You are right about the age thing. Older people(seniors make up the majority of our population nowdays) don't trust anyone not close to their age. Its weird but true. You could have a 30year old with 5 years experience, a solid track record and a 4.0 from Harvard and they'd still view him as a punk kid over a 50 year old online grad with only 1 day experience.
That plus people are lazy as hell, they see age and assume experience. Pereception is 90% of reality.
"oh what a nice man, he has a tie......"