http://www.computerworld.com/home/print9497.nsf/all/SL42editt16812
ComputerWorld
(Print 10/20/97)



Silicon shame
Maryfran Johnson



Silicon shame In about the time it takes you to read this sentence, somebody out there will turn 50. If that somebody happens to be a highly skilled, experienced systems analyst, Cobol programmer or application designer, would your company hire him?

Not if you're reading this in Silicon Valley, apparently. Age discrimination seems to be a nasty fact of life among many of the high-tech enterprises that dot this stretch of California. That's the hard-earned conclusion Gordon Clark came to after the 62-year-old part-time consultant watched hundreds of his resumes ignored up and down the Valley.

"It became very apparent that I was something to go away and sit on the shelf," he told Computerworld reporter Julia King (see story in the Oct. 13 Corporate Strategies section). Clark has more than 20 years of project management work under his belt, plus another 10 years as CEO of his own software company.

This former chief exec is one of the 7,000 IT professionals registered at Senior Staff 2000, a database of retired and over-50 experts in Cobol and other mainframe skills. Exactly the kind of skills that IT shops nationwide are scrambling to procure as the countdown continues to the year 2000.

Maybe high-tech centers such as Silicon Valley are immune to the century date-change disasters. They'd better be, because twentysomething Web designers and Java jockeys aren't going to be interested in working on year 2000 projects. Ironically, the more experienced workforce often is looking for a part-time consulting gig rather than full-time work - meaning no overhead for health insurance.

Now that Uncle Sam has deemed the IT labor shortage a national emergency, even the real world beyond the computer industry is taking notice. It'll be interesting to see what happens to this Silicon shame as the more youthful end of the talent pool drains away. Revenge of the senior nerds, perhaps?