YOU'RE NOT "TOO OLD" — YOU'RE FLUENT IN A LANGUAGE YOUNGER WORKERS HAVEN'T LEARNED YET

Experience isn't a liability. It's pattern recognition that can't be Googled.

I was in a meeting recently when a 28-year-old product manager said something that made everyone nod: "We need someone who can move fast and isn't set in their ways."

She didn't mean it as a dig at older workers. She genuinely believed speed and fresh thinking were generational traits.

And I get why she thinks that. The narrative is everywhere. Innovation belongs to the young. Disruption requires a beginner's mind. Experience equals rigidity.

Except it's bullshit.

Not the part about needing fresh thinking—that's always valuable. But the assumption that tenure equals inflexibility? That having "seen it before" means you can't adapt?

That's just ageism dressed up as business strategy.

What They Can't See (Yet)

Here's what younger colleagues don't realize because they haven't lived it yet: experience isn't about having all the answers.

It's about recognizing patterns before they fully form.

When I was 32, I thought the executive who kept pumping the brakes on our aggressive expansion plan was just being cautious. Old-school. Risk-averse.

Then the market shifted six months later, and his "caution" saved the company millions.

He wasn't smarter than us. He'd just seen that movie before. He recognized the early signals of a pattern we didn't even know to look for yet.

That's not rigidity. That's wisdom.

And it's the thing you can't learn from a TED Talk or a case study. You have to live through it. Multiple times. In different contexts. Until the pattern becomes visible.

The Languages You Speak

Think about what you've navigated in your career. Not the titles or the companies—the situations.

You've probably managed through at least one recession. Maybe two. You've watched technologies rise and fall. You've seen leadership trends come and go—remember when Six Sigma was going to fix everything?

You've worked with brilliant people who failed. And mediocre people who succeeded because they understood politics and timing.

You've launched products that should have worked but didn't. And you've seen terrible ideas succeed because someone believed in them enough to push through the obstacles.

You've been part of mergers that were supposed to be "cultures of equals" but weren't. You've survived restructurings, rebrands, pivots, and more "new directions" than you can count.

Every single one of those experiences taught you a language.

The language of organizational dynamics. The language of how teams actually function versus how they're supposed to function. The language of reading a room, understanding what's not being said, knowing when to push and when to wait.

These aren't soft skills. They're survival skills. And they're incredibly rare.

What Experience Actually Gives You

Let me get specific about what decades in the workforce actually develop. Because it's not what most people think.

Crisis Navigation

When things go sideways—and they always do—experienced professionals don't panic. Not because we're calmer people, but because we've already been through three versions of this crisis before.

We know that the first solution people grab for usually isn't the right one. We know that emotions run hot for about 48 hours, then people start thinking clearly again. We know which bridges you can burn and which ones you'll need later.

That's not pessimism. That's pattern recognition.

Reading What's Coming

I can walk into most organizations and within a week, tell you which initiatives will succeed and which ones are already dead but nobody knows it yet.

Not because I'm psychic. Because I've seen how these things play out. I know what leadership commitment actually looks like versus what "support" sounds like. I know the difference between political posturing and genuine buy-in.

Young professionals see what's happening. Experienced professionals see what's about to happen.

That's worth something.

Translating Between Worlds

Here's an underrated skill: the ability to speak both technical and executive language. To translate between finance and operations. To help engineering and marketing actually understand each other.

That doesn't come naturally. It comes from having sat in enough meetings to understand how different functions think, what they care about, what they're afraid of.

You become a translator. A bridge. Someone who can take a complex technical problem and explain it in terms the CFO understands. Or take a strategic vision and break it down into operational steps that the team can actually execute.

Try finding that skill in someone with three years of experience.

Knowing What to Ignore

Maybe the most valuable thing experience teaches you is what not to pay attention to.

Every organization has noise. Drama. Urgent things that aren't actually important. Initiatives that get launched with great fanfare and quietly die three months later.

When you're young, everything feels equally important because you don't yet know what matters.

When you've been around, you develop a filter. You know which fires to put out and which ones to let burn themselves out. You know which relationships to invest in and which battles to skip entirely.

That's not cynicism. That's efficiency.

The Adaptability Myth

"But older workers can't adapt to new technology."

I hear this all the time. And look, it's sometimes true. Some people do get stuck. Some people do resist learning new tools or new ways of working.

But that's not an age thing. That's a mindset thing.

I know 55-year-olds who are more digitally fluent than 25-year-olds. I know executives in their sixties running circles around younger managers because they're curious and they're willing to say "I don't know this yet—teach me."

The real question isn't whether you can learn new technology. It's whether you're willing to.

And here's what younger workers don't realize: the technology changes constantly, but the fundamentals don't.

Good leadership is still good leadership, whether you're managing through Slack or email or whatever comes next. Building trust still works the same way. Understanding customer needs still requires the same listening skills.

The tools change. The principles don't.

And if you've got the principles down, you can learn any tool.

Reframing Your Value

So if you're over 40 and feeling invisible in the job market, or undervalued in your current role, here's what I want you to consider:

Stop apologizing for your experience.

Stop saying things like "I know I'm a bit older, but..." or "I'm willing to learn new things even though..."

That's you internalizing someone else's bias.

Instead, get clear on what your experience actually provides. Not in vague terms like "wisdom" or "maturity"—in specific, valuable outcomes.

You prevent expensive mistakes because you've seen them before.

You accelerate projects because you know which shortcuts work and which ones create problems later.

You build stronger teams because you've learned how to develop people, not just manage them.

You navigate politics and relationships in ways that create opportunity instead of friction.

You bring context that helps organizations avoid repeating their own history.

That's not "being stuck in the past." That's being valuable.

The Confidence Question

I'll be honest: the hardest part of staying relevant isn't learning new skills.

It's maintaining confidence when the culture keeps telling you your value has an expiration date.

Every job posting that says they want someone "energetic" and "hungry"—we know what that's code for.

Every time you're passed over for someone younger with less experience, it's hard not to internalize the message that your time has passed.

But here's what I've learned, both personally and through coaching dozens of men through this exact struggle:

Your value hasn't diminished. The market's ability to recognize it has.

And that's a very different problem—one you can actually address.

It starts with remembering what you bring that can't be taught in a bootcamp or learned from YouTube.

Pattern recognition. Judgment under pressure. The ability to see three moves ahead. The wisdom to know when conventional wisdom doesn't apply.

These aren't nice-to-haves. They're competitive advantages.

You just have to position them that way.

What This Means Practically

If you're feeling the weight of age bias—in your job search, in your current role, or just in your own head—here's what helps:

Stay current, but don't chase trends. Learn the tools that matter in your field. Stay literate in whatever technology is shaping your industry. But don't pretend to be something you're not.

Lead with outcomes, not tenure. When you talk about your experience, don't lead with "20 years of..." Lead with "I've helped companies navigate..." The result matters more than the timeline.

Find environments that value what you bring. Not every company is youth-obsessed. Some organizations actually understand that experience matters. Seek those out.

Mentor generously. Nothing positions you as relevant faster than being the person younger colleagues come to for perspective. Be that person.

Stay curious. The moment you start sentences with "Back in my day," you've lost. Stay interested in what's new. Ask questions. Learn from people half your age.

Your experience is a language they don't speak yet.

Don't let anyone—including yourself—convince you that's a weakness.

Your turn: What's one pattern you can now see clearly that you were blind to earlier in your career?