[ClearCase_guy]

This would apply in any field where advances in technology are routine, ongoing, and difficult to keep up with.

And that was my point. Other fields experience advances in technology that are easy to keep up with -- retail, business management, library science, construction, the list goes on and on.

Engineering? Computer Science? Five years out of college, people may using the same thought processes that their professors imparted to them, but they are not using the same machines, the same computer languages, or the same protocols. Everything changes all the time. Older people need to work hard to keep up -- but the younger and cheaper workers simply know today's technology as a matter of course. The young are always exactly what industry wants "today". But their shelf life is very short.

Outside of Science and Technology careers, this problem exists in a much smaller degree.

[khelus]

... Other fields experience advances in technology that are easy to keep up with -- retail, business management, library science, construction, the list goes on and on. ...

Once upon a time, it seems to long and far away, a proven experienced employee in math, science, etc. was considered and asset. Some companies offered in house education; others reimbursed employees for additional training.

As to the imported 'Brightest and Best', most 'guest workers' are at best ordinary, at worst way below ordinary, but boy they're CHEAP.