Good question...Legally I'm guessing we can't ask about age in an interview and I've never been in a situation where I've thought it was required info. If the person has the maturity to handle university then they likely would be considered regardless of age. I'm in high tech and many years ago we did have a 16 year old working in my group for a work term without issue. The kid could code up a storm and fit in pretty well. At some point there are probably child labour laws that would have to be observed but I'm assuming we aren't talking about kids that young.

The chems and mechs at my university did generally end up working in the oil & gas industry and you did have to have a drivers licence for many of those jobs and relocate to a small town for the work term. That was in a province where you can get your full drivers license at 16. There were some placements at the university or at various head offices in the city that would be a better option for a younger student. Some of the guys out in the field could be a bit rough around the edges (I was 19 my first work term at a gas plant, there was another female student and then ~70 guys that were all over 30, it was an interesting experience...).

ETA - to add context to my previous post an engineering internship up here is one 16 month long paid work term between 3rd and 4th year (2 summers+fall& winter term = 16 months) The other option is co-op which spreads the work terms out generally in 4 month chunks alternating with school terms. My school did internship and I earned 80% of what I earned as a new grad and returned to finish 4th year with a full time job lined up.

Last edited by chay; 03/21/14 01:34 PM.