Age discrimination in hiring is illegal in many countries, Sweden included.
The Moving Goalposts
From my own experience navigating the job market right now: Youth is mistaken for energy. Experience is mistaken for rigidity.
Underqualified
at 25. Overqualified
at 50. The goalposts move, but somehow you end up on the wrong side of them.
How Ageism Hides in Plain Sight
Age discrimination in hiring is illegal in many countries, Sweden included. And yet, you see it routinely in the language: We’re looking for someone who can grow with us
. Translation: we’d prefer you weren’t already grown
.
Add a minimum number of years of experience, and the message becomes clear: lifelong learners with a long work history, apparently, need not apply.
Experience Is Not the Opposite of Potential
The assumption that experience makes you less moldable
is worth questioning. If we’re genuinely hiring for potential, what has age got to do with it?
Adult education is an underrepresented and undervalued path. Many people reinvent themselves professionally well into their 40s, 50s, and beyond. That’s not a liability. That’s exactly what potential looks like.
Both assumptions cost organisations more than they admit. For the people on the receiving end, the cost is personal, financial, mental, and largely invisible. We should talk more about that.
Sweden’s Equality Blind Spot
Sweden is proud of its equality. Ageism in recruitment is still its blind spot.