Why IT workers are lying about their age
Tony Wells has 30 years' experience of working in information technology, in jobs ranging from programming to senior management. Two years ago the 49-year-old decided to look for a new job and began sending his CV to recruitment agencies. In the year that followed, not a single agency called him back. As an experiment, he changed his age on his CV to 30 and had five phone calls within three days.
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His experience is not unique. Two months ago Mr Wells set up an internet support group for older IT professionals who are finding it hard to get work. It now has 60 members, many of whom feel frustrated and angry at the discrimination towards the over-40s they feel is rife in the IT sector.
One member, Ruth Blackwell, who had worked continuously as an IT contractor for 14 years, lost her job in 2002 at the age of 44 and has not been able to find work since. Some agencies, she says, “said that they could not put me forward for permanent vacancies because of my age” while individual agents “made it plain that they did not want to be bothered with me”.
Another member, with 25 years' experience, reports being told by agencies that he is “over-experienced” and has “too many qualifications”.
At the same time, the industry is reporting a shortage of skilled staff. Is it possible that a sector desperately in need of qualified staff would turn down suitable candidates because of their age?
There is some evidence to support Mr Wells's argument. A 2002 report from the UK Department of Work and Pensions noted that 56 per cent of IT employees are aged 35 or under, compared to 38 per cent in the workforce as a whole, while an earlier survey by the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) and Silicon.com found that 31 per cent of those responsible for recruitment decisions in IT “considered age in the recruitment process”. Mike Rodd, director of external relations at the British Computer Society, also reports that many older members find it hard even to get interviews.
In October 2006, new laws against age discrimination come into place, and the IT sector will have to rethink its recruitment processes. Nonetheless, the impact of the new rules may not be immediate. Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies, a trade body, argues that age discrimination in IT tends to be unconscious rather than deliberate: “I think there is a view that someone recruits a person like themselves. And because of the nature of IT, that has generally been someone 28 to 35, male, a graduate from a decent university. It's not because they don't want older people, they just don't think about it that much.”
Another explanation, put forward by Mr Wells and others, is that employers and recruitment agencies have far too narrow a focus on finding candidates with particular technical skills. IT is a fast-moving industry, and the skills required of software developers change all the time.
Currently, the sector is experiencing a shortage of programmers skilled in recent technologies, such as the Java and XML programming languages. Employers looking for experts in these areas specify skills to recruitment agencies, who in turn use text-search software to match keywords in CVs against employer requirements.
A more intelligent approach, says Mr Wells, would be to recruit people on the basis of ability and experience, rather than particular skills: “Programming gets easier and faster, and new languages take two to three weeks to acquire.”
Mr Wells is also critical of a culture that automatically moves capable programmers out of programming jobs into management positions, a culture that he says is in part responsible for the current skills shortage. “There's a problem at interviews, which is the question: ‘You're over 45 why aren't you the MD of your own company?' Well, not everyone wants to be MD of a company, and not everyone wants to go into management; some people just want to do the job they do very well.”
The problem of age discrimination is compounded by the fact that the IT sector has a high proportion of staff in contract positions. Older contractors who lost their jobs after the dotcom collapse in 2000 have found themselves without redundancy packages, without company pensions and with little hope of finding new work.
Ms Blackwell has since enrolled for a postdoctoral course but says she is “dreading” a return to the job market in 2007. She cannot afford to retire.
If Mr Wells is right, then the problem of ageism in IT will be solved only when employers begin to rethink the recruitment process. The irony is, he says, “employment practices in IT are causing the skills shortage. The fast pace of change is a red herring”.
为何IT人要谎报年龄？
许多40多岁的人都说，在信息技术行业内年龄歧视极为普遍。然而同时，高技能员工短缺问题也广泛存在。
托尼?韦尔斯(Tony Wells)拥有30年的信息技术行业工作经验，从事过编程、高层管理等工作。2年前，49岁的他决定寻找一份新工作，职业中介于是开始把个人简历发送给各家职业中介。在接下来整整一年的时间里，没有一家职业中介给他回复。他做了一个试验，将简历上的年龄改为30岁，于是3天内就接到了5个电话。
并非只有他有过这样的经历。2个月前，韦尔斯先生在网上建立一个团体，支持那些因年龄较大而就业困难的IT专业人士。目前，该团体已有60位成员，其中很多人认为，IT业普遍存在对40岁以上人群的歧视，他们为此感到焦虑和愤怒。
成员中有一位名叫鲁思?布莱克维尔(Ruth Blackwell)的女士，44岁的她连续做了14年IT承包商后，于2002年失业，至今未找到工作。她说，有些职业中介“说由于我的年龄，他们不能把我推荐给公司，去申请永久职位”，而个别职业中介“甚至明确表示，他们不希望我打扰他们的工作”。
另一位有着25年工作经验的成员报告说，一些中介告诉他“经验过于丰富”，而且“拥有太多资格证书”。
与此同时， IT业称目前正面临高技能员工短缺问题。一个极度匮乏合格人才的行业，怎么可能仅仅因为年龄而拒绝合适的应聘者呢？
韦尔斯先生的说法确有根据。英国就业和退休保障部(Department of Work and Pensions )2002年的一份报告显示，IT业雇员中56%年龄在35岁或以下，而所有行业从业人员的这一比例为38%。而此前由“雇主年龄论坛(EFA)”和Silicon.com公司进行的一次调查发现，对IT岗位聘用拥有决策的人中，31%“在招聘过程中会考虑年龄因素”。此外，“英国电脑协会(British Computer Society)”外事部主任麦克?罗德(Mike Rodd)也报告说,该协会中年龄较大的成员甚至感到难以获得面试机会。
2006年10月，一系列反年龄歧视的新法律将会出台，为此，IT业将不得不重新考虑其招聘流程。然而，新法规可能不会有立竿见影的收效。 一家名为“技术招聘公司协会(Association of Technology Staffing Companies)”的贸易机构的首席执行官安?斯温(Ann Swain)认为，IT业内的年龄歧视通常是无意行为，而非故意如此：“我认为，人们有一种想法，就是聘用和自己相似的人。而且，由于IT行业自身性质，理想的招聘对象始终是介于28至35岁之间，男性，名牌大学毕业生。不是因为他们不想要年纪较大的人，而是他们更本就没有多想。”
韦尔斯先生和其他人提出的另一个原因，是雇主和职业中介太过局限于招募到具有某些具体技能的应聘者。IT是一个发展迅速的行业，对软件开发人员的技能要求始终在改变。
目前，IT业缺少熟练掌握最新技术的编程人员，比方说像Java和XML等编程语言。雇主希望招聘到这些领域的专才，于是就向职业中介指定其所需技能，职业中介会利用文本检索软件，根据雇主要求检索应聘人员简历中的关键匹配字段。
韦尔斯先生认为，一个更明智的招聘方式是：根据能力和经验、而非某些特殊技能招聘员工：“编程会变得越来越简单和快速，新语言只需2到3周就可以掌握。”
此外，对让合格的编程人员离开现有岗位、自动进入管理层这种企业文化，韦尔斯先生也提出了批评，并认为这种文化是导致目前技能人员短缺的部分原因。“我认为面试程序存在问题，即面试官总会提出这样的问题：‘你已经超过了45岁，为什么没能成为你们公司的总经理?’。不是每个人都希望成为总经理，也不是每个人都希望进入管理层；有些人就是喜欢把现有熟悉的工作做好。”
使年龄歧视问题更加复杂化的，是IT业合同工比例很高这一事实。2000年互联网泡沫破裂后，年龄较大的失业合同制员工发现自己既没有离职福利金，也没有公司养老金，找到新工作的希望也很渺茫。
现在，布莱克维尔女士已经在从事一个博士后研究课程。但她表示，自己对2007年重返职场感到“忧虑”。以她的经济水平，没有办法马上退休。
如果韦尔斯先生是正确的，那么只有当雇主重新思考招聘流程时，IT业的年龄歧视问题才会得到解决。他说，具有讽刺意味的是，“目前，招聘方式是导致IT业技术人员短缺的主要原因。变革迅速只不过是托辞而已”。
