"The boomer folks are a little more fixed in their ways and not as open to learning a new set of technology skills," says Aaholm. "That's the difference with the millennial generation -- they're willing to expand their skill base."

This eagerness to learn is giving many millennials a leg up on the competition. But there's a managerial flip side to consider. Young IT workers who are bold enough to take on new technologies are also more likely to be impatient with the constraints of traditional workplaces.

"There's an expectation on the part of millennials that the people who are managing them won't just see them as cogs in the machine but will be flexible with them and take their preferences into account," says Tom Clement, 54, an IT manager at application development firm Serena Software Inc. in Redwood City, Calif.

That kind of rugged individualism delivers enormous value to pioneering companies such as Serena, which is adopting , such as "business mashups" or composite applications, to stay ahead of the curve.

"It takes guts to build mashups, and that's what is great about the millennials," says Clement. "They've got the guts to go in and create a new application, whereas [boomers] aren't as emboldened."