For many people, hiring someone to do a job sounds like an easy task. Post an ad, received resumes, browse through them organize interviews, and there you have your ideal candidate. But unless you have been in that place, there are more challenges to the process than you can imagine.
One of the most critical parts of the hiring process is evaluating the candidates at hand and making optimal judgments based on the limited information available.
While a job post can receive the attention of hundreds if not thousands of candidates, narrowing things down to a few individuals does not solve the problem, especially when you are not lucky enough to have the candidate who has the right academic and professional training and shine with knowledge and intelligence at the same time.
We have to admit that finding this worker easily is a very rare streak of luck. This is why, oftentimes, employers are stuck at the puzzling choice between talent and extensive experience. So which one is more important?
Hiring the Smart or the Experienced?
When members of a hiring committee are left with this choice, between the intelligent candidate who clearly has a special aptitude for learning new skills and delivering high results after a well-planned training effort and the not-to-smart professional with extensive knowledge and years-long experience in the field, employers should be taking a number of things into consideration.
The first is how creative or dynamic the vacant position is going to be. If a person is being hired for a job where tasks are quickly changing in nature, the smart individual can be the right choice as they will use their love for learning and their mental capacity to stay up to date with the emerging trends in the industry. Such as role in high technology, digital media, marketing, and others.
Meanwhile, a job that requires stable performance and deep knowledge, like a teaching position or a surgeon, will benefit a lot from a highly experienced person, where slow progress ensures better results.
Moreover, a leadership position can achieve the best results when occupied by an experienced person who had to climb the ladder of professional growth, to ensure the best results in terms of understanding their subordinates and the dynamics that can potentially impact team collaboration.
Another factor that can affect the decision lies in the sustainability of the job and whether or not a position is meant to be a temporary contract or a fixed-term one. A business that is looking to hire a consultant to boost up its strategy in a certain direction needs the expertise of the person who has been in the field for as long as possible, as they have the know-how of most things in the industry.
However, a long-term job where continuous growth is valuable can be handier for a team that needs a bright high achiever who is both confident and enthusiastic, with excellent communication skills, so their performance develops as they develop as professionals.
Choosing the right candidate between a smart and an experienced person can be tricky, but with the right purpose and priorities in mind, making a sound decision can feel more certain.
