Silicon Valley shows that age matters when it comes to finding tech talent

Silicon Valley companies are going back to high school; but not in the way that you’re thinking. They’re stalking the unhallowed halls for summer interns and paying them dearly for their wisdom, as chronicled in this week’s Searchlight news round-up.

The story of a 17-year-old still in braces flown out to Facebook for a one-on-one with Mark Zuckerberg and a place in the social network’s summer intern program makes for good copy. But it will probably also send shudders down the spines of CIOs. Finding talented IT folks is a perennial challenge for CIOs and it seems to get harder every year. When the LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner shouts to his 2014 crop of interns that “Talent is our No. 1 operating priority and our most important asset,” it’s clear the hunt for tech talent is ferocious.

At least out in Silicon Valley, somebody’s decided that technology belongs to the young. That tech sophistication is not something they’ve learned in school; it comes with the territory of being under 20 years old. While it’s doubtful your company will find its edge courtesy of a teenager this summer, the hunt for highschoolers does suggest CIOs keep an open mind when recruiting talent. Age matters.

Go to Searchlight for the details – and the rest of the news roundup, including: a fitness app that is proving useful for more than just fitness, troubled electronics firms being turned into farms and more!