I think a lot of kids out there today have great new ideas and waiting to be discovered. One thing I noticed in our future IT force is lock off mentorship and guidance. Something you cannot Google it online. I believe we must open a new venue to give them hands up in order to inspire innovation and new ideas.

Asad.

Like all previous generations, millennials need to respect traditional work methods while establishing innovative ideas of their own, and we'll need to foster their contributions to the workplace. This not only affects IT, but industries across the board.

Fortunately for us all, the harm inflicted by a generation of overindulgent -- "my kid right or wrong" rotten parents has not rubbed off on the kids. I am often dismayed at the apparent selfish expectation and genuine surprise by Gen XYs at the rigors (in years past requirements) of a job. I am far more often amazed at the commitment and dignity these same Gen XYs bring to the team.

I am not sure from where they picked up these laudable qualities (unlikely from home or school) -- but they are spectacular to witness. Luckily for us, despite having dug a deep hole in every facet of life for them (and their kids) --a truly miserable failure of their parents/grandparents generation, these XYs overcome.

Maybe it is a very good thing they have not adopted the "work ethic" and "non-ethics" of their parents and grandparents. Heaven knows our world cannot endure another half century of that!

You have to note that you are still dealing with humans : Not aliens. Even though H1B workers are called as aliens, they are still humans. The same thing applies to one more keyword: young workers.

Sometimes the folks have gone into the habit of glorifying the keywords. Some times it is just that: a keyword. So many variations exist in the broad spectrum.

It all depends upon how you want to be treated. Do you want to lead the young folks or you assume that since they are young and you are old there is generation gap?

Age is not in the body. It is in the mind. Someone can be at 60 and more agile in thinking than a 30. The same applies to 30, 20.

So, while generation gap exists it is irrelevent. Only the performance matters.

I would be one that you would consider "New Generation" IT admin. I just turned 20. I will be graduating top of my class from South West Technical College in Wisconsin.

I've doing this since I was 15. I manage and take care of IT operations for three different companies while going to school full time.

I've done a couple of different internships and I have also seen how many IT admins run their network. These IT admins are in their 40's-50's. Yes the younger generation is going to shake things up for the fact that the older generation is set in their ways or haven't kept up on new emerging technology.

A lot of what I have seen is forgetfulness. I have seen a lot of common practices forgotten by the older generation. Things like DNS, DHCP, and active directory management. It's almost sad.

The networks I have done an internship with include Richland Center School District. They have a very advanced and useable network. If you were to compare it to other schools in Wisconsin, it would blow them all away.

I am also going to be doing an internship for Grant County Government building, which is also very advanced and top of the line compared to other Infrastructures in the state.

It will be very interesting how things go in the next 10 years!

Well, the new crew should fit right in with the current business attitude of cheap-as-possible and short-term viewpoint..their lack of in-depth understanding of how technology actually works *sure they can 'use' it) but they dont really have any more understanding in a lot of instances than your mom does of how and why her car works!

In response to "john":

I'm concerned with the same issue and I'm a part of it as well.

Companies like Microsoft, for example, make it easier to manage previously complex tasks; however this comes at the cost of understanding the groundwork the technology is built on.

I started programming with "lower level" languages such as C and C++ and have a reasonable grasp of the concepts. However with the .NET revolution Microsoft pushes, almost anybody can create a reasonably functional application without really having to understand "what is really going on." I've been on-board with .NET because I enjoy the productivity boost it has provided me. But I've had to learn to set aside my urge to know and control ever little detail.

The flipside of this is that I believe there will always be "super geeks" who really want to delve deep into the belly of the beast. The rest of us "average geeks" can continue to reap the benefits of their progress.

I've been working with some young techs for some time. Some are good. Some are not so good. It's the same with the older techs. I'm amazed at some of the younger tech's ability to spend countless hours digging into technology...but many don't have families or responsibilities. The latter changes the perspectives of many people as they get older. Some older techs have also experienced the "joys" of getting caught up in company restructurings or layoffs. That affects your enthusiasm toward what you do. Non-techie supervisors making illogical decisions affect you also.

As long as the old keep themselves updated with the new technologies they must be able to not only keep up with the new but also do better. It all depends upon their mental sharpness, whether they have made best of the resources available to them. If they have and in a state of constant learning they will be better than the young ones. Not only that young ones will be led by the old. Being agile, keeping in a state of learning can lead the older to a state of supervisory or leadership ones that the young folks will be looking for their directions. So, all said and done, generation gap can have good effects. It is not the generation gap that matters; but it is whether they are young in thinking with a curiosity to learn and improve.

I find that the newer generation of staff is indeed shaking things up. Most of us who have been in the business for a long time have honed our skills on many generations of technology. We're good at keeping things running smooth. If you're an old salty like me, trying to keep a data center containing 10 years of technology alive, you're not spending a lot of time learning about Web 2.0, iPhones and Facebook. Our younger staff already is deeply embedded in these technologies.

We can learn a lot from the kids. We just have to make the time and make it a priority. Nobody said IT would be easy.

Greg

I have to leave a post on this in that I was involved in a couple of "knowledge management" and "aging workforce" efforts and actually did some research on the subject.

I am not young, maybe an in-between at 43, but I am getting really tired of the pessimism displayed by many baby boomers. It borders on arrogance and self-promotion.

Now, before I get started, I want to state my great and deep respect for the accomplishments of the previous generations (not just the baby boomers). One of my favorite quotes is Isaac Newton's, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." There is so much to learn from the methods and practices of the previous generation, but what would Newton have accomplished if he did not challenge the status quo?

This self-promotion is almost unconscious. In our company, they actually called the program to recruit and train the next generation of technical workers the "Legacy" project. No one even realized that to the current generation "legacy" has a negative connotation and was something to be dealt with or replaced with something better. I can't help but think of Asimov's Foundation Series when this type of thinking manifests itself.

On a positive note, the next (or rather current) generation will solve the problems we could not solve. Look at society's challenges with open eyes, from a viewpoint we can't even imagine. Use tools, techniques, and methods that our beyond our abilities. Their tools and methods to us would be like handing a calculator to an eighteenth century man.

I am very optimistic for the future of the next generation and the tech industry. The tech industry is just starting to mature and fulfill a sliver of its potential. We are still in the at the dawn of the digital age, and yet many view it as the setting sun!

Get over yourselves...anyone is replaceable.

p.s. I really like gk's comments. We are all humans, whether h-1b or millennial. Treat people with respect and you can learn a lot.