This post gave me so much food for thought. And I think about two different kind of experienced professionals that are probably struggling for very different reasons right now...yes, there's the basically financially protected long-time FTE who had been around long enough to get stock options not just RSUs...I do not at all discount the feeling of disconnectedness, lack of certainty, loss of identity that can happen...I've witness (and experienced) it firsthand. My s.o. just left a big tech company after 16 years. When I finally left the company that acquired BlogHer I'd been doing it 12 years...the longest I'd ever done anything. These are people with so much to offer and contribute who may feel totally lost on what to offer to whom and how.
There are also the folks who didn't quite reach the same rung of financial comfort who nonetheless gave many good years to companies and feel discarded and disrespected at the end of what was a good run.
Ageism is the worst-kept secret in the Valley IMO...part of buying into the mystique of the Valley is imagining that everything is always new and bleeding edge and that favors the young.
Just like the data about women founders, execs, and board members helping the bottom line doesn't seem to penetrate, the data about most successful founders actually being in their 40s and so on doesn't penetrate either.
Probably because some in the current power structure don't *want* it to penetrate. {See: aforementioned "mystique."]
Another thought occurred to me...tech and media are super intertwined today, but the media *business* has been experiencing a spiral for years now...so i think if you are a tech person who is insulated from the media model's drama, you will also have a very different perspective vs. if it's part and parcel of your work in tech.
This post gave me so much food for thought. And I think about two different kind of experienced professionals that are probably struggling for very different reasons right now...yes, there's the basically financially protected long-time FTE who had been around long enough to get stock options not just RSUs...I do not at all discount the feeling of disconnectedness, lack of certainty, loss of identity that can happen...I've witness (and experienced) it firsthand. My s.o. just left a big tech company after 16 years. When I finally left the company that acquired BlogHer I'd been doing it 12 years...the longest I'd ever done anything. These are people with so much to offer and contribute who may feel totally lost on what to offer to whom and how.
There are also the folks who didn't quite reach the same rung of financial comfort who nonetheless gave many good years to companies and feel discarded and disrespected at the end of what was a good run.
Ageism is the worst-kept secret in the Valley IMO...part of buying into the mystique of the Valley is imagining that everything is always new and bleeding edge and that favors the young.
Just like the data about women founders, execs, and board members helping the bottom line doesn't seem to penetrate, the data about most successful founders actually being in their 40s and so on doesn't penetrate either.
Probably because some in the current power structure don't *want* it to penetrate. {See: aforementioned "mystique."]
I could go on and on.
Another thought occurred to me...tech and media are super intertwined today, but the media *business* has been experiencing a spiral for years now...so i think if you are a tech person who is insulated from the media model's drama, you will also have a very different perspective vs. if it's part and parcel of your work in tech.