Hiring for experience is outdated. Hire based on passion and attitude. Why does that idea get shared on LinkedIn? People spend decades making mistakes. You hire them because of that, to avoid making costly mistakes yourself. You pay thousands for their experience… so you don’t end up paying millions for errors. Yes, you can teach someone tasks. You can show them how to get things done. But you can’t teach hundreds of messy mid-game states and how to recover from them under pressure. These things are learned over time, by making mistakes. That’s experience. Take critical infrastructure recovery, for example. I’ve met people who seriously believe that written instructions are enough, that anyone with attitude and passion could recover a system. Absurd. They’ve clearly never had to bring critical systems back under pressure. In those moments, some people can’t even read. Or they read but don’t understand. “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” And the worst failures? They’re the ones no one expected. No documentation. No precedent. In those moments, you need to think clearly, despite fear. Without experience, you can’t. When people without experience start making mistakes, they often break. And that can cause unrecoverable damage to your business. Only the mentally strong survive those moments. They push through fear. They take action to regain control. They pull from everything they’ve learned. They find the cause. They create a workaround. They recover the system. It’s shaped over years of experience. They’ve been there before. And they know how to get through it. --------
I think it depends on the position & person... Experience, of course, teaches you how to better handle situations. I can't deny that. But, I highly believe more companies should hire those that are passionate & coachable. How are they supposed to get the experience otherwise? I say this because I've worked under supervisors who knew not 1/4 of what I knew (without any prior training or formal education on it). I'd purposely ask questions to see what answers they provide. & I'd respectfully correct them and explain "how" I got to my answer and "why" it matters when training others. In certain industries, experience matters most, due to the severity of what a mistake could cost the company. But in others, I think they should swap out the ones who've been there for ages & still don't know certain things and are unteachable because they feel they know it all. Someone with no experience probably shouldn't be chosen to be over critical infrastructure; But someone with no experience could most definitely provide a roadmap to process improvements. Together, the experienced and inexperienced could make magic!!! (In a perfect world)...
Andrejs Semjonovs Funny how we worship what we can measure and ignore what could ruin everything. ⸻ Too often… We act on what’s visible. What’s quantifiable. What fits in a spreadsheet. Experience? It’s expensive messy and hard to plot in Excel. But it’s the only thing keeping you afloat when the system’s on fire and the sharks are circling. So here’s the real question: 👉 Are we optimizing for what’s measurable or for what actually matters when the storm hits? #crisisleadership #experience
Couldn’t agree more, Andrejs Semjonovs. I’ve learned that experience isn’t just about knowing what to do — it’s about staying calm when things go sideways. Passion and attitude are important, sure. But so is 'a safe pair of hands', when the server’s down, the client’s calling, and the clock’s ticking… you don’t want someone who’s “eager to learn.” You want someone who’s already lived through the chaos and knows where to look first. Experience is earned, and in crunch moments, it shows.
Well said Andrejs
Absolutely spot on. Experience isn’t just about knowing what to do, it is about staying calm when everything goes wrong and there is no playbook to follow. Passion matters, but in high-stakes situations, lived experience is what saves the day. (Imagine at the very last scene where everyone re-united in Avengers - Endgame) 💪
Andrejs I agree!
I agree 💯 That shortcircuited UPS in the tundra,.. That excavator, digging up the 64A cable,.. ..followed by a tidalwave of customer communication 🔥✨️
Experience is not outdated, it is undervalued. Attitude matters. Enthusiasm, adaptability, and positivity are undeniably important. But these traits are not substitutes for the depth, resilience, and decision-making that only experience can provide.
Effective hiring starts with clarity—of long-term goals, a roadmap to get there, and the skills (hard and soft) needed along the way. When hiring is aligned with business strategy and driven by a clear framework, you build the right team mix. But hiring sporadically leads to inconsistency in skills and behaviors, making it harder to maintain culture or direction. Strategic, forward-looking hiring isn't just smart—it's essential for sustainable growth and team cohesion. As is true for most of the things, it's easier said than done.
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6dGreat perspective Andrejs Semjonovs