I don't know too much about the process, because I wasn't given the chance to take part in it. I understand that, the company wants to display an image that it's built with the power of young, enthusiastic guys, that's what their photos show and this is what the job ad states: "Spooners in their 20s lead..." I think, that's a good thing, so, I was completely sure that my 20 years of experience wouldn't fit this image. I was hesitant to apply, because I knew that, I am too old for them, I was sure that I wouldn't be given the chance due to my age / experience. But somehow, based on my experience and the job description, I convinced myself, that I really stand a chance. Here is what they've asked for: - "Master your toolkit." - I think I've got that. - "From monolithic to microservices architectures" - Done all of that. - "gRPC to REST APIs" -gRPC, REST and GraphQL, I worked with all. - "Kubernetes to Docker" - That I think is basic in these days. - "Python to Rust" - My main specialism is Java, but I have significant Python in my resumee and recently been working a lot with Rust. And the automatic rejection email states: "There are a lot of strong candidates ... we believe some of them are better suited for the job" I don't doubt for a second that they have lots of strong candidates. Who like to work had and play hard. Just like me. And I also don't doubt that "some of them are better suited". Just please tell me how can I be better suited if I have everything what you've asked for. What does it come down to? Age? I am definitely not in my 20s. Someone might have expected me to pursue managerial roles by this age. But I like what I do, I like creating softwares, I like when something works what I create. Is that the issue? I asked all of these things in an email, but no surprise, I didn't get any answers. Please, don't be mistaken, I am not surprised, and not sad. It happened what I originally expected! Nothing more nothing less. I just want to point out that some companies may write that in job ads that they are equal opportunity employers. But most of them are really not that. It's just they need to write this because of rules and regulations. And I am not saying this company is like that, they just look like that.