The only thing for youth is the tolerance for risk can be higher than 40 yrs old for most engineers. But as long as engineers keep up skills. Their experience are very valuable. It was the same when I worked in PubSub then. CTO Bob Wyman hired a bunch of 40 something engineers and they really can do cool engineering than 20 something.
-- edit --
Engineers in PubSub then are at least 30 yrs old in 2005. The youngest engineer is very talented but he started to write programs in forth when he was 10 on Apple II. Of course the draw back is the salary is higher and old engineers may have too much distractions from their children.
I think most of time, the myth for young engineers is to encourage students to join the rank. And the engineers in first world face big competition from countries with lower salary. But I always feel funny because for people working in software, US is the original birth place and the most experience engineers are here. But people probably would rather to pay an expensive old doctor to heal them than an old engineer to build something that works because they don't feel the value for what they pay in perceivable fashion.
This is a good point that probably seems so obvious to most people here, but none the less is overlooked by many elsewhere. Where I work my day job now, I can see a clear delineation between those that left their "official" studying years with the conscious or unconscious idea that they really no longer had to learn anything new, and those who know that especially in our industry, you must actively and continuously put time into developing your skills and knowledge.
The sad thing is that in many if not all big organisations (particularly government), you can be the first kind of person and go through the motions each day just fine. They don't even get called on it most of the time.
I know which kind of person I get along with better and which shits me to tears when I have to deal with them.
-- edit --
Engineers in PubSub then are at least 30 yrs old in 2005. The youngest engineer is very talented but he started to write programs in forth when he was 10 on Apple II. Of course the draw back is the salary is higher and old engineers may have too much distractions from their children.
I think most of time, the myth for young engineers is to encourage students to join the rank. And the engineers in first world face big competition from countries with lower salary. But I always feel funny because for people working in software, US is the original birth place and the most experience engineers are here. But people probably would rather to pay an expensive old doctor to heal them than an old engineer to build something that works because they don't feel the value for what they pay in perceivable fashion.
-- edit --
And thanks for Owen to dispel myth from PR.