Age Is Only a Number

Let’s be honest. Who doesn’t love to hear that they look so young, amazing for their age—or even as if they are still in college? That’s an awesome compliment that would brighten most people’s day. However, when you are working in an industry that values age because of its correlation to experience, youth is not always a valuable thing. Unfortunately, being a young employee can often carry the stigma of inexperience. To create equity and inclusion for all age groups, it’s important to recognize that our youngest colleagues, even those fresh out of college and in the workforce for the first time, have a wide variety of insights, experiences and knowledge that are valuable to us all.

It is hard for me to process that I’m now in my 24th year in the parking profession. It seems like only a moment ago that I was heading into my first solo project interview. Since I was only a few years out of college, I was nervous about being on my own, the sole representative of my company, and very anxious about how the interview would go, but felt confident in my abilities. I was also grateful to be trusted with this opportunity and was determined to show what I was capable of. I prepared (almost too much) in advance by researching the client and their pressing needs, creating a presentation that conveyed our company and my personal qualifications while highlighting cost-effective concepts for a new parking structure. I also anticipated any challenging questions that could come up during the Q&A portion of the interview.

During the interview process I felt that everything was going well! The information I wanted to communicate flowed nicely and I felt the evaluation committee and I were on the same page. However, despite all my preparation, during Q&A, there was a question (and happened to be the first one) I was definitely not prepared for:

“How old are you?”

I was honestly shocked that one of the evaluation committee members would bring up my age in this setting. I didn’t see the relevance to what was being discussed and I hesitated to answer. My mind started to race, thinking that the committee was doubting my qualifications to represent my company.

Do I answer this question honestly? Can I somehow deflect this question?

I decided to reply with humor by saying, “Let’s just say I have a while until I retire.” After some laughs, the Q&A session turned back to focus on the project where I had an opportunity to expand on why our team was best suited to serve the client and how the proposed concepts were a great fit for the site. I did my job, successfully, and in the end, my company was awarded the project. I recall leaving that interview extremely confident in my abilities, and yet somewhat disappointed that the focus was not fully on what my company was capable of, but instead on how young I appeared to be. If my presentation was top tier, why did my age matter?

I am truly grateful for the tremendous opportunities and professional positions presented at the early stages of my career. I’m a believer that hard work and preparation lead to good things. Today, I am fortunate enough to have opportunities to mentor younger generations of employees, parking organization members, and colleagues in the parking industry. I realize that they will often find themselves in rooms with more experienced colleagues, maybe even twice their age. They may doubt their own skills when judged on their youth, but I’d like to encourage the parking industry to embrace these individuals.

• Encourage them to have confidence in the education they worked for.
• Applaud their efforts to speak up when they have a question and listen to alternative points of view.
• Embrace their new and innovative forms of technology and means of communication rather than forcing them to adapt to outdated systems or approaches.

Above all, remember that all of us, at any age, are capable of insightful, creative, and quality work. I have no doubt that making changes to embrace age inclusion and equity will benefit our whole industry. ◆