dhcpserver

This is sad but good advice. I'm in my late 40s, and my hair is getting pretty gray, so I've started using comb-in color to tone it down. It's not about vanity; I just want to avoid standing out as older than many people around me.

I've had some amazing experiences in my career, but I've started dropping off some of my older work. I don’t include my graduation date on my resume, for example. I have nearly 30 years of solid, relevant experience, but I need to trim it down to the last 12 years or so.

Ageism is incredibly difficult to prove. Plus, you don’t want your name in the paper as someone who sues employers; it can make you seem toxic to future employers.

A race to the bottom for sure.

Would Asians still fall into this category? OP mentioned that Apple is at 50%.

The same thing happened with law careers earlier. Everyone believed that becoming a lawyer was the golden ticket. Back in the early 2000s, law schools were packed with people pursuing that path.

Everyone highlighted the starting salaries of lawyers, but those figures applied mainly to outliers in BigLaw. Many graduates found themselves with $150k in debt, working $60k associate jobs in major cities. It can take a decade or more before you start earning the kind of money you were promised at graduation.

During Covid, I had many lively debates with my peers about remote jobs. They kept insisting that the "world has changed" and that remote jobs are the future. My anxious self struggled to understand that. I'm good at my job, but I'm not naive. I know I live in a high cost of living market that not everyone wants to be in, so the competition isn't too threatening.

But take that away, and as I mentioned, you’re now competing against the entire world. I've worked with talented people in Eastern Europe and Asia who could easily do my job for a quarter of the pay. I really don’t want to compete against that.

All the friends who moved their families to farms in Iowa to be near family and enjoy the low cost of living? I’d be terrified that if I ever lost my job, I’d have to search far and wide for one of those scarce remote positions, and there’s no way I’d get my Bay Area salary now.

Plus, now that my kids are in local schools in Iowa and my wife is deeply connected with the local extended family, there's no way I could move back to the Bay unscathed.

Tesla wasn't paying as much as the big tech companies, which meant he didn't have access to that top 1%. By opening the door to more H-1B visas, he could ideally flood the market with international candidates and attract higher skills at a lower cost.

While this approach is self-serving, it makes sense. He could acquire that top talent today if he was willing to pay for it—people would leave their current jobs for a pay upgrade. But he's not willing to do that. So, he needs more candidates.

I've noticed this too. I assumed it’s because they see experience as leading to higher wage expectations.

Ageism is a significant issue in tech as well. I've had friends with decades of experience who were turned away with comments like the employer wanting someone to "grow with the company" or that they had "too much" experience. These phrases often serve as code for ageism, which is incredibly hard to prove.

Zuckerberg famously said something like "younger people are smarter," which was a mistake to say out loud, but many employers unfortunately believe it. Even millennials are starting to age out.

There is some truth to this. A friend of mine is a recruiting manager at one of the big tech companies here in the valley. They use a scoring system for candidates that ranges from (iirc) 1.0 (don't hire) to 5.0 (should hire).

If you're female, you earn a point. If you're a minority, you get another point. So, before considering all the other skills and qualifications, you already have a few points ahead of the typical white male applicant.

The fact that several people have mentioned your public image might deter them from hiring you should raise some serious concerns. Instead of getting defensive and stubborn, take a moment to reflect. This could explain why you're not receiving callbacks. Insisting that you're right and everyone else is wrong isn't helping you.

Given how competitive the job market is right now, you have a PR issue. It's important to take a deep breath and recognize that people are trying to offer you objective advice.

If you're not willing to improve your public profile, you can't expect to receive interest.

Have you ever had a friend in a terrible relationship, where everyone can see how bad it is except for them? You have a problem with your public image. If you don't think it accurately portrays you, then clean it up. From your post, it seems like you're involved in really interesting projects—why sabotage your good deeds?

Deleting your LinkedIn profile seems a bit extreme. You should be creating it in a very polished way. All you need is one job to come from it or to catch the eye of one recruiter.

You have to play the game. That sucks, but the freewheeling days seem to be over. Play the game or accept you are making the rock you're pushing uphill heavier.

This is really great insight; thanks for sharing.

China is another country that has developed its own local apps, mainly because many global ones are banned there. Even if Google, Uber, and others had free rein, I don’t think they could compete with the existing options. The local apps are so tuned to Chinese culture, an American app just wouldn't be intuitive to them.

Do you think the local apps, aside from dating, are better than their U.S. counterparts, or is it mainly due to their strong local momentum? Could the Western apps compete in that market? It sounds like Uber is making some inroads.

Funded by Pornhub, the only people that could reach 178Tb in traffic.