There are 20 year olds who demonstrate fine leadership skills and maturity. There are plenty of 40 year olds who do not. Find the best people you can regardless of age.
Also, often times the only way to get that experience in the first place is to be put into the positions of leadership to develop your skills.
Ok, but what is the histogram on that? The point wasn't "someone young can't possibly do X" but a combination of "it seems strange that we have an industry built almost entirely of young people" and "somehow this industry believes old people can't do things". Maybe there is a good reason for this, but it is certainly strange: it is like we actively don't want experience that I would have thought should count for a lot (in architecture and planning) while demanding sometimes impossible amounts of experience in things that I'd think wouldn't matter at all (using the new, shiny framework or programming language that those truly experienced people are probably avoiding anyway unless it really really offered something they hadn't seen in their decades of development).
Part of it was the speed of advancement of tech - at the beginning there wasn't anyone available but the kids and by the time those kids were old enough to get into management/positions of leadership, they were graybeards and some new tech was the important thing and the only people using that were the kids.
We're finally getting to the point where there's not much "new" each year or decade, so it's starting to slow down again.
Uhm… I’ve seen the problems with people climbing the corporate ladder too fast.
I used to work with this person in his early 30ies and they were in charge of the infrastructure. This person started as a developer and then was tasked with managing infrastructure, while not having never actually worked as a sysadmin and/or having done operations work.
Well… after a while it became clear that the limitations of the infrastructure were a reflection of the limitations of this person’s knowledge and understanding of infrastructure.
The percentage goes up only marginally with age/experience, and that still doesn't keep cultures from hiring older people with zero experience into leadership roles. The culture specifically opts to select older individuals despite there being enough young people with natural leadership skills in contexts where both populations have no experience.
Maybe you’re a father? Own a flat? I’m 40, little CEO, father, house owner and voter, and it feels way to young to own any of these responsibilities ;) Man we have the world in our hands, what do we do now…
None is a bit bold. My college buddies (& lots of people in that peer cohort) founded companies in their 20s and I think they tended more often than not to demonstrate lots of maturity and leadership skills. Certainly more than some stories I’ve heard leaders of bigger tech companies.
My point still stands either way you interpret it. A 26 yold has had 4 years to build leadership skills at college (or even earlier) and another 4 in industry. That’s 8 years of experience which feels substantial. Think about it. There are kids who come out of high school with more coding experience because they got attracted to it at a very early age. There are also kids who do similar kinds of things around leadership.
Lafayette was a major general in the American revolution at 19, he had plenty of leadership skills in his 20’s. Not saying it’s _common_ but historically it seems at least possible.
A title is meaningless without context. Knowing he was a major general does not tell me anything about his leadership skills.
Often at companies (And I presume in other situations as well), people are thrust into higher level positions purely because they happened to be in the right place at the right time and someone above them left.
I’m saying he had the skills because after he was thrust into the position, he lead military operations, then left for France to convince them to contribute more to the American revolution (which they did). Maybe that doesn’t count as true leadership to you but I know it would clear the bar at any company I worked at.
Realizing how often people exaggerate their own abilities and working in a "good" company seeing how Senior+ devs operate, I no longer trust any claim of someones skill unless it's by someone who I already trust or there is sufficient context and evidence to support the claim.
Too many people/companies claiming to be "world class" or whatever when they are above average at best.
I have no knowledge of Lafayette (Not American) and no context or understanding what he did, so my default judgement is that his skill is exaggerated.
I'm not American, but Lafayette was certainly successful at achieving his military and political goals.
It's worth noting he had been trained in a French military academy for officers since 11, and was commissioned as an officer in the French Musketeers at 14.
Additionally he was extremely well connected in the French nobility and clearly had the expectation that men would follow him.
As for his leadership capabilities, Washington cited him in a letter to congress when he was still officially an adviser for rallying US troops during a retreat after being shot in the leg. His record is pretty good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_...
I played sports at a relatively competitive level for a long time. I do not remember seeing players with significant leadership ability.
Maybe this is true on a relative scale (E.g. good leadership skills for their age), but I don't believe it's true on an absolute scale and an absolute scale is the only useful scale in a professional environment.
I also believe that leadership skill is domain-specific, so having significant experience in your domain along with good leadership skills (Real skills, not from courses or workshops or whatever) does not at all seem feasible by the age of 20.
A person with leadership skills can still benefit from experience.
My current company is lead by someone with good leadership skills, and successfully managed a commercial team. Now he's trying to lead a company, and it is clear that he does not have the necessary experience to make the correct decisions.
Also, often times the only way to get that experience in the first place is to be put into the positions of leadership to develop your skills.