I agree with you as far as these general skills, but I think that the value of applicable experience should not be discounted.
For example, I work with a firmware developer in his 50’s, and he is so efficient it is scary. He’s basically seen it all by now, and he has deeply ingrained work habits which let him solve problems extremely quickly.
That’s not to say that every developer with X years of experience will automatically be great in that way, but if you can find someone who has years of experience producing exactly the type of work you need, this should be viewed as a huge advantage.
It’s like if you are looking to hire a carpenter to built a piece of custom furniture: you can and should consider general qualities like strength, manual dexterity and attention to detail. But if you can find someone with years of muscle memory building exactly that type of furniture, they are almost guaranteed to get the best result.
I think that on average, an older experienced developer will be more skilled than a younger one, even with less natural talent. Experience is really important.
For example, I work with a firmware developer in his 50’s, and he is so efficient it is scary. He’s basically seen it all by now, and he has deeply ingrained work habits which let him solve problems extremely quickly.
That’s not to say that every developer with X years of experience will automatically be great in that way, but if you can find someone who has years of experience producing exactly the type of work you need, this should be viewed as a huge advantage.
It’s like if you are looking to hire a carpenter to built a piece of custom furniture: you can and should consider general qualities like strength, manual dexterity and attention to detail. But if you can find someone with years of muscle memory building exactly that type of furniture, they are almost guaranteed to get the best result.