> how many other industries feel that the only good candidate is one whose been involved in it since they were a child? Sports are the only one that come readily to mind
Classical musicians.
Of course there will be relatively few areas where early involvement is even considered in a candidate. How many 9 year old lawyers do you know?
Sadly true. If you haven't been practicing since before puberty, you will never be a professional classical performer.
But it's an exceptional and unusual field. Many professional non-classical musicians start much later, and still do okay - although it's a much more brutally selective field than software development.
Edit: I see no evidence that starting late makes it impossible to be a good developer, and plenty that an early start is irrelevant. Any reasonably intelligent graduate should be able to learn to be at least averagely competent at basic code grinding. It might take a few years, but there's nothing inherently magical about the process.
> Sadly true. If you haven't been practicing since before puberty, you will never be a professional classical performer.
This is correct about 99.999% of the time. The exception is when extreme levels of talent and interest are simultaneously involved.
Barry Tuckwell, one of the great virtuoso French hornists of the 20th century, started playing at 14 and was playing professionally within six months.
Hermann Baumann, another virtuoso French horn soloist, started playing when he was 17.
Anyway, I think that interest in programming before college is a likely indicator of independent interest and self-directed learning. I know a lot of folks majoring in CS or trying to get into development simply because it's a lot more lucrative than many other professions. Many(not all) of these folks don't have a genuine interest in programming which makes it unlikely that they will be effective developers.
I started programming around the beginning of high school and then stopped at the end of high school and became a car salesman. 8 years later I went back to school and got a CS degree and am thriving. So, I did have some early experience, but given the gap I feel like I'm more closely aligned with a late starter.
Classical musicians.
Of course there will be relatively few areas where early involvement is even considered in a candidate. How many 9 year old lawyers do you know?