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Comment by mopenstein | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what would happen if you cut your salary requirements in half. Would they still reject you on your age or what? And if so, would they reject you if you slashed it in half again? And keep slashing until they hired you. Just as an experiment

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I'm not somewhere you earn SV wages, so half my wage would be less than a junior gets paid in my country, and half that again would be less than I get for unemployment. Given market conditions I have dropped 10-15% off asking price but I don't think it is worth that much more for me to drop, given that if I can't get at that I probably can't get.

also, yeah, what the neighboring comment said - you do seem to think I should consider working for free...

“There is no ageism, because you could work for free or at a loss!”

No but it's a good question. Is it "out of two candidates with similar experience and salary requirements, companies will usually hire the younger one", or is it "companies don't want expensive experienced people because cheaper, less-experienced people are good enough"?

Thank you. Others took it so personally.

Your observation is spot on.

No problem, I have the same question. I'd like to know if it's "old people can't be good at the job" or "we can't afford experienced people". In my experience, it's more the latter.

Old people can be good. But young people are more likely to be hungry/ambitious and take ownership, which (at least has the appearance of) produces more/better outcomes.

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