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Google is openly ageist while simultaneously virtue signaling about diversity. Meanwhile, Google claims that older programmers aren't worth hiring because they don't have relevant experience. How do you get experience relevant to Google? You work on GSoC projects and that's your golden ticket into the company. GSoC basically is not open to old people, only students who are predominantly young. I'm looking at a lot of these GSoC projects and they look easy. I'm going to do one or more before it starts and post solutions to my github to spite Google and help out on a open source project I like. I'm starting at Eclipse projects because I like Eclipse. https://wiki.eclipse.org/Google_Summer_of_Code_2019_Ideas There are 207 organizations participating this year. I want to spoil Google's ageism festival in my own little way. That is all. Thank you for reading.

I was also a bit struck by the fact that GSoC only accepts students. It otherwise seems like a good system and I don't see why free software projects would care about the background of people willing to volunteer their time.

>>16127 The main issue is that it often ends up as glorified babysitting. A lot of the "bigger" projects I'm interested in stopped applying because they got nothing out except for bikeshedding and barely started projects. A lot of the students accepted have almost zero knowledge in the areas they are assigned so they can't get anything done. I agree with you other sentiment however, gsoc page listings can provide you with some good ideas on how to contribute to any projects whom have applied and that you are interested in.

>ageist Wtf is that?

>>16130 If only you had some wondrous device that let you look up strange words on some vast global network.

>>16130 ageist /ˈeɪdʒɪst/ adjective 1. characterized by or showing prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age. "a lot of ageist jokes about not being able to use technology" noun 1. a person with ageist views. "critics who contend that her age is an issue have been dismissed as ageists who are out of touch with the times"

>>16130 Google has had multiple age-related lawsuits thrown against it. Thia is a rampant issue in Silicon Valley if not tech as a whole. Then again, it is fairly common in other indusrtries as well. Tech is juat closer to the extreme end of the spectrum. Not quite as bad as Entertainment but far from egalitarian.

>Apply to be a mentor organization and help bring in new, excited developers to your open source community! >Must not be based in a country currently embargoed by the United States. Choose one

>>16126 fuarrrk

>>16133 Don't every tech oriented company grab young people at hundreds while being more scrupulous on their older employees if they fug up? I think I saw the same thing with IBM I guess they just want to maximize profits by employing most adaptive workforce

>>16179 Part of it is raw age discrimination. That is, younger people must know tech better, so better to get them than some old person who can't move with the times any more. Part of it is corporate capitalism. Young people have more to prove so you can push them harder for less money, thus maintaining a nice profit per unit of work effort. Part of it is that older people have a better concept of what their skills are worth so dealing with them is a larger hassle. This kind of ties into the last point.

>>16184 I agree with these points. With regard to companies in general, I believe the problem also lies in the process. Young developer is hired for technology X. Young developer is then given tasks related to X to the point of being pigeon holed. Companies do not train. They simply expect him to do X until they are done with him. They work him overtime because he is a salaried employee. Therefore, he doesn't have time to learn the hot new Y. The day comes that the young X developer is now an old X developer. Working 60+ hrs a week has burned him out. Eventually, his job doing X comes to an end if he doesn't have an anxiety attack from overwork first. Now old X developer applies for jobs, but sorry, we want someone with experience in Y. Company doesn't care if he is a reliable employee who they can count on in a pinch. Company does not train and expects him to know everything up front. "Obviously, you should have found time to keep your skills sharp while working with X, but you didn't. This is your fault old guy. I guess what they say about old dogs with new tricks really is true!" If mandatory overtime pay were a requirement in the software development field, I think the ageism problem would mostly solve itself.