Young Tech Workers, Supermodels and Moore's Law

Forget supermodels. It may now be young tech workers in Silicon Valley who have the shortest careers around. It’s enough to make you pity all those 25-year-old coders.

Unlike the prior generation or two here in Silicon Valley, who got a job and worked at it for five or more years, today's tech workers seem to have a super short-shelf life. After all, there's a new crop graduating from college (or dropping out of college) every year, eager to work 24/7 and ready to push the old-timers — you know, the 28 and 29-year-olds — right out of the job market.

Of course, this is great for companies looking for a young, enthusiastic workforce, willing to accept lower salaries in exchange for a potential stock bonanza. (Assuming they remain employed long enough to vest their shares.)

It's not just tech startups who prefer the young. Even the more established tech companies prefer younger workers, and it’s no longer just aging engineers who face an uphill battle finding a job. Nowadays, the preference for younger workers in tech cuts across job descriptions: sales, marketing, administration, accounting, the legal department, you name it.

If you're over 40 and unemployed, things don't look good for you — no matter how compelling a career you have had or if you lost your job when your last company went bust or decided they needed to boost profit, again, by laying people off, again.

“Especially in social media, cloud computing and mobile apps, if you’re over 40 you’re perceived to be over the hill,” Kris Stadelman, director of Nova, a Silicon Valley-based, federally-funded employment and training agency, told the New York Times in a recent story. 

If you're a woman, fuggedaboutit. When it comes to funding, women already face an uphill battle for their tech startups in Silicon Valley. In fact, women may be better off considering a career outside of tech. According to Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., author of Best Jobs for the 21st Century, the top jobs for women in 2012 include post-secondary teacher, anthropologist, oceanographer and natural sciences members. (Shatkin does admit it may be hard to land those jobs, but says "once in the position turnover is low." Uh, huh.) 

The bias toward the young in tech is worrisome not just because it’s ageist, but because it defies the data. “Youngness” isn't even an indicator of business success. One study found that the "average and median age of the founders of successful U.S. technology businesses (with real revenues) is 39." And it found that there are twice as many successful founders over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.

"Ideas are a dime a dozen. The value comes from translating ideas into inventions and inventions into successful ventures," said Vivek Wadhwa, who helped author the study. "You need business and management skills and maturity. These come with education, experience, and age."

If you think about it, it's kind of an odd twist on Moore's Law. Gordon Moore, who fortunately made a lot of money as a co-founder of Intel Corp. (because no one would hire him now at the  age of 83), came up with the idea that, basically, innovation makes technology obsolete every two years. Moore was talking about how the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits doubles every 24 months, leading to faster, better chips. He saw it as progress. Out with the old, in with the new.

Who would imagine that tech companies might apply Moore's Law to people?

Sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn't it? So that's why I asked a twenty-something entrepreneur, looking to staff up his startup, for his views of older tech workers in Silicon Valley.  Our conversation went something like this:

Entrepreneur: "What they know may just not be relevant. What was 'it' five years ago may not be important now. Technology is moving too fast, and the ways in which it's changing our lives is constantly changing, too."

Me: "So wouldn't that mean you will be viewed as obsolete in five years? I mean, if you don't turn your company into a big success and make yourself rich on an IPO, why would anyone want to hire you in five years? Would you hire you?"

Entrepreneur: "First of all, I am going to be a big success. Second, I'm going to keep learning so I will still be relevant."

Me: "Wait. You get to learn, racking up what is commonly called experience, and still be relevant, but that doesn't apply to anyone else. Right? And that's why it's OK to dismiss folks of a certain age as not being able to cut it, engineers or not.  Because you can learn and gain experience and remain relevant, but others can't."

Entrepreneur (momentary pause): "Yeah, maybe."

I hated to be the one to break it to him, but young tech workers in Silicon Valley are aging even as we speak. Obsolescene is only a few years away. So if you know someone in their 20s thinking of getting into technology, you may want to suggest a career as supermodel. It might have a longer run.  — CG

Cartoon courtesy of Tom Meyer