As many of you would know, ‘tis the season to go to uni expos; to sit in your booth smiling and seemingly enjoying yourself. The intention is that the best-of-the-best will be enticed to visit, ask you some questions about how much you love your company, and with any luck, apply for the following year’s graduate intake.

I was recently choosen to attend a number of these road shows because my boss said it was time I utilised my sales experience and hopefully corralled someone of substance. I felt he was punishing me, but that’s another story all together.

I went, met and greeted as I was told, but noticed one striking thing. Being a little older than my counterparts, I was attracting predominantly mature-age students who were repeatedly asking me if we would hire mature graduates. At the time I didn’t think the question was particularly important, so I explained that it wasn’t about how old you were, it was all about work ethics, a willingness to learn, and having a good attitude when working with colleagues of all ages.

I thought it was a strange question to ask, and quite frankly, I had never even considered it when I made my own a career change last year. I figured that your age is only a state of mind. You are only as old as you feel and, well, I still feel 10 years younger than I actually am. Most of the older students had approached smiling, but walked away with a slight grimace, and this made me query the policy we have regarding mature workers.

Help the aged

The following week I asked my line manager whether or not age matters when it comes to recruitment. She said it actually did. Not because of any productivity concerns, but because she felt youngster in the team might not be able to cope working alongside older colleagues. Err, what! Excuse me, but isn’t that the problem of our department, not of the mature candidates?

I challenged her – perhaps I shouldn’t have – but I felt I had worked too hard and for too long myself attempting to get rid of the stigma attached to mature workers, particularly when they are grads. I explained that I had turned out okay, even though another manager at the firm had once told me that he was surprised that I even bothered to do my work – people my age usually don’t, apparently.

That comment wounded me and consequently I have made a point of not falling into the typical stereotype of an older worker who can’t engage with her younger counterparts. I succeeded in killing the stigma of being a so-called “oldie”.

My line manager. however, explained to me that before I came along the firm had a really bad run with older employees: they never listened, they always wanted to do things their own way, and they struggled to learn new concepts. I was an exception, not the rule, but it didn’t mean that the company was willing to take another risk with someone like me again.

So, as I walk around with our new intake of grads this year feeling like I’m from another planet – not knowing their lingo like “lol” and the like – I wonder how different my department might be if dates on birth certificates didn’t matter after all. As more people decide to have a career change and are willing to take a drop in income, why wouldn’t businesses relish taking on those with office-work experience rather than hiring cotton-wool babies who think work is the place where they get free internet to access their football dream teams and check their facebook?

The Inbetweener is an Australian financial services professional. The views expressed are hers and not those of eFinancialCareers.