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I have no experience with big-name tech megacorps, my career has been with startups and small companies mostly. As a non-young person who's looking for something new at a small startup, my feeling is that age discrimination is clearly a thing, but it's not (just) a function of expected compensation, skillset, or willingness to work insane hours. My feeling is that, while you're expected to fit the profile in those areas, most of the discrimination is based on what startups would call "cultural fit". Specifically, being "like them" in having an enthusiasm for a dorm culture atmosphere. Yes, Work is Play! It's All About Having Fun(!) here at our hipster office. We have fussball tables. A fridge packed with beer! Group outings to clubs (to hear bands that are popular among the just-graduated set, don't expect a night at the symphony)! Food from the food trucks. Nerf fights! Why oh why would you ever go home??

I frequently see this sort of work environment publicly glorified on the "come work with us!" pages of startup websites, often accompanied by a self-congratulatory statement such as "of course, we wouldn't be a real {SF|NYC|Berlin|...} start-up if we didn't have all this and an office in the coolest part of the city" and so forth. The implied message being that if you're not likewise enthusiastic about a "work is socializing and play with some coding mixed in followed by socializing and play" atmosphere, if you don't share the non-work-related values and interests of "the team" (i.e. things 23 year olds care about), then clearly you're not startup material. You won't be fun to have around, won't be fun to hang out with, you should probably go work for an insurance company, somewhere boring where you'll fit right in.

[dfxm12]

When I go on a job interview, I'm interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing me. I've turned down a handful of job offers because their "workplace culture" wasn't what I was looking for. Some were way too dry, some were too much like what you describe above.

Of course, I'm not near an SF/NYC/Berlin type of "scene" though. Is the problem that every good job opening in these hotbeds is with a start up that has this type of culture?

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I can't of course say that every startup company has this sort of culture, but my impression is that most small tech companies in startup hotbeds lean in the direction I describe. The sort of startups that catch my attention seem either to have such cultures or be straining to have them. They seem to think that hipster/dorm atmosphere is important for recruiting (the kind of people they want – 23 year-olds) and actively strive to create, maintain, and advertise it.