Ask most people to describe a typical tech worker and it’s all too likely they’ll pick a white man in his twenties or thirties. Over the years, the IT industry has made a lot of noise about tackling gender and race bias, and has made small steps in the right direction.
What there has been less focus on is the age factor. However, studies indicate this is an area that requires attention, as ageism ripples through the tech sector and more widely across the workforce.
According to the latest annual State of the Industry research report from global data centre specialist Keysource, ageism is a factor when it comes to recruiting and retaining tech workers. More than 75% of senior decision-makers within the IT and data centre sectors recognise ageism within the industry. While 38% feel that ageism impacts both younger and older employees equally, half say that older generations appear to be the most affected.
An earlier report from CWJobs highlighted the scale of bias against ‘older’ staff in the UK tech sector. I’ve used quote marks there for ‘older’, as the report found that employees begin experiencing old-age discrimination at the ripe old age of just 29. This is 12 years earlier than the average across all industries, which starts at age 41.
By the time tech workers reach 38, their colleagues consider them ‘over the hill’. Meanwhile, 35% of tech workers say they are considered ‘too old’ for their job, while 32% worry about losing their role due to age.
Overall, 61% of IT and tech workers believe older workers experience prejudice in their industry. This is the highest proportion of any UK sector. Tech workers also begin to feel older at a much younger age, at just 37 years old compared to 47 for the average across all industries.
Skills issue
This age bias in tech is having a detrimental impact on skills retention, as 51% say they would choose to leave their job because of age discrimination.
Unsurprisingly based on their treatment, there are fewer workers aged 40-plus in the tech sector. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) study, ‘Diversity of the High Tech Workforce and Sector 2014 – 2022’, revealed there are many more 25- to 39-year olds than would be expected given the proportion of that age group in the overall US workforce. While that age group account for 33% across all industries, it makes up 41% of the high tech workforce, which the EEOC defines as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations.
While younger workers are over-represented, the proportion of high tech workers aged 40-plus declined from 56% in 2014 to 52% in 2022. That older age group represent 53% of the overall US workforce, and so are now under-represented in STEM roles.
Ageism is a problem outside of the tech sector too. When applying for jobs, the biggest fear for candidates is being perceived as too old, according to recruitment tech platform Tribepad’s 2024 Stop the Bias report. This was the main concern for 57% of people, rising to 83% for those over 55.
And yet another report reveals 57 as the age employers consider too old to hire, while 42% of HR decision-makers have experienced pressure to hire younger candidates. The research from Totaljobs found that a third of over-50s worry they will struggle to find work due to age discrimination. Meanwhile, 15% of people over 50 said they’d been turned down for a job because of their age.
Among the over-50s who have changed jobs in the past three years or are currently looking for work, 20% have faced inappropriate age-related questions, 22% were asked unsuitable questions about their health and physical capabilities, and 26% were presumed to struggle with new technologies.
While the number of candidates facing inappropriate questions about their age is relatively low, at around a fifth, the perception of age discrimination among older tech workers is high. Lily Haake, Associate Director – Head of Executive Search and Interim, Harvey Nash, says:
I often speak to older candidates who ask me if I think my client has an ‘ideal age profile’. They assure me that they are still working with pace and not winding down to retirement, but they have been discounted based on their age in the past.
To the contrary, Harvey Nash has found that older candidates are very adaptable to new technologies and able to keep up with the pace of the tech industry.
While ageism is still an issue for the tech sector, Haake has seen improvements. When she started recruiting CIOs a decade ago, some hiring managers were almost comical in their prescriptiveness. Haake notes:
I would hear requests like ‘he (the hypothetical new CIO – who of course was a ‘he’) should probably be in his forties, so he has lots of energy for the job, but his kids are a bit older so he’s not totally sleep deprived’. Of course, even 10 years ago, requirements like that in recruiting were both discriminatory and illegal, but they were commonplace. Happily, I can say that I very rarely hear talk like that anymore.
Hiring
But while companies are less likely to openly express a preference for younger staff, this doesn’t mean they’re always more likely to consider or hire an older candidate.
Tharindu Fernando, a tech expert and full-stack developer at NetSpeed Canada, says that working in tech development, he deals with age bias every week – at both ends of the scale. His current team spans from developers in their early 20s to those in their 60s. He adds:
The younger devs get dismissed in meetings despite their innovative ideas, while our senior developers face subtle exclusion from cutting-edge projects. The tech industry's obsession with youth creates real problems. My older colleagues often hide their extensive experience to seem more ‘culturally fit’ - which is absurd, since their deep knowledge of systems and architecture has saved our projects countless times.
Fernando’s work building healthcare platforms has proved that mixed-age teams create better products.
My role developing NetSpeed Canada's platform proved this - our most elegant solutions came from combining our veteran developers' system knowledge with newer developers' modern toolkit expertise. Our senior developers catch critical security issues that younger devs might miss, while newer team members push boundaries with fresh approaches to user experience.
The cost of this ageism hits hard. Last month, the company passed on an incredibly talented developer in his 50s because leadership worried he wouldn't mesh with its culture. Fernando adds:
Two weeks later, we desperately needed his exact skill set to fix a major system architecture issue.
Ageism in tech is reflected in broader society, as Anne Cantelo, Director at Onyx Media & Communications, has experienced. She explains:
At 61 years old, aside from electoral mailshots, the only direct advertising sent to me this week has been for funeral plans, hospice care and incontinence help. They assume that everyone over 60 is sitting in God’s waiting room dribbling.
For millennials and those newer to the workforce, who have embraced job mobility, age discrimination will come as shock. People reaching 40 will see responses from recruiters dry up and their applications ignored, Cantelo warns:
Once you reach a certain age, depending on your sector, you have to stay in your job, your options are effectively closed with more than half your working life ahead of you. The only exceptions are where they are recruited by people already known to them.
It matters
Aside from giving older workers a better experience, does ageism matter to the tech sector, and society in general? Yes, according to Ash Gawthorp, Chief Academy Officer at Ten10. He notes that workers aged 50-plus account for 33% of the UK workforce but only a fifth are in tech roles. Gawthorp explains:
That's creating a substantial skills gap as our population ages. Recent research from the London School of Economics' Inclusion Initiative demonstrates clear business impact - their study found that employees at companies with age-inclusive work practices were twice as likely to be satisfied with their jobs and less than half as likely to seek new roles, while also reporting higher productivity levels.
Beyond the metrics, experienced workers bring invaluable professional capabilities that complement technical skills. After years of face-to-face interactions, their collaboration and communication abilities could prove crucial, as younger generations often default to digital communication. Gawthorp adds:
While technical skills can be taught relatively quickly, these ingrained professional behaviours - from meeting punctuality to stakeholder management - take years to develop. Having workers who understand both traditional and digital communication methods creates a more resilient workplace.
While AI and technology can simplify certain technical tasks, core business and interpersonal skills remain constant. He says:
Traditional approaches to relationship building, conflict resolution, and stakeholder management remain as valuable today as they were thirty years ago.
The ageing population across the developed world means we need people to remain economically active for as long as possible to support economic growth and pay for public services. Haake says:
Overlooking someone due to their age, or making tech an unappealing industry in which to work, risks pushing older people out of the sector and missing out on an amazing, highly experienced talent pool. It’s also really helpful for young people entering the workforce to work in intergenerational teams with varying perspectives and approaches to work.
In 20 years’ time, a significant proportion of the working population will be over 50 and the birth rate today is not enough to fill all the vacancies that we expect to see at that time. Haake adds:
A concerted effort is needed to re-skill the existing population irrespective of age in order that they can fulfil the job roles of tomorrow.
My take
Some worrying stats here showing the scale of the problem. Ageism occurs much earlier in tech than other sectors, and has many negative outcomes for businesses.