I have written several times about experience and how important it is in your career. It is a topic that comes up all the time in my lectures and with my private clients. For those that are new to the job market, experience is the brass ring that is necessary to get things moving and that first job can be challenging to get because you don’t have experience. And, for the more seasoned job hunter, experience is often interpreted as ‘too old’ and not seen as ‘added value’. Many times when I present a candidate with experience, a Hiring Manager might say, “great resume, but might be over-qualified”. Often that is a veiled way of saying’ “too old”.
Experience…..we need it. We want it. We demand it, and yet some people just don’t recognize the true value of it.
Experience becomes the foundation of who you are, what you will do and it is the key to opening all the doors that lie in front of you. Simply put, experience is the root of who you will become as a professional.
Experience is authority. It’s the command center to who you are at work, how you behave, how you interface, how you progress and how you continue and advance your career sequence.
The authority of experience gives you power and the ability to become an influential factor at work and in life. The characteristics of experience are to be cherished by you and, hopefully, the people you work with. Experience is something to be embraced and utilized appropriately. Experience allows you to be a leader.
If you are an ‘authority of experience’, you now have the responsibility to manage your time and the people around you and put the common good ahead. Determine the objectives, the goals and set a precedent so your experience exhibits the qualities that people want to follow.
The trick is not to become an ‘expert’. Often expert and ego collide and create spontaneous combustion which can cause problems at work. I’m not sure people want to work with that, so instead of becoming the office expert and aficionado, why not keep that in check and display the qualities more akin to the sage, the guru, someone that people want to reach out to because they know they get leadership, answers and results.
In order to build something or anything for that matter, you need tools and EPERIENCE is the most important tool in the toolbox.
Get it, embrace it, brand it and make it something everyone wants to be a part of.
