It's an attitude, not a number
I won't be reading Monster.com's Monster Careers at 50+ News again any time soon. The lead story today was "Get Computer Skills as an Older Worker," showing a guy old enough to be my father (who would be 93 now if he were still alive) getting computer lessons from some perky Gen-X person. The text was worse: offensively patronising and totally ignorant of the cultural divide that starts, at this moment, around age 65.
People between 50 and 65 grew up with, and in some cases helped to create, the revolution in information technology that people under 50 take for granted. We are used to learning one set of IT skills, only to modify them or replace them in three or four years. The life cycle of software is in our DNA. We have learnt quickly all our lives, and aren't going to stop learning just because we have passed a chronological milestone that frightens people a few years younger than we are.
Many, but not all, people older than that do need to be brought along in their IT usage. It may not be as natural to them as to succeeding generations, but they too have been busy learning in changing times for much of their lives.
There are two different generations in that "over 50" label. I am disappointed that an entity like Monster is so unconscious of this distinction, and so ready to contribute to age bigotry whilst pretending to do otherwise.
Oh, then there are the discussions. They're inhabited by provocateurs and crybabies for the most part: the former do their damnedest to encourage and perpetuate age-based stereotypes. The latter demonstrate that attitude, as the title says, matters more than chronology.
It doesn't matter whether you are 33 or 63. Play the hand you're dealt, and don't waste your breath blaming one party or the other, or bemoaning the job you had that is now gone. Whining is both unproductive and irritating for everyone else at the table.
Pity Monster didn't have a comment option at the bottom of these articles. They did have a rating box, and I rated this one poor.
People between 50 and 65 grew up with, and in some cases helped to create, the revolution in information technology that people under 50 take for granted. We are used to learning one set of IT skills, only to modify them or replace them in three or four years. The life cycle of software is in our DNA. We have learnt quickly all our lives, and aren't going to stop learning just because we have passed a chronological milestone that frightens people a few years younger than we are.
Many, but not all, people older than that do need to be brought along in their IT usage. It may not be as natural to them as to succeeding generations, but they too have been busy learning in changing times for much of their lives.
There are two different generations in that "over 50" label. I am disappointed that an entity like Monster is so unconscious of this distinction, and so ready to contribute to age bigotry whilst pretending to do otherwise.
Oh, then there are the discussions. They're inhabited by provocateurs and crybabies for the most part: the former do their damnedest to encourage and perpetuate age-based stereotypes. The latter demonstrate that attitude, as the title says, matters more than chronology.
It doesn't matter whether you are 33 or 63. Play the hand you're dealt, and don't waste your breath blaming one party or the other, or bemoaning the job you had that is now gone. Whining is both unproductive and irritating for everyone else at the table.
Pity Monster didn't have a comment option at the bottom of these articles. They did have a rating box, and I rated this one poor.
Labels: job searches, Monster.com
posted by Uncle | 23:46
1 Comments:
Hear, hear, har, har.
I'd add that many under 50 sorts are also plain old users. You don't have to be limited to Macs to pick up just enough to do the basics with software and one computer. It's very sad when something goes awry. They have no idea how anything works, how to fix a problem, or how to customize even at the most basic level. Shades of the Eloi in The Time Machine.
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