I HIRED a candidate with 30 years experience

I HIRED a candidate with 30 years experience. The HR manager was not

impressed. She said he is ‘too old’ and won’t "fit into our culture." He had been laid off by his previous employer due to restructuring at the age of 53 yrs. He kept applying but was rejected for being "overqualified" which led to his 'employment gap" reaching almost 1 yr. Everyone is looking for that 18 year old with 20 years experience. This guy brought an abundance of experience and taught me a lot that I never learned from all my years in the industry. You can’t Google Experience. Employers if you want good talent you need to be considering the "OVERQUALIFIED" candidates. The truth is 'Overqualified' is really the code word for age discrimination. AGEISM in the workplace is very real and quite acceptable. It seems the EEOC has no interest in enforcing the law.  ATS systems require dates. If they don't ask your age, they require employment dates  and the date of college graduation. Our society needs to change. All that should matter is if the candidate has the right skills and attitude to do the job. It’s time to stop discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age. Agree?