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I'm from a similar country (Belgium) but have seen both sides of it, both where age is an advantage as well as a negative factor.

At a startup I worked at, we were considering hiring a developer who was older than us (+20 years older), but in the end did not do it as we felt he might have trouble being managed by people significantly older than him. This was not my decision and I would have been in favor of hiring him - for the experience he could bring to the company.

Anyway, I now work in a team where most people (apart from 2) are older than me, and I consider that a priviledge. I get to learn from them in a great way, and I feel that I can teach them things as well. It goes both ways really.

And I do feel that in general here age is not such an important factor. Though that is just from looking at my colleagues, I am not in a comparable situation yet.

Just out of curiousity btw, does 'ff10' hold any relation to 'fast fingers'?

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> we were considering hiring a developer who was older than us (+20 years older), but in the end did not do it as we felt he might have trouble being managed by people significantly older than him.

I am curious: Did something give you the impression he'd be bothered by a younger management, or was it just a general concern?

I am only 23, but I imagine I wouldn't have issues being managed by someone my age if I were 33. However, I know that I'd be pretty shit at management right now, and would definitely not want to manage someone older than me. Personally, I'd prefer to be managed by someone older than myself due to them having more experience. Then again, wisdom doesn't come solely from age; one can have more experience and wisdom at 15 than someone at 50.

My conclusion is that there is no conclusion, I guess.

> I am only 23, but I imagine I wouldn't have issues being managed by someone my age if I were 33. However, I know that I'd be pretty shit at management right now...

When you get to 33, look at the 23 year olds around you, and imagine taking direction from them.

Imagine them making blatantly/obviously poor decisions, and understanding that because of these decisions you may very well be out of a job in 6 months.

Imagine there are half a dozen or more folks in your org that have been in similar situations, and they all have experience in "domain X", and are available to be probed for info/insight on domain X to help avoid poor decisions. Now imagine them all being completely overlooked because they're "old" (40) or aren't in the "circle" of the 23 year old manager/ceo.

There of course are exceptions to these scenarios, but they tend to be just that - exceptions. Most 23 year olds simply do not have the depth of experience needed to understand how and when to best use the folks around them. Think about this when you're 30, 33 or 40, and revisit the idea of being "managed" by a 23 year old.

This doesn't mean no one younger can ever manage anyone older - not by a longshot. But it's not trivial, and getting it 'right' takes a lot of work.

> as we felt he might have trouble being managed by people significantly older than him

You didn't hire him because of his age. Isn't that illegal in pretty much the entire western world?

It probably is. But, given a reason as "not being a good cultural fit" does not have to describe that it is about age I presume.

I guess that you can always make up some kind of excuse other than just saying "too old". But I am unaware of how they corresponded this to the person in question.

It's hard to understand whether this was a concern backed by data (observation), or general discrimination.

The former is legitimate: "this person will have issues with management and cause problems". The reason for this is a moot point: the candidate has issues with younger people, the candidate has a chip on his or her shoulder, or some other reason.

The latter is questionable: "This person is old, and old people have issues working for younger people, so we won't hire him."

>but in the end did not do it as we felt he might have trouble being managed by people significantly older than him.

Why would he have trouble being managed by people older than him?

Thank you for pointing that out, that of course had to be _younger_ than him :-)

> Just out of curiousity btw, does 'ff10' hold any relation to 'fast fingers'?

Nah, I ain't that fast. There's a completely different story behind that but there's also a time and place for everything ;-)

Where do you live in Belgium? ( I'm also from BE ;) )

Live, studied, and currently work in Leuven :-)