Diana Koval, Senior Software Engineer (React.js), is almost 24 years old and has been working as a front-end engineer since she was 17. The specialist is surprised by posts where specialists are compared by age, and gives arguments against such an approach. Will other IT specialists support her?
Diana Koval, Senior Software Engineer (React.js), is almost 24 years old and has been working as a front-end engineer since she was 17. The specialist is surprised by posts where specialists are compared by age, and gives arguments against such an approach. Will other IT specialists support her?
«Yes, we really grew up under the influence of the different „weather“ of the world and the different „demands“ of the world,» Diana writes, recalling how, before COVID-19, she managed to experience what it was like to combine offline learning with working in an office on the Left Bank of Kyiv.
The expert believes that evaluating a professional solely based on physical age is not effective for business, and here’s why:
She emphasizes that it is Diversity, i.e. diversity in the work environment of experiences and approaches, that will make the team strong. And Diana lobbies for the approach of evaluating a specialist based on his abilities and the presence of Diversity.
The ability to analyze people does not depend on reaching a certain age, but more on whether a person is able to think critically at all. Life experience also plays a big role. Because life, as they say, is the best teacher, and what you understand over the years, you would never have understood at the age of 16-19. I wish you success!
I’m also 23 and have been working since I was 17-18. I completely agree, people get completely different experiences in different places of work, and I’m not just talking about technologies or stacks, but mainly about the ability to adapt to new tasks under different conditions.
How can you not take this into account? You guys are so cool. Personally, I have very pleasant impressions from working with 20-25.
Of course, we are talking about selected beauties, but no one demonstrated such psychological properties and efficiency in work in «my time.»
Good post. I work with 15, in most cases, if you present yourself correctly and answer for your words with actions and skills, then they don’t pay attention to your age. And if they did and it prevented them from hiring a great specialist, then you «dodged a bullet.»
First you will be underpaid because of your age, and then underpaid because of your age.
Against «diversity» in the sense in which it is presented by the media and other jokers.
Diversity should be in skills and abilities, not in physical or other (non-work-relevant) factors. Those factors should not play a role at all, but rather they are built into the basis of diversity as part of a «DIE» (I’m writing this intentionally) culture.
I don’t consider myself a generationalist, because I was born back in the days of the Soviet Union… But I live as if I’m still 20-23, somewhere around. I haven’t become super serious, like many of my peers, who, if they laugh, only laugh at obscene jokes. And it’s not about being infantile — I have a wife and children, for whom I am responsible. It’s about life. It needs to be lived and enjoyed.
But to the topic of the post — there are stupid people at 20, 30, 40, and 50. Age rarely affects the mind directly. And let stones fly at me, but I would rather work surrounded by young people who look at life differently, more modern, more progressive, and I would be drawn to them. Because from my children I see that they are an order of magnitude smarter than my generation, much more developed, with their own worldview. Now they will write that I am an ageist.
But as practice shows, it is more difficult to retrain someone who has been doing something their own way for 20 years than to teach someone to do it right from scratch. And in this, young people have an advantage. Not in all industries, but in modern ones — without options.
