I recently got off the phone from an enthusiastic lady recruiter who informed me of an active position at a new age company and whose Job description fit me almost like a glove.
There was however, one uncanny issue, which the recruiter expressed to me in a very nonchalant way. The problem was that I had too much experience and that it was more than the person to whom I would be reporting. She went on to inform me in a naïve manner that the company was looking for a person with up to 18 years of experience and that the hired candidate would be reporting into an individual who has 20 years of experience. She said it was the Experience Parity that was prohibiting her from submitting my profile to the hiring manager. This hit me rather hard and set me thinking and inspired me to address this newfound conundrum.
We all are aware of the Pay Parity issue which has haunted employees for the longest time is a key aspect for huge attrition levels across organizations. The Experience Parity seems to have now become a big stigma for potentially deserving job seekers who tend to have more experience and varied skills sets than what the typical job description entails.
In a world where global companies are waking up to wisdom and flaunting their unbiased approach to race, culture, gender, background, and ethnicity, why are the same progressive companies biased to ‘more experienced’ or ‘aged’ candidates?
In my formative career years as a Software Developer in the late 90s, I had the good fortune to work in the United States with some great companies where a common trend was that many team members at the same level were about twice as old or experienced as I was, and this presented a great opportunity for me to quickly scale up and hone my skills. And then there were much younger individuals heading the company in key positions. In almost all cases, the managers that I was reporting into were very seasoned in their age, experience, wisdom, and work ethic, but were far less skilled in the expertise that I brought in. These ‘senior veterans’, some even from the Armed Forces were great influencers, pleasure to work with and were immensely motivating.
The big daunting challenge that is plaguing the job market in today’s trying times of the pandemic is the Experience Parity. Companies and placement agencies are not ready to even consider a profile resume if they find the experience of the individual on the higher side or if it is non-linear. Unfortunately, many recruiters and talent acquisition managers are still stuck to the age-old rule book of key words search, and predetermined experience years and exploitative pay bracket constraints.
Experience parity is downright discriminating and a blatant bias on the part of a progressive industry.
Individuals with ‘higher experience’ are known to leverage their excess experience to bring in efficiencies to the workplace, work smartly, more diligently to generate tangible results. They showcase great temperament, resilience and can handle adverse situations with more maturity and more importantly, much easier to manage.
The several advantages of hiring a seasoned individual is well depicted in the movie The Intern, a sleepy hit comedy by acclaimed director Nancy Myers. In the film, a Seventy-year-old retired and highly experienced Ben Whittaker (played brilliantly by Robert De Niro), is hired as a senior intern at an online modern day fashion startup, founded and run by Jules Ostin (played by an effervescent Ann Hathaway), a 30 something millennial entrepreneur who is juggling between her shaky marriage, motherhood, and her chaotic work life. The senior intern who is initially written off as a nobody seizes the great opportunity to motivate and help all his co-workers, quickly picks up all the desired skills and brings wisdom and order to an otherwise chaotic workplace, while also saving the company and the day for his young, aloof, and often misguided Boss.
Taking a cue from this relevant Movie, companies must wake up to the bias on Experience Parity and do away with the stigmatization. Managers in key positions must set aside their ego’s and be willing to induct Individuals with higher experience, age into their teams. Recruiters and hiring agencies must seriously consider never to overlook an Experienced or Aged Candidate or somebody who has non-linear experience or heterogenous skill sets.
The job market today is flushed with several highly skilled and over experienced candidates who are willing to take up key challenging roles, jump start on the job from day one and are even flexible on designations, work location and compensation structures.
In order to emerge as game changers, companies, big and small must innovate new recruitment strategies or corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to hire senior and more seasoned veterans who will bring eons of experience from, possibly the Armed Forces or even Public Sector. They may be reskilled as necessary, and put in key managerial positions. These senior individuals will be a great asset in the long run and will bring in the much-needed equilibrium and add brownie points to organizations for their ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ initiatives.
Experience never gets old or redundant. It only accentuates the mindset and individuals’ capabilities.
#Experience
#ExperienceParity
#CorporateJobs
#TalentManagement
#TalentAcquisition
#TheInternMovie
