When you picture your ideal hire, what comes to mind?
Someone who’s done the job before? A CV packed with years in the industry? A track record that ticks every box? It makes sense. Experience feels safe. It’s tangible proof that someone knows what they’re doing.
But what if that logic is costing you the best talent?
The experience trap:
Time spent in a role doesn’t always correlate with capability. Someone could have five years of experience that represents genuine growth – learning new systems, adapting to change, taking on increasing responsibility. Or they could have five years that look more like one year on repeat. Same tasks. Same comfort zone. No real development.
The CV can’t tell you which one you’re looking at.
And in a world where technology evolves overnight, regulations shift constantly and business models reinvent themselves every few years, past experience is becoming a weaker indicator of future success.
Here’s what matters more than experience:
The candidates who truly drive businesses forward aren’t always the ones with the longest position. They’re the ones who:
- Learn quickly when dropped into new territory
- Adapt intelligently when the rules change
- Solve problems creatively when there’s no playbook
- Challenge assumptions instead of repeating what’s always been done
These are the people who don’t just fill a role – they grow it. They bring curiosity, resilience and the ability to think beyond “this is how we’ve always done it.” And often, they come from unexpected backgrounds.
The shift to skills-based hiring:
This is why more organisations are moving away from rigid experience requirements and toward skills-based hiring. Instead of asking “Have you done this exact job for X years?” they’re asking:
- Can you demonstrate the core skills we need?
- Do you have the capacity to learn what’s next?
- Can you adapt as and when the role evolves?
This approach opens the door to a much wider, more diverse talent pool. It allows you to hire:
→ Career changers with transferable skills
→ High-potential candidates who lack traditional credentials
→ People who’ve learned through non-linear paths
→ Fresh thinkers who won’t default to “the way it’s always been done”
How to make the shift:
If you’re ready to look beyond years of experience, here’s where to start:
- Define the skills that really matter to you: Strip your job description down to the core capabilities someone needs to succeed. What can be learned on the job? What’s truly essential from day one?
- Test for those skills directly: Use work samples, case studies, or practical assessments that mirror real challenges in the role. Let candidates show you what they can do, not just tell you.
- Look for learning agility: Ask about times they’ve had to master something new quickly, or adapt to a major change. How they’ve learned in the past is often the best predictor of how they’ll learn in your role.
- Broaden where you look: Stop filtering out candidates who don’t have the “typical” background. Some of the best hires come from adjacent industries or entirely different fields.
The bottom line
Experience will always have value. But it shouldn’t be the only thing that matters, or even the main thing. The future belongs to businesses that can spot potential, not just recognise the past.
Because the question isn’t: “Have you done this before?”
It’s: “Can you do what we need next?”
And those are two very different things.
