A couple of weeks ago KG wrote about ageism and attitude and I followed up by considering an often ignored basic fact about age and change.

However, what I realized is that we had never shared the primary article detailing the situation.

But that’s OK, because it’s been turned into visualization for those of you who would rather watch than read.

 Credit: Jonathan Ezer

The results of a new survey of 500 business leaders drives the home the importance of personality, which makes perfect sense, since it is “personality traits” that underlay “cultural fit.”

78% cited “personality” as the most desirable quality in employees, followed in importance by “cultural alignment,” and then finally “skill-set.”

“Skill-set” as a distant number three makes perfect sense considering the speed of change, especially when technology is involved.

Skills can be learned.

For a prime example, consider Declara CEO Ramona Pierson.

In 1984, at age 22, Pierson was hit by a drunk driver. The car tore her body apart, slicing open her throat, gouging her chest, leaving her heart and lungs fully exposed.

Pierson was in a coma for 18 months. She was totally blind for 11 years, though she has regained partial sight in her left eye thanks to a corneal transplant. It was the process of having to learn just about everything from scratch (including how to breath and walk) that made her realize how important it was to be a lifelong learner.

Which shaped her approach to hiring.

“We don’t hire people for a job. We look for very smart people and look for roles that let them continue along their path.”

KG Charles-Harris has a similar attitude and since I’m helping him with staffing I thought I’d share his Hiring Manifesto with you today.

It’s one I hope more managers/companies adopt.

QUARRIO HIRING MANIFESTO

Quarrio has used AI technologies (natural language processing & machine learning) to create the technology that enables natural language querying and analytics of structured and semi-structured data sources.  We believe this will change the analytics and enterprise software markets.   

We are seeking programmers to join our team who are willing to work for options until we are funded.  We expect funding to be in the coming 3-4 months.

Our compensation plan is completely transparent and we are happy to share it once we establish mutual interest.

WHAT WE WANT

Most companies, especially startups, look for “stars” with extensive experience in specific skills sets.

Quarrio has a different approach.

We seek people willing to work hard, constantly learn new stuff and who are diligent and dependable. People who perform at their peak because they care and constantly strive to improve. Our current team is truly world class and we plan on maintaining that standard as we grow.

We are a company of experience; our current team members are all over 40 with extensive and varied backgrounds. While their knowledge is deep they love learning; they know multiple languages and operating systems, are familiar with many others and have learned new ones as needed for our product.

WHAT WE NEED IMMEDIATELY

Programmers with

• Ruby or related knowledge
• Ruby on Rails
• HTML 5 & CSS3 & JavaScript

OR

• willingness to learn them coupled with a viable technical base on which to build.

WE DO CARE ABOUT

• Your attitude and
• fit with Quarrio’s culture.

WE DO NOT CARE

• If your experience comes from a formal background, working/OJT experience, self-taught at home or different tech background, but strong desire to learn and branch out;
• where you live (current team includes Seattle); or
• what you are.

One or another of our current team has faced and overcome every prejudice that is/was active in the workplace.

First and foremost, we care about getting the work done, so by hiring your mind and attitude as opposed to your body and proximity we have the luxury of finding talent that many companies miss. For example,

• wounded warriors and others with disabilities;
• minorities, including extraterrestrials;
• mothers re-entering the work force;
• “old” people;
• women;
• people with no interest in relocating to Berkeley.

In spite of the current prefunded status I honestly believe that Quarrio offers a unique and real opportunity or I wouldn’t post it here.

Yes, along with the right attitude you need to be willing to take the risk—but everything is a risk these days. And you owe it to yourself to take the time to evaluate this one.

I also hope you will share this post with your friends and network wherever they may be.

Please write miki@rampupsolutions.com or call me at 360.335.8054 for more information to discuss the opportunities.

Flickr image credit: Tim Green

As I wrote yesterday’s post, I had a personal epiphany regarding the cause and effect that has driven/is driving the escalation of ageism and sexism in the tech world.

I’m not saying I’m the first person to think of it, but I also haven’t seen or heard it put this simply.

It probably applies more to the tech world, because this is the first time in history that success—in the form of money, profile and influence—has come to a large number of people sans the experience that leads to maturity.

Moreover, many of them come from economically secure/elite backgrounds and are the children of the majority in control—mostly white and male.

What you have are thousands of boys in men’s bodies who suddenly have the financial ability to do what they want.

And what they want is to continue their frat boy life substituting work for school, but with the same partying, pranks, attitudes and immaturity of the collegiate fraternity boys they were.

It is a proven biological fact that males mature at a later age than females.

Generally speaking, 18-24-year-old males aren’t known for their sensitivity or respect, let alone any kind of deep thinking.

They are known for their insecurity, irresponsibility, partying, randy mindset, dismissal of everyone outside their small circle and generally oafish behavior.

So when they trade school for work, yet have the opportunity to do so without losing their previous mindset, why would you expect them to create an environment that was different from their college days?

Or want to invite people in and spend time around those who don’t share that mentality?

Flickr image credit: speedywithchicken

It’s pretty obvious that ageism is alive and well in tech.

As is sexism, which you can see from the email a female CEO received from an engineer she tried to hire.

But far worse are these examples of what women in tech face, exemplified by the latest bit of app stupidity.

“Titstare is an app where you take photos of yourself staring at tits.” –David Boulton and Jethro Batts at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon

Not to mention those who defended it.

“It is not misogyny to tell a sexist joke, or to fail to take a woman seriously, or to enjoy boobies” –Pax Dickinson, co-founder and CTO, Glimpse Labs

Or the incredible level of ignorance and pure stupidity exemplified by White_N_Nerdy on Reddit.

“I’m honestly trying to understand why anyone says that females are ‘needed’ in the tech industry.” He continued: “The tech community works fine without females, just like any other mostly male industry. Feminists probably just want women making more money.”

Being old enough to remember, medicine, research and law were “mostly male” industries not that long ago—as were college and advanced degrees.

In the comments section of the article, many women say that prior to the Nineties women developers and engineers weren’t subject to nearly as much abusive harassment, which matches my memories from when I was a tech recruiter in the late Seventies through the Eighties.

What happened?

Please join me tomorrow for a look at what may be an epiphany of cause and effect for both ageism and sexism.

Flickr image credit: KAZ Vorpal

KG wrote a great post about ageism that started an interesting conversation regarding what needs to happen on both sides of the age line-in-the-sand for things to change.

But what people seem to forget is that, at the time, the Boomers were plenty disrupting and more demanding than their parents.

In fact, historically each generation has disrupted the status quo and demanded both more and different than its predecessor in one way or another.

Every generation has focused on various traits of the upcoming generation and deemed them the end of civilization—if not the world.

I’m sure our hunter ancestors looked with horror at their gatherer children and predicted starvation if the herds weren’t followed.

It’s a given that what’s currently happening always seems more difficult, and even brutal, than what happened in the past when viewed from a distance.

I have no problem when Gen Y demands and walks when those demands aren’t met for two reasons.

1. Most of their demands are of universal interest (ability to make a difference, respect, challenge, opportunity to grow, etc.) and will improve the workplace for all ages; and
2. walking is the privilege of the un’s—unmarried, unparenting, unmortaged, unencumbered.

One of the few constants is that we will always have a multigenerational workforce.

So everyone would do well to remember that eventually we all become our parents—maybe not in our own minds, but definitely in the minds of the newest generation agitating for change.

Flickr image credit: Eric Danley

In writing my post on Ageism in Silicon Valley, I came to think of a good friend of mine who was an extraordinary developer. 

Two years ago he was, in essence, one of the people around 50 with great knowledge and skills, but with little knowledge of how to rejoin the burgeoning Silicon Valley entrepreneurial development workforce after having been focused on other projects for several years. 

 He eventually landed a gig at a young technology startup, one which was badly managed and where he was underpaid.  However, he liked the technology and some of the people he worked with.  But the environment was relatively toxic and he considered leaving quite soon after joining the company.

After slugging it out there several months, he slowly transitioned into a role of being mentor/manager – simply because of his greater experience and maturity.  In fact, despite his frustration with how the company was run, he managed to maintain productivity among the engineers and foster a better environment.  This, of course, had the effect that he became slightly less frustrated.  However, he still harbored thoughts of leaving quickly.

He started discussions with a few other startups – ones where he knew the work environment was positive.  He could easily do this as he now had a track record and people spoke highly of him.  But then a bomb went off – one of the largest internet companies on the planet put in a bid to acquire his company (unfortunately I cannot divulge any detailed information). 

Today he’s a senior manager in one of the most popular internet properties, one which most younger, hotshot, MIT or Stanford engineers would do anything to be able to work at.  He’s the “grey head” among the “young guns” and if he stays at the company for two years he will not have to work another day in his life.  The added upside is that the acquiring company has a fantastic company culture and he’s really happy at work.

This is almost a fairy tale story, but it’s real.  I don’t expect most of you to experience such a surreal ride, but the moral of the story is that nothing good can happen unless you go out there and make yourself attractive.  This means that you will probably not get full value for your past experience, but it does mean that because you do have experience you will progress faster than the younger team members – you have actually learned a lot of the lessons they’ll have to acquire over the next 15-20 years already.

Get out there!

Also, if any of you read this and want to be referred to any startup companies, we are always searching for people and I know several others in the same situation.  Feel free to contact me— kgch@emanio.com

Let me start by saying that I’m the CEO of a company that specifically seeks older developers – most of my team is over 40 years old.  In fact, my belief is that before professionals have at least 10 years of experience under their belt, it is rare that they have developed the deep experience and judgment I need, regardless of their field of endeavor.

Recently, there have been a number of articles describing vicious age discrimination in Silicon Valley.  I know firsthand that it’s real, but nothing is ever completely one-sided.

Along with ageism on the side of the young, there is a certain amount of self-sabotage on the other side—foremost because as people get older and more experienced they have expectations that are very different from those of younger developers.

As a pre-funded startup EMANIO follows the path of other software startups, i.e., build a working prototype and have some customers using it before seeking funding.  

This is a more involved process when building an enterprise product than one that focuses on consumers, because consumers seldom have IT departments and processes that slow or prevent our gathering of information.

Doing a software startup requires a development team willing to work for stock options and/or with minimal cash payments until we have accomplished building the prototype and having some customers using it.  If older programmers aren’t in a position or willing to do this, it is impossible for a pre-funded startup to hire them. 

This is a clear advantage that younger developers have – their expenses are generally lower as they haven’t yet bought homes, started families, etc.

Another thing that may come from age and experience is a certain annoyance in once again having to prove oneself—or learn new tricks. 

Many of the programming languages and methodologies that were popular have changed.  Agile methodologies and new languages abound and older programmers must take the initiatives to become familiar with them—usually on their own time.  Few young companies have the time or money to teach people these skills.

However, with the number of free, online classes available from places like MIT, Harvard and others, learning new languages and methodologies should be an easy task for those with the right attitude. Few, if any, companies care where or how programmers learn Ruby and other languages, as long as developers are proficient and productive.

On another note, in our present economy most job opportunities come from personal networks.  As such, being part of a team and proving oneself is absolutely necessary in order to be asked to be part of another team.  

Spending 3-6 months in a pre-funded startup is almost a prerequisite for being asked to join another team, regardless of whether the initial startup was successful or not.  

Older developers have to adjust to this change in the job market—and even when their skills are highly sought after they may need to adjust their expectations. 

This includes learning how to relate to very young and/or inexperienced team members and at times acting as a mentor, without seeming like a parent or overbearing or a fun-killer.

Everyone is searching for talent—cheap, productive talent is always welcome most places I know.  The cheap does not have to last for a long time; usually just long enough to get your foot in the door.

(See Entrepreneurs: the Shallowness of Youth and the Myth of Age for more information and links to other articles.)

Flickr image credit: Cliff

On one hand you have Jim Goetz, partner at Sequoia Capital, lamenting the lack of enterprise startups and on the other you have Sequoia’s Michael Moritz, “an incredibly enthusiastic fan of very talented twentysomethings starting companies. They have great passion. They don’t have distractions like families and children and other things that get in the way.”

Other things such as experience.

The shallowness of so many of today’s startups makes a great deal of sense if you remember the advice given to every aspiring writer, i.e., write about the things you know; write from your own life and experiences.

Investors give entrepreneurs similar advice, which is probably why you have an abundance of hook-up apps, gossip apps, games and social time-wasters.

And then there is the question of what purpose our economic growth actually serves. The most common advice V.C.s give entrepreneurs is to solve a problem they encounter in their daily lives. Unfortunately, the problems the average 22-year-old male programmer has experienced are all about being an affluent single guy in Northern California.

Monday we looked at the economic dangers from Silicon Valley’s generational gap highlighting the incredible waste of talent engendered.

But the real stupidity in the rush to fund the young is that their success is a myth and not backed up by any kind of hard data.

A 2005 paper by Benjamin Jones of the National Bureau of Economic Research studied Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics over the past 100 years, as well as the inventors of revolutionary technologies. Jones found that people in their thirties contributed about 40 percent of the innovations, and those in their forties about 30 percent. People over 50 were responsible for 14 percent, the same share as the twentysomethings. Those under the age of 19 were responsible for exactly nothing. One study found that even over the last ten years—the golden age of the prepubescent coder, the youth-obsessed V.C., and the consumer Internet app—the average age of a founder who could claim paternity for a billion-dollar company was a rickety 34.

Everybody in tech focuses on the importance of “data driven” decisions—until the data doesn’t support the decision they want to make.

That’s when they start talking about the importance of “gut instinct” and “unconscious pattern recognition.”

Data only matters when it supports prevailing prejudice.

Flickr image credit: Deryck Hodge

How many men claim to understand women?

How often do you hear a man say about his mom/spouse/girlfriend/plain friend/other female ‘I know exactly what she wants?’

Rarely? Never?

Then why do they assume they know what women want when it comes to user experience in technology?

No, this isn’t about hiring more female programmers; it’s about hiring women from backgrounds not typically associated with technology.

People such as Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist hired as director of user experience at Intel Labs, the company’s research arm.

She runs a skunk works of some 100 social scientists and designers who travel the globe, observing how people use technology in their homes and in public.

Social scientists (of both sexes) look at the world differently than your typical tech employee, whether in development or marketing.

It’s even more important when it comes to social media, where many companies are/were started and/or run by guys.

Guys who are often younger and being younger know more (if not all) about creating great user experiences—and when they do want help they tend to ask guys who are a lot like them.

Guys who tend to think of their audience as people similar to them in gender and age.

Not intentionally, but the unconscious bias is still there.

The problem for these guys is that women are a giant presence in social media, consuming more, interacting more, and in more ways, than guys; not only that, but average users are in their 30s.

Have you noticed that many of the hot startups from young founders are relatively shallow—focused on sharing pictures and facilitating casual hookups.

Facebook was originally a way for college students to connect with each other campus by campus and Twitter was more a digital gossip line than a vehicle for the likes of Arab Spring.

There’s a simple reason for that—people tend to create solutions for the problems they find in their own lives.

It’s not so much how old you are but your experiences and how you see the world that makes for great entrepreneurs—but more are older than younger.

“The average age of a successful entrepreneur in high-growth industries such as computers, health care, and aerospace is 40. Twice as many successful entrepreneurs are over 50 as under 25. The vast majority — 75 percent — have more than six years of industry experience and half have more than 10 years when they create their startup,” says Duke University scholar Vivek Wadhwa, who studied 549 successful technology ventures. Meanwhile, data from the Kauffman Foundation indicates the highest rate of entrepreneurship in America has shifted to the 55-64 age group, with people over 55 almost twice as likely to found successful companies than those between 20 and 34.

These are the people who often tackle enterprise and healthcare challenges, because they have been stymied with them in their own work.

Additionally, the larger the worldview the greater the level of empathy leading to substantially more compassion and a stronger desire to “fix it.”

A good example of this is found in Project Daniel.

Project Daniel started in 2012, when Mick Ebeling read a story in Time magazine about Daniel Omar, a then 14-year-old Sudanese boy who lost both his hands from a bomb. It inspired Ebeling to assemble a team capable of creating a low-cost, 3D-printed prosthetic on consumer-grade 3D printers.

Ebeling is the founder of Not Impossible, a company dedicated to “technology for the sake of humanity” which also developed the Eyewriter.

Now you, too, can volunteer with a team, expand your worldview and help change lives, as well as expand your network and have great bragging rights.

YouTube credit: Not Impossible Labs