The Invisible Executive: Navigating Ageism in Silicon Valley

MacDermott’s transition from high-level boardroom advisor to job seeker revealed a stark disconnect between her credentials and the modern institutional hiring process. Despite a resume spanning leadership roles at McAfee and AVG, she found her applications disappearing into an automated void. Her experience highlights a pervasive issue in Silicon Valley: organizations often struggle to categorize senior professionals whose expertise does not fit narrow, entry-level job descriptions.

Her attempts to bypass standard HR protocols by reaching out directly to CEOs were met with polite dismissals, often citing that she was overqualified. The frustration deepened when she experimented with her digital footprint, noting higher engagement after scrubbing early career dates from her LinkedIn profile and testing gender-based bias. Facing both ageism and the specific hiring culture of California’s tech sector, MacDermott eventually abandoned the search for institutional stability. She pivoted to entrepreneurship, launching two firms, Khaos Holdings and TeenAegis, to reclaim her professional agency. This shift forced a personal re-evaluation of security, moving from a reliance on corporate salaries to a focus on self-generated ventures.