Ageism: Who's over the hill now then?

Ageism is rampant in the IT sector. We all know it's true. And according a survey conducted by silicon.com's sister site in Germany, silicon.de, it's not subtle discrimination either.

One respondent said: "Employees over 40 are extremely stiff and rigid in our company and are perceived as 'breaks in the system." Another stated: "Staff over 50 can't really be IT specialists, because computers in their current form simply didn't exist in their day."

Underlying both these statements, and ageism in general, is the clichéd belief that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Well, another survey recently issued by Barclays Bank shows this stereotype simply isn't true.

Firstly, 15 per cent of new businesses in England and Wales are founded by people over 50 years old. Secondly, 71 per cent of over-50s running their own businesses use computers as a key part of their business, compared to a lowly 47 per cent of under-50s.

So ditching a reliable career and founding a start-up, which uses IT to gain business advantage, is something that staid old men and women would never do is it? Think again.

And thinking again is something we all need to do. Too often we get so caught up in the whirl of career and technology that the experience and expertise of our elders is ignored. Well it's time we all bore in mind the fact that while the PC itself may only be 20 years old, those who are driving our industry are certainly considerably older.

I'd like to see the people who made the comments above, look John Chambers of Cisco (aged 52) or Andy Grove of Intel (64) in the eye and tell them they don't understand modern computing.

Or perhaps tell those driving next generation wireless services that they're past it. Try that with Vodafone's Chris Gent (53), Nokia's Jorma Ollila (52) or NTT DoCoMo's Keiji Tachikawa (61).

Let's not be in so much haste to bring on the genius of youth, that we miss the pearls of wisdom of those who've been there, done it and bought the T-shirt.

For related news, see:
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