Why Apple wouldn’t hire Steve Jobs

If Steve Jobs were alive today, the chances are he wouldn’t be offered a job at Apple.

There aren’t any old people working at Apple.

When it comes to ageism, of all the big tech companies, Apple are one of the worst.

Only 6% over 40

If you look at the statistics you will see only 6% of Apple’s employees are over the age of 40.

But currently over 50% of the UK’s workforce are aged over 40, and that number is only growing.

If discrimination of this kind were directed at black people, or women, or the LGBT+ trans community, Apple would be boycotted into oblivion by their customers.

Born in 1955, Jobs would now be 69. Not too old to still want to work. We live in an age of ‘no retirement.’

But even if Jobs had been born 20 years later in 1975, and was now a mere 49, in spite of his experience, talent and genius, we predict his CV would still have hit the trash, without even an Interview, as soon as Apple’s HR department algorithm spotted his date of birth.

Sorry Steve. No Jobs

The computer says ‘Sorry, Steve. No Jobs, You’re too old’.

Tech companies like Apple have become a weird inversion of the ‘pale, male and stale’ corporations they challenged back in the 1980s.

They have replaced an old tyranny with a young tyranny.

Remember Apple’s finest ever commercial? ‘1984’ created by Chiat Day and directed by Ridley Scott? If you’re too young, Google it.

The award winning commercial’s message was that, thanks to Apple’s democratic vision for technology ‘1984 won’t be like 1984.’

‘Fear not. We won’t be living in an Orwellian dystopia, they told us.’ We all drank the cool aid, and bought Steve Jobs’ democratic vision.

But 40 years later, Apple have created a different kind of dystopia. A happy clappy, youth obsessed dystopia.

There is an internal belief at Apple that old people ‘just don’t get it.’

Think different

Even though Boomers and Gen X invented the genius technology and brand that Apple now feeds off.

Older people are excluded from Apple’s workforce, Apple’s product development, Apple’s marketing, and Apple’s world view. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Exclusion breeds exclusion.

What do we do about it?

At The Silver Academy we say ‘don’t worry about changing Apple. That’s a problem Apple need to fix. We are better off spending time changing ourselves.

1 – lifelong learning. If companies like Apple are telling you that you and your skills are over the hill, stick two fingers up at them. Go back to school. Learn some new skills. You’ve probably got another 20 or 30 years to work. Plan a new career.

Leverage your amazing experience, wisdom and connectivity, add some new skills, and do something rewarding that you love.

Here’s 5 suggestions for courses that you can do that will help you reboot.

2 – Mentor and reverse mentor. Find someone half, no a third, your age to mentor. Maybe even someone who works at Apple. You’ll learn as much as they do.

3 – Call out ageism whenever you see or experience it. Ageism truly is the last acceptable ‘ism.’ People just don’t care about it. Ageism isn’t sexy. But ironically ageism is the prejudice we’re all likely to face, sooner or later.

So when you see it, call it. Get ageism, before it gets you.

And if the folk at Apple are reading this, sorry about the tough love. But many of us have been your loyal customers, and brand evangelists, since before you were born.

We feel like the parents of children who have lost their way. Please don’t let us down.

And don’t get us started about that disastrous commercial you made recently. The one about crushing creativity. A terrible visual metaphor. No wonder you had to pull it.

If feels a bit like the moment when the board of Apple fired Steve Jobs and replaced him with a Pepsi executive. A major strategic error. By running commercials like that, you are betraying your founding principles. Steve must be spinning in his unmarked grave.

Apple. Do something about your appallingly ageist employment policies.

Hiring older people into your organisation will make you stronger, more innovative, and wiser. Embrace longevity, and you will achieve longevity.

Yes, Steve. Jobs.