After 30+ years in technology and consulting, I've reached a few conclusions about corporate hiring practices. First the obvious: people hire people much like themselves. So young inexperienced people hire other young inexperienced people, because (i) it's more fun, and (ii) the hiring folk don't actually realize how inexperienced they are. Plus, young employees think it's "cool" and "exciting" to work absurd hours for a pittance, whereas older people understand it's just a job from which you'll be fired as soon as anything resembling a downturn hits. And if the job doesn't remunerate adequately, why do it? So of course companies prefer to hire young workers. But there's a huge cost: as each generation of exciting new tech emerges and new developers jump onto the bandwagon to utilize that tech, nobody remembers the basics. Something as simple as confirming transactions disappears until, one day, the downside of this optimistic approach appears. And then, the young folk scramble to think how they can build this on top of their NoSQL datastore. Somebody with more experience could have prevented the issue, but... nobody hires greyhairs because they're expensive and, besides, young people don't appreciate being told things because they're smart and fast-paced and young. Oh, and did I mention young? Youth has a lot to recommend it, and intelligent hiring policy blends youthful enthusiasm and energy with age-based experience and wisdom. Dumb companies with stupid spoiled little children at the helm (yes, Zuck, we do mean you) inevitably make poor hiring decisions.