Study: Older LinkedIn Users Get Fewer Job Offers, But a Younger Picture Helps (psychnewsdaily.com) 92
Slashdot reader tinkers writes: A new study has found that older job seekers on LinkedIn receive fewer job offers than younger ones. But using a profile photo with a younger appearance reduces this effect...
The study's authors say these results reconfirm why photographs are usually absent from traditional resumes or CVs. As such, they suggest that removing photos from LinkedIn might make job-seeking fairer. The lack of photos might cause recruiters to focus more on information that is more relevant to the job.
The study's authors say these results reconfirm why photographs are usually absent from traditional resumes or CVs. As such, they suggest that removing photos from LinkedIn might make job-seeking fairer. The lack of photos might cause recruiters to focus more on information that is more relevant to the job.
Zoom interviews have bascially wrecked this (Score:4, Insightful)
Gen X is going to get crushed by age discrimination. They're already getting passed over for younger millennials as the boomers retire. It's going to be a lost generation.
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Why blame Zoom? You're saying you can't gauge a person's age in an in-person interview? Or, by factors like length of work experience or graduation date? If someone has work experience going back to the 1990s, they are probably into their 40s.
Re:Zoom interviews have bascially wrecked this (Score:4, Insightful)
Why blame Zoom? You're saying you can't gauge a person's age in an in-person interview?
Zoom interviews are easier for both the interviewer and interviewee, so they tend to happen earlier in the process than in-person interviews.
Zoom interviews often replace phone interviews rather than in-person interviews. So if you are old and/or ugly, you get weeded out earlier.
Or, by factors like length of work experience or graduation date?
My resume does not include my graduation date, nor does it include some of my early jobs.
I haven't changed my Linkedin photo since I set up my account in 2004.
Re: Zoom interviews have bascially wrecked this (Score:3)
Ditto! I also shaved my beard..got rid most of the gray! Haven't had to look for a job sense I was 55..now 2 years from retirement. I dropped 15 years off my resume and it was a 3 pages!
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Re:Zoom interviews have bascially wrecked this (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep. I passed the technical screen with flying colors. But the the hiring manager gave feedback to the recruiter that he wanted someone "more current". That's codespeak for "younger".
I had a recruiter post to DICE for someone who's "fresher". I complained to DICE and they took down the job listing and I hope banned the recruiter who himself identifies as "fresher".
I leave the date of graduation off my resume and any requesting info. That, in and of itself, is a sign. I don't need to dye my hair but I have friends that do. And I made the mistake of mentioning that I recently paid off my mortgage. Again the manager refused to interview me despite one of their team who I worked with giving me a stellar recommendation.
I keep asking recruiters if I should take off experience going back to the mid-90s and they all say to keep it. This thread is telling me otherwise.
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Why blame Zoom? You're saying you can't gauge a person's age in an in-person interview?
*Laughs in serious-case-of-baby-face*
Conversely, I've seen people younger than I, who look a lot older than they really are.
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My wife is at least 30 and can pass for a first year in highschool, she's been denied multiple jobs and accused for using fake ID more than once because of it.
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What the actual fuck? Not in regards to the fact that she can pass for a first year highschooler, but the accusations of faking ID. ~_~ Bloody hell, there's being a little suspicious or skeptical, and then there's just being a total moron.
I would get carded pretty regularly until I was at least 32. I think my last experience with that was when I was at least 36.
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Re:Zoom interviews have bascially wrecked this (Score:4, Informative)
Gen X is going to get crushed by age discrimination. They're already getting passed over for younger millennials as the boomers retire.
Are these the same millenials who don't want to hustle and pile up money and paid overtime. They value their time and well-being much more than their employer's office [slashdot.org]. This article [usnews.com] lays out what I'm experiencing with one millenial who is under me. A whiner, thinks they shouldn't have to work much to get paid, lies, then complains when I call him out for his laziness. From what I'm seeing, large portions of millenials will only get promotions when boomers and Gen X retire. Not through hard work or perseverance.
As for Gen X being a lost generation, this was foretold as such 20 years ago [awakeat2oclock.com]. In fact, I remember hearing the same thing while growing up in the 80s. My generation was screwed because of circumstance. Doesn't mean all of us, but being caught in the middle isn't a good thing. At least I survived the Bush (first one) recession so knew what to do when the Bush (second one) implosion happened.
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Yes, because you are describing millennials as a population. Under 20% of them will be up for the great jobs and under 2% of them will get the awesome jobs.
I assure you, 20% of millennials are go getters, talented, smart, and highly trained.
Many millenials who are not go getters, don't recognize a particular talent in themselves, who are not as smart (not saying stupid- just not top tier), and may lack training (since they are expected so self-train with no real OJT) are simply recognizing reality and not
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ays out what I'm experiencing with one millenial who is under me.
What a great sociology study!
You need to go easy on the Fox News (Score:2)
Automation & process improvements killed about 70% of middle class jobs [businessinsider.com]. Millennials aren't being lazy, there's just plain less work to do. They can break their bodies making jack shit in crappy restaurants or they can pay Uber & Lyft to work
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We aren't trying to make them "be at each other's throats", we tried to teach them morals, the abilities and rewards of hard work, and understanding that working as a team is needed in the real world. Millennial's just tell us to shut it, and give them
Re: You need to go easy on the Fox News (Score:2)
I hope I'm not the only one who scoffed at "tried to teach them morals."
The only people who ever tried to teach me morals are the ones who say gays shouldn't marry and PoCs deserve it.
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I could continue the list of basics I've had to teach if you'd like.
The job-search website I'm looking for? (Score:1)
Really? That FP is pending insightful? Like the employers don't have 27 other ways to spot the old fogies? And 37 ways to bit bucket most of the resumes? Not 47% of the resumes for the series, but more like 97% go directly to the trash. At least for any job that gets 57 applicants. (Which must be my 67th joke to byte the dust.)
Anyway, I'll pose my usual question: Does anyone know of a job-search website with a mutual financial model? BOTH the wannabe employees and the companies should be funding the website
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Years ago, LI tried to lure me into a so-called premium membership. I took them up on the free month offer as I wanted to know just who it was that had looked at my profile. Turns out that the premium membership come-on was bogus: being a premium member didn't actually pull back the curtain on those anonymous profile viewers. After that experience, those offers for premium memberships go straight into my Trash
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Interesting. That would seem to mean that part of their sales pitch is a lie. Or is it part of the sales pitch for super-premium memberships that keep your profile views behind another curtain?
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There ought to be a Zoom "Snap" filter that youngin's you up and sheds 30 lbs. Let's call it "Interview Equalizer."
It's true that youth and physical fitness are nonverbal biases that get people hired, while being overweight or old is a nix to that.
They already have the start of this (Score:2)
There ought to be a Zoom "Snap" filter that youngin's you up and sheds 30 lbs. Let's call it "Interview Equalizer."
Maybe it does not go that far, but Zoom does have a "Touch Up My Appearance" option that performs adjustable skin smoothing on you... that alone can make you look significantly younger.
Then don't compete against younger candidates (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Then don't compete against younger candidates (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree, except in the system admin/support side of IT, there's not always really a good career ladder like that in place. With many companies, they need some computer support people and the next more "senior" position above that is the ONE guy managing that group, followed by the company's CIO or even the CEO he/she answers to.
The idea that a highly experienced technical person in IT has to "become a manager" at some point to advance is often true, but it's unfortunate. The skills needed to be a good manager don't have that much intersection with the technical skills needed to support/administer a computer network. And with many of these small or mid-sized businesses in America, the guy who IS the I.T. manager has held onto that position for many years and intends to be a "lifer" with the company.
Where I work now, they're just starting to wrestle with this reality and they're trying to break out the support roles into multiple "levels", within the existing "tiers". (We always had "tier 1" help desk people manning the phones and so forth, and "tier 2" handling the escalations and more complex requests coming down from management. Tier 3 would be the guys who constructed the whole LAN/WAN and server environments and who maintain and expand it as needed.) But really, the guys who are good at the basic phone support deserve a way to advance in the company while continuing to do that, as do the guys handling the escalations and more complex issues. It doesn't necessarily make sense they'd need to wait for a position to open up as a network or server engineer (which again, would require a different skill set than the one they've honed to do their existing job role), in order to advance.
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The bummer is that helpdesk/phone support is absolutely necessary and being good at it is a skill unto itself that is neither completely technical nor completely human relations, it's a complex mix of both. Yet it is a job that doesn't get much, if any, credit or even very good pay.
I've seen tons of people who were really good at it leave an MSP I worked at. Part of it is the bottom of the barrel salary, part of is the lack of recognition, and part of it is the lack of any reasonable advancement path. A
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Re: Then don't compete against younger candidates (Score:3)
If one manager manages 10 young programmers, then what do the other 9 older programmers do?
Re:Zoom interviews? Nah.... (Score:2)
I moved back to the midwest at the end of 2020, after my job ended out in Maryland. (I'd relocated out there years prior, just for that job -- and wasn't really liking the job options + cost of living to stay out there, doing something else.)
I had 3 interviews within weeks of moving back .... all of which required phone and Zoom interviews. I'm almost 50 and clearly look like I'm well into the "Gen X" age group. There's a lot of age discrimination out there, especially with I.T. jobs. But I really didn't
Re: Zoom interviews? Nah.... (Score:3)
Well, this is the problem: younger folks want to hire people they can be friends with after work, but nobody stays 25 forever.
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You need a shittier webcam. Or a better soft-focus filter.
C'mon, we're living in a time when everyone has access to crappy equipment, you just have to invest in a 5 dollar camera if you don't want your opponent to know what you really look like.
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Or maybe it's because older people generally won't work for just over minimum wage, or take crap from idiot managers?
If you are doing things right, you learn lessons as you grow older. You should be advancing in your career to more senior positions. The down side is, there are fewer of these senior positions available, because each team only needs one leader.
I don't think this is about discrimination, exactly. It's more about the odds thinning out for the better jobs at the top.
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Even before Zoom interviews, in person too!
Photos are also good for racism (Score:4, Interesting)
As a white kid in a region with a large white majority, I was told it might be a good idea to put my photo on my resume so people would know I wasn't an immigrant.
I never did it. Not as a moral issue - I was too young to consider those at the time unless they directly affected me - but because I'm too private.
Of course, that just gets you into the interview room anyway. If you're going to be discarded by ethnicity, sex, or age, they'll have no trouble doing that after seeing your face.
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As a white kid in a region with a large white majority, I was told it might be a good idea to put my photo on my resume so people would know I wasn't an immigrant.
I never did it. Not as a moral issue - I was too young to consider those at the time unless they directly affected me - but because I'm too private.
Of course, that just gets you into the interview room anyway. If you're going to be discarded by ethnicity, sex, or age, they'll have no trouble doing that after seeing your face.
When exactly was this? Having a non-white face is an advantage in hiring now. HR departments openly talk about how they go out of their way to find non-white faces.
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Except at the CV stage, they have lots of applicants they have to reject. If they can reject you because you're the wrong skin color, all the much easier. Remember, they're whittling down a pile of resumes down to maybe 10 or so.
Those 10 will then get to a phone screening to be whittled down to 3 or 4. At that time, if they don't l
Where in the process do they not get offers? (Score:3, Informative)
Where I work (in a web SaaS company) we do not look at age as a factor. One thing I have seen though is that older software developers sit in two different camps, they are either awesome and still excel at programming and problem solving or they have stagnated in that department and have been in management for far too long. We have lots of openings for Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer but no openings for managers as we use self organization and try to avoid layers of management. So the number of openings for older individuals seems lower at my place of work, specifically for those older candidates that have moved on to management positions.
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At not point are we looking for "out of the box thinkers", our assessments are practical, no fizzbuzz no balancing octrees just "can you make a front end for this data set that fulfills these parameters" or "here's a backend task that requires you to understand caching" get it done in the language of your choice. Still older individuals do not succeed at these at rates higher than their younger counter parts. No bullshit.
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Yeah, if you had an excel spreadsheet to back you up, I would consider believing it. What I am getting from you is your memory of what your company does. And my entire argument was that the memories and thoughts of prejudiced people are prejudiced.
Forty years ago, there were people that said blacker individuals do not succeed at theses kinds of tasks. We aren't prejudiced against black folk, they just can't get the job done.
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Except I'm not seeing older individuals ace our technical rounds at all. We have hired two 50+ engineers over the last two years (of 40 hired) and engineers in that age range applying are very low to begin with. We are a startup that is growing which may reduce the likelihood of an older individual applying (why get into a startup late with low options when you can apply somewhere else?). I just haven't seen a bunch of older individuals crushing our technical assessments, again they language and technologie
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somw people simply don't perform well under pressure
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Interviewing 100 candidates to get 1 person really isn't that many hours to burn, especially when you want to make sure you're hiring people that can function independently and do not need to be babied and watched and code reviewed at every step. Having a process that asks algorithm questions can lead to a higher number of false positive hires. We're trying to avoid that. 100 applicants - resume filters out 30-40 candidates (with fun cases like resumes geared towards art or biological sciences getting in th
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I don't know about the poster, but I'm 55, and I haven't seen any slowdown in job prospects. I got a new job a year ago, and can code circles around the younger developers I work with. Most older developers, though, probably don't. I've seen too many who are still doing VB.NET, and have never moved on. Those of us who have kept up with technology haven't been struggling.
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How relevant is being a good fit? I've worked at a place where I was older than most of my peers by 15 years and honestly I think it did hurt the overall team aspect. I was not that interested in 20-somethings workplace shenanigans (Nerf guns...).
In many ways, age is a significant cultural factor. If you can't relate well to your co-worker because they have a cultural gap, it's going to effect team cohesiveness.
Now, this doesn't mean that work life can't adapt, but for low-effort corporations they will n
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One is generally told to move into management as they age because programming is statistically a dead-end career. For one, it wears out your fingers; and second, it's more subject to fads than clothing is. Stuff is tossed out for the latest and greatest instead of being perfected, and the new stuff reinvents many mistakes that the tossed stuff al
What???? (Score:2)
Ageism in hiring? Ageism in tech hiring?
Nah. Not in today's age of en-woke-nment.
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Well, nobody's perfect. Nobody's completely colorblind. The best anyone can do is admit their failings and resolve to be better a human being going forward.
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Well, nobody's perfect. Nobody's completely colorblind. The best anyone can do is admit their failings and resolve to be better a human being going forward.
This Woke religion, unlike traditional religions, does not allow for the absolution of sins. Aside from that, religious zeal and purity seeking is fully present.
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Really? You confessed your sins, begged for forgiveness, and was denied?
Do you have proof, or are you just trolling?
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Un-canceled for the sin of being both a guy and white?
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Like what kind of sin?
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What's an example? I'm sometimes called "anti-Semitic" for calling Israel a "land thief", which they are. They should just go back to the 1966 borders, and make silly twisted excuses not to. Why is it not okay for Russia and China to swipe land, but okay for Israel?
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Today's 20-somethings are definitely some of the first to shout out "OK, Boomer" and blame literally everything wrong on people over 50. Climate change. Racism. Housing prices.
They use the slogan, but they don't actually just dislike boomers specifically, it's literally anyone who is old enough to somehow be a symbol of their parents' generation.
I actually think housing prices drives a lot of it. Anyone who owns a home in an area with rising rents is part of the problem. As a 54 year old homeowner, I'm
Work at a place that doesn't discriminate you. (Score:2)
Re:Work at a place that doesn't discriminate you. (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe if the company's policy is to discriminate people based on their age, skin brightness / shade / tone / hue, physical disabilities, or various other stuff that's unrelated to your job capabilities, you shouldn't work there in the first place.
Sociopathic narcissists tend to gravitate towards the top of organizations, because they don't care about stepping on top of people to get ahead. Looking for a company not run by assholes is a tall order.
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No point of photos (Score:1)
Doctor your face (Score:1)
I agree requiring/expecting photos is dumb, but it is what it is.
Use Snapchat filters and/or Photoshop/Gimp to youngify our portrait. Make it reasonably close so you are not accused of doctoring. If they later ask why it changed, just say something like "oh, I recently stopped using hair dye and Propecia because it had side-effects" or the like.
Maybe there's money in a youngification service.
Not for everyone ... (Score:2)
I imagine this would pose a problem for Dorian Gray [wikipedia.org] ...
How can I get paid (Score:1)
to do studies like this?
Okay, but I have the solution (Score:3)
My LinkedIn profile picture is an oil painting of myself... by Picasso!
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"oh such terrible employee shortages!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit.. I have a friend laid off 2 years ago who doesn't even get callbacks. He's 63.
I saw at age 33 that age discrimination starts at 45. That's down to 41 now.
I saved hard and retired at 51. I was set to retire literally one day after they laid me off. They had no idea why I was so happy. Instead of 5 extra weeks of vacation, I got 12 weeks severance pay and cobra for 18 months.
Assume you won't be able to find work after 55 if you are in tech (and many other fields). As a former manager, health care costs drive a lot of it. Insuring a 30 year old is about $2500. Insuring a 60 year old costs about $12,000. As a corporation, this is all averaged out ( so an older staff may cost $5000 to insure vs a younger staff taking $4000 to insure.).
This is one of the great benefits of nationalized health care.
* No wage slavery to keep your health insurance.
* Lower costs for business since they don't have to cover insurance costs.
* Much easier to start your own small business.
Re: "oh such terrible employee shortages!" (Score:4)
Retired at 61. Before I did, I interviewed at some big, well-known places. Got a few six-hour interviews and several more lengthy phone interviews.
This is what I learned: it's all about prep, not about job experience or proven career accomplishments. I could have done that, if I wanted to spend a month or two studying algorithms, Big-O, and reams of sample interview questions.
But why? My job had became one of weaving together solutions built elsewhere to solve a bigger businees-specific problem. If I had to do some tricky array sorting in JS, I looked at Lodash. If I needed some better way of managing UI state, I implemented a React app, rather than stick with the awkward JQuery. Messy SQL everywhere? Isolate and contain it behind GraphQL.
Sure, I did some state machines and optimized some poorly performing implementations, and that might require thinking about and relearning stuff for a couple of days. Big deal.
Did I get lazy? Maybe. Or maybe I just realized I am coding to produce a product, not to impress other developers with my knowledge of arcanery.
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Did I get lazy? Maybe. Or maybe I just realized I am coding to produce a product, not to impress other developers with my knowledge of arcanery.
Extrapolate this to a population level and this is how you get nearly all the observable progress to be mostly about cloud and apps. Nobody wants to push the envelope.
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It's more often about "do you have a job now".
Also known as "apply for a job while you have a job".
Age Discrimination is measurable at the cohort level.
Google got their asses sued off because their automated system repeatedly picked qualified candidates who the human managers rejected because the candidates were "too old" in their 40s. Even tho they had the skill sets required for the position. One 41 lady was automatically invited by the AI four times.
Glad you had good luck. I know one guy who managed t
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I'm 55, and not having any trouble finding jobs. I got hired at a great company just a year ago. Recruiters are constantly peppering me with leads, some of which are actually tempting.
If you relax and sit on your 10-year-old technical knowledge, then yeah, you're in trouble. But if you keep up, it's not so hard to find work.
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Lol. I know 3 or 4 guys who had your attitude until they were laid off.
One rejected an offer to be director at another company 6 months before his division was shut down.
As soon as he was laid off, every single lead dried up.
You should be *very* watchful for layoffs and division closings. The market is glutted and plus there is a stigma with not having a job.
Doesn't affect me. Retired at 51. Have gone skiing 20 days a year, write mods for minecraft (shockingly turning into a decent income stream which
PHB definition of "shortage" (Score:1)
When big co's say "shortage", they mean a shortage of those who fit their exact requirements and expectations. They don't want to go outside of their comfort zone in hiring; they want the "warm porridge" per Goldilocks. Too young or too old bothers them.
The insurance price should be averaged out via law so that the co. is not paying per employee age but the same rate despite age or gender.
And the 2-1 bias AGAINST MALES for college jobs ?! (Score:1, Troll)
The media is clearly so dominated by feminaz1 man haters that they refuse to publish studies like this one.
TWO TO ONE BIAS AGAINST MALES
https://www.pnas.org/content/1... [pnas.org]
Re: And the 2-1 bias AGAINST MALES for college job (Score:2)
Why is this flagged troll? The poster expressed himself poorly, but bias against men, and especially older men, is well documented.
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Why ? Because "The media is clearly so dominated by feminaz1 man haters".
Ask yourself, how often do you see manhate like this exposed in the media ?
Ever ?
You know we are screwed when⦠(Score:2)
You know we are really screwed when Tinder starts a careers site and it takes off!
Does Linkedin have âoeheightâ and âoebuildâ attributes yet?
DM me for more pics. Professional ones, of course.
Thanks (Score:1)
So I sinned. I got old. I retired. Linked in Q#($* (Score:2)
Yes, I got old. I kept hearing advice that I even repeated, "Don't get old/" It seems this is something we're pretty much all stuck with. Someday we will be old. But, one thing you can be sure of. Even if you have been retired for 20 years Linked-In will still pester you with "XYZ corp and 20 others want to hire you."
{+_+}
Or... (Score:2)
Or, showing cleavage.
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Oh, I show my cleavage. But unfortunately, it hasn't worked. Perhaps because I'm a dude?