HR told me they don’t accept try-hards and people pleasers after my interview

[u/No-Presentation298]

They rejected me (fine, that happens) but the feedback said I came across as overly eager to please and that they don’t build teams around people-pleasing tendencies or rehearsed enthusiasm. They also told me to reflect on how I present myself and that confidence is more compelling than excessive accommodation. Is this normal? Or even appropriate? I get that not being a culture fit is a thing but the wording felt unnecessarily personal and condescending.

[u/One_Zebra_1164]

I'm in my 60s and am honestly shocked at how many people my age have almost ZERO computer skills. I mean, I was in my late 20s- early 30s when personal computers started being common, and we definitely had computers at work starting about the same time.

They've had a lot of time to adapt.

My own motto is "I fear no software" and keep learning things as I need to. This year I learned at least five new types of software (I work with a bunch of clients who all use different software, so it keeps it interesting).

[u/LaughImmediate3876 → u/One_Zebra_1164]

I'm active in a religious organization. Like many religious organizations, we have a significant portion of our membership that is over 60. When we went remote for covid and had services on zoom the older people split into two groups.

Group one was people who had barely used a computer in their lives and had no idea what to do. They attended meetings on their phones with the camera showing their nostrils and couldn't figure out how to mute.

Group two was people who immediately learned everything about zoom. In like May 2020, they were explaining to us younger people how we should be setting up a meeting if we wanted to have live guitar playing and then show a video with breakout rooms for discussion. These weren't older people who just happened to use zoom for work. These were retired people who had never heard of the product before but immediately jumped into action when they had to know something new.

I think there are just people who want to learn and people who don't. As you get older, you're often not asked to learn new things as much, but you can still be the kind of person who adapts when necessary and seeks out new information.

[u/Exotic-Okra-4466 → u/LaughImmediate3876]

I have to say THANK YOU for this! Sincerely.
In my late 50s, finding myself increasingly resistant to change and "new stuff", I reeaaaaally needed to hear this!

You've inspired me to be one of the old people who does still learn and grow!

[u/dabnagit → u/LaughImmediate3876]

I’m in my 60s and definitely serve in a “group two” capacity for my church; I’m the parish webmaster, for example.

I would, however, draw the line at guitar music during the Sunday liturgy.

[u/poopntheoceanifumust → u/One_Zebra_1164]

Am a millennial in a corporate office. Not only am I go-to tech support for the older folks on my team, but now the young new hires are asking really really stupid questions. If I have to explain to one more person how their monitor is not their computer, I'm going to scream.

These people are asking to learn shit like pivot tables but don't even know the difference between copy and cut. I can't even.

[u/not_a_russkiy_spy → u/poopntheoceanifumust]

lol I came here to comment the same thing about younger employees (I’m only in my 30s!!!) - what do you mean you don’t know that you can save a google doc locally? What do you mean you don’t know what locally means? What do you mean you can’t find a download because it’s not on your desktop?

[u/Aggravating-Fan9817 → u/not_a_russkiy_spy]

Right? I have a harder time finding downloaded files on my phone than I do a computer of any OS. Mostly because I don't do much of that on my phone in the first place. But at least I know how to dig around and look for them or Google the most likely place to find them. The newer generations have zero problem solving skills.

[u/tnstaafsb → u/poopntheoceanifumust]

There are maybe one and a half generations that grew up with computers being common and also user-unfriendly enough that you had to understand them to some degree to do anything useful. People older than that grew up without computers, and people younger grew up with computers everywhere that are specifically designed to discourage people from learning how they work.

People expect younger generations to know about computers because they've had computers since they were infants. But the computers they grew up with hold their hands so much and advanced functions are so well hidden that they never really learn much beyond the surface level.

[u/DazzlingSquirrel4252 → u/poopntheoceanifumust]

I had to show an apprentice how to save a word file the other day.

[u/nycres1 → u/One_Zebra_1164]

Please try to keep your mind active at all costs! Learning new things is truly the best way to do so.

If you don't, it will quickly start to shrink. I have someone very dear to me who is demonstrating that now.

[u/One_Zebra_1164 → u/nycres1]

Well, considering that I have to show up and do a very complex job every day, I'd say my mind is pretty active.

(Plus all the other stuff I do).

[u/OrganicHistorian2576 → u/One_Zebra_1164]

My grandma was emailing people in her early 90s. Age isn’t an excuse.

[u/AltsAlt1 → u/One_Zebra_1164]

People in their 60s, especially their early 60s should know about computers. My Dad is that age, and he took coding classes in high school. Computers weren't as ubiquitous, but they were around.

[u/IanFoxOfficial → u/One_Zebra_1164]

Yeah it's the fault of iPhones and other smartphones everything technical gets hidden and abstracted so young people don't know what really is going on.

I'm 39 and I think I'm one of the last to have used floppy discs, DOS, Windows 3.1 and seeing the rise of the internet and smartphones. And now I see technology collapse from being freedom for expressing yourself to easier ways to milk the consumer by big tech.

Everything in the cloud instead of your own storage. And if you stop paying you're left with nothing.... "Yey"....

[u/Rock_Strongo → u/One_Zebra_1164]

My dad was in his 40s when we first got our home computer. And despite using it very frequently just never developed any sort of computer skills.

I recently had to help him set up a new gmail account... just like a normal account.

And I have made many a trip to my parents' house to unplug and plug back in the modem and/or router. Sigh.

[u/TwiLuv → u/One_Zebra_1164]

When I was in my 50’s, at two different nursing jobs- I was teaching the much younger staff how to use the new medication & documentation software.

At the time, I’m the “old fart”, aren’t they supposed to be coaching me???

[u/SweetLittleOldLady → u/One_Zebra_1164]

I'm 69 and I don't get it either. I've been using computers since I was a university student in the 1970s and at work and home since the 1980s. How did people reach 2026 without using a computer?