Poleon actually. It's genitive.

"Can an extended discussion of useless knowledge ever lead to a useful conclusion?" - Discuss.

However, I have had a hiring manager decide to hire me, only to have the offer dropped under mysterious circumstances.

Yes, that would irritate me. And I agree that the not-so-good applicants would be more likely to sue - which is probably why I wouldn't! :)

But in the situation you experienced I probably would write a letter to the company's CEO; strictly factual and unemotional but pointing out that his corporation was probably in breach of employment law and therefore open to being sued. That should give the bad HR guy a sleepless night or two. I agree that they shouldn't be allowed to just get away with it.

All the best.

If I have a very positive interview for a job I'd be great at, and don't get an offer, that may have absolutely nothing to do with my abilities, either real or perceived.

That's true. I once had a very positive interview, but I could read the lead interviewer like a book. He was thinking "This guy's better than I am. If I hire him he'll be a threat to me." It was written all over his face. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't offered the job.

But I didn't sue. I didn't even care. I'm 65, I've been programming commercially for 25 years, and I've been kicked in the balls by life so often that I doubt that I could ever be fairly accused of making any false assumptions of fairness! Life IS unfair, period. :)

What I'm saying here is that a confident and entrepreneurial programmer will either so dominate the interview as to blow all ageism out the window, or he will conclude that the company wasn't worth working for anyway and therefore probably isn't worth the further waste of his valuable time and money suing them. And if he doesn't do one or the other, then he probably wasn't a good choice for the company.

If he's got ideas, enthusiasm, experience and stickability, well... why doesn't he use them and get on with the next project, move, or interview? I kinda feel that if an engineer has to resort to the courts to secure his income, then he's dropped out of the race anyway.

Just my two cents' worth.

If the over-40 has to resort to legal action, he has just proved he wasn't up to the job anyway. If he can't convince you that he has the ideas, the enthusiasm, the experience, and the stickability to get the job done, how will he ever inspire that confidence in your customers?