Just wanted to point out at JPL there are many 25-year-old people commanding spaceships, rovers, and landers. Sometimes room-fulls of them. Not a great example.
Flight software is a fun role because they're the first person anyone asks when something goes wrong. "What's causing that sensor to glitch out, is it a bug?" "Uh no, probably not. Hey I'm just a software engineer, but is it possible the pyrowhatzit is actually melting right now?" "Oh crap"