How about: We're not sure the team will be comfortable working with someone so experienced.

Pretty obvious what that was about.

Sheesh - what a lame statement. All the juniors I've worked with are very keen to learn from us old timers, and likewise their enthusiasm and energy rubs off on us. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

Indeed, we can intensify or we can reduce fault lines. Labeling old or young folks with worst stereotypes will not solve problems apart from giving jollies to some on social media.

So far for me working with young people has been lot of fun and learning on both sides.

I think some organizations, groups or individuals are more about having all the right traits and buzzword experience on the CV and are more afraid of being disillusioned about anything that is part of that kind of goal than interested in really solving problems or learning skills to actually do so.

lame, but legally sound. The typical back handed rejection is "overexperienced". It at least tried to make the candidate feel better.

I need to find a lawyer and see how much a conversation like that is worth.

Similar questions netted me about $7000 from the Google age discrimination class-action lawsuit.

Isn't that illegal in the US and opens up doors for lawsuits?

Likely yes: https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/discrimination/agedisc (second paragraph)

I'm not sure what if means by "certain" applicants and employees, but my guess would be jobs where it's relevant, like physical labor, are excluded.

I would imagine it's extremely hard to prove though. The prospective employer could just maintain that the applicant "wouldn't be a good culture fit" or similar.

Disparate Impact laws mean that it's not always necessary to disprove a pretext.

How much do you want to gamble?

Retainers start at around $10k.

we are looking for recent graduates

That’s definitely a lawsuit if you use it to reject someone who is above the protected age.

Literally all companies in my industry have an application track just "for graduates". They just want young kids, I never understood how this is legal. What am I missing?

in the USA this is not legal AFAIK

Once that impression has been made (and it takes a fraction of a second) it's effectively engraved in stone and can't be changed.

You disproving their assumption by showing you can code will only elicit extreme disgust from them.

"If you ever feel the need to defend yourself, you have already lost."

Where is this quote from ?