In the IT world, the job interview is also used as a means to enable age discrimination in hiring and enforce a more homogeneous work force. Many people/companies erroneously believe that a homogeneous work force performs and gets along better.

Google has been sued for age discrimination in the past. A couple of years ago I read that the average age of a Google employee was under 31. Has Google changed its bias against older employee's by deemphasizing interviews? Or perhaps they have found that they can simply use metrics such as year that you graduated college, whether you have a Facebook/MySpace profile, an IM ID or just a lack of work experience??

Job ads, particularly for small or start-up companies will sometimes use keywords like a "fun workplace" or "recent college graduate" to hint that the company is looking for younger people.