Many companies, especially in the IT space, are preferring young people to fill senior positions as entities look for aggressive staff with innovative ideas to stay competitive, feel experts.
HR experts said the trend of younger people snapping up senior executive positions is fast-evolving and experience requirements for certain jobs have been steadily going down over the years.
"Companies are finally hungry for talented people with critical thinking and leadership skills and are indifferent to whether it is a person with 40 years' or 20 years' experience," staffing firm TeamLease Services VP Sourcing Sangeeta Lala told PTI.
"What clicks are characteristics like aggression, achievement focus, goal orientation and tech savvy, especially critical in the dynamic and competitive environment of the IT/ ITes and telecom sectors. This is visible in the younger lot," Lala added.
Executive search firm GlobalHunt Director Sunil Goel said, "IT, ITes and telecom are new age businesses and young generation has shown lot of flexibility and acceptance towards these industries. We find that a large pool of analytical minds are capable and has proven themselves as successful leaders for senior level positions."
For a young manager, the only thing missing is time-based experience, but 90 per cent of the other desirable traits like the required skill set, energy and receptiveness are already present to take things ahead from competitors based on out-of-the-box thinking, Goel added.
Another executive search firm, BTI Consultants India's Head J K Agarwal said the younger lot is more contemporary in terms of views and ideas for positions like HR, finance, accounts, administration, customer support and marketing.
"However, there are still jobs/skills like research and development, for which senior people are preferred," Agarwal added.
Recruitment services firm Monster Worldwide Managing Director (India, Middle East and South-East Asia) Sanjay Modi, however, disagreed that firms are increasingly opting for younger talent across the board.
He said they may be preferring younger people only if a senior person with a typical skill set is not available or if the firm has sufficient experienced staff and wants a fresh view.