My old boss told me to never hire anyone over 40

I was at a coffee shop in Denver about 3 years ago, meeting with my first mentor. He ran a small tech firm and said, 'People over 40 just can't learn new software fast enough, and they cost too much.' He was dead serious. I was 25 and just starting out, so I nodded along. But now, after running my own shop for a bit, I think that's a bad way to look at it. The best project manager I ever hired was 52, and she fixed a client mess in two days that had been going on for months. Has anyone else had a boss give them advice that just felt off once you got more experience?

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jordanhill7mo ago

Totally bought into that idea early on too. Thought younger meant more tech savvy by default. Then I worked with a guy in his late 50s who automated our whole reporting system in a weekend. He just knew how to solve problems we didn't even see. That bias costs companies good people.

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seth6837mo ago

Exactly! It's not about age at all, it's about how you think. That guy had years of seeing what could go wrong and built a fix for it. Real skill is solving problems, not just knowing the newest tools.

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emma_clark7mo ago

That's wild. What kind of software was your mentor even talking about? Some of the older devs I know run circles around the new grads with the latest frameworks.

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