Nowadays, it seems that newspapers constantly feature articles about age discrimination.
But is it actually the case that age favoritism doesn’t occur?
Furthermore, in listed companies, there seems to be exceptionally strong pressure to make DEI recruitments, but at the same time, individuals’ performance is emphasized. In some sense, it feels like the whole DEI is superficial decoration; I can’t grasp the idea of how diversity would give a team performance if a difficult language barrier is set for the job or if the person has some kind of disability preventing them from working.
I have always thought that one should hire the person who best serves the overall entity, who works well in the team, has sufficient skills, and is performant. Age is one component of the whole, just like experience.
For example:
If, for example, a 3D CAD designer is needed to draw machine parts and there are 2 applicants: one is a 25-year-old newly graduated mechanical engineer and the other is a 55-year-old newly graduated mechanical engineer. Neither applicant has significant technical experience beyond their studies. Is it age discrimination to hire the 25-year-old, who is likely to have a higher probability of mastering the software in a few months?
The situation is, of course, completely different if the 55-year-old has, for example, done welding and machining work for 35 years. In that case, there would likely be so much practical expertise that the recruitment decision would probably shift.