from time to time during projects. Let’s take a closer look at this issue. 

As the productive population of the Western world ages, the topic of age is resonating throughout the global HR world. One article published in Forbes in America even said that this topic can also lead to unwanted positive discrimination. Simply put, nothing is black and white. 

Prejudice or true risks? 

What is really stopping some managers from recruiting older applicants? They most often mention: 

• lower flexibility,
• limited willingness to accept changes in technological fields, 
• less understanding for young people in the team and their world, 
• higher risk of illness,
• and higher wage requirements due to their seniority. 

(And sometimes incompatibility with the ‘party mindset’, but let’s leave the issue of free time aside for the moment.)

No matter what we may think of these points, many hiring managers base their decisions on them, whether they do so consciously or subconsciously. After all, rational reasoning and experience lead us to the conclusion that the probability of these points does increase with age. It’s just a matter of how much, in whom and whether they can also be seen as a positive… 

The other side of the coin: experience and stability 

And what reasons are given by those who say they are not afraid of age diversity in a team, or that they deliberately seek it out? We asked IT freelancers in the TITANS network, employees and clients, and we learned that what they most appreciate about older specialists and managers is: 

• stability and prudence, which they bring to the team, 
• rich experience gained through time, obstacles they have overcome and projects they have mastered, 
• loyalty, because they value stability and good relationships, 
• different points of view that surprisingly often lead to innovative solutions, 
• a reminder that not every solution from last year is outdated and dysfunctional. 

Now what? Are there applicants that only have the qualities from the second list? Do we truly need them in every team to provide balance, or is 100% ‘youth and dynamics’ all we need? There are no manuals or correct answers, we just have to use our experience and discretion. 

Common sense wins 

We logically mostly work with applicants aged 25–45 in IT recruitment, but we also offer experienced guys aged 50+ (and 55+) for projects, and that is when the topic of age may come up in our discussion with the client. Titans Sales Consultant Daniel Leitner says: ‘I support clients in making decisions based on personality, not age. This can be confusing. Some candidates nearing sixty can be a lot more lively and innovative than others in their thirties. Although I understand prudence in hiring, missing out on a good person because of his date of birth seems a great shame to me.’

It’s not about determining who’s right. We have stories of teams who hired an older IT expert and it paid off, and they like to speak about his contribution to the whole project, or how they involved him in mentoring and developing his younger colleagues. But there are also cases where the opposite has happened. However, the results would be just as varied with different energetic employees in their thirties.

At TITANS we look at personality, not age 

We want to help people overcome prejudices with everything we do at TITANS. We want to open up discussions and inspire people, whether we’re supporting women in IT or reminding others that a person’s age doesn’t say how valuable he is as an employee. This is true in IT, marketing, sales and all other fields.  
After all, our recent LinkedIn survey on this topic showed that most of our respondents have experienced discrimination themselves, or know someone who has. By the way, as someone on the same network noted, as the age of experienced IT experts increases, we will soon have to address the same questions with 60+ and 70+ age categories. So this issue isn’t just going away. At TITANS, we believe that every person is unique and that they deserve freedom – and we also apply this belief to our contractors when we recommend them for a specific IT project. Whether you’re thirty, fifty or more, we believe that everyone has something to offer if he does his job to the best of his ability. And if you’re our client, we will recommend personally vetted applicants who are the best fit for your IT project in terms of their personality profile and experience. The choice is up to you.