Bob Bly Direct Response Copywriter Official Banner

Does Experience Matter?

February 2nd, 2008 by Bob Bly

In an article in the Daily News (1/31/08) about the presidential race, Robert Dallek writes: “Obama’s lack of experience shouldn’t be a liability … judgment trumps experience, almost every time.”

But wait a minute. When you vote for a political candidate … or hire a new employee … or select a vendor to provide printing, Web design, or other services … don’t you look for someone with long experience in her field?

I know I do. I mean, if you needed brain surgery, who would you prefer — the doctor who had performed 1,000 successful operations or the resident doing his very first brain operation ever?

Today, the world seems not to value experience to the degree it did in the late 1970s, when I started out in the business world.

Back then, gray hairs were respected and viewed as having superior knowledge accumulated during decades of experience in the industry. Young managers like me in our 20’s were viewed as green behind the ears and fairly useless until we got a year or two of experience under our belts.

Today, now that I have gray haired, experience and age are NOT valued; youth is. Older workers are routinely discriminated against in the hiring process. Youth is worshipped in a tech society where a 20-something became a billionaire by inventing Facebook, something many people in my generation have never even seen, let alone comprehend.

In my experience, experience doesn’t count the way it once did. But that’s my opinion. What’s your experience?

Share

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

51 responses about “Does Experience Matter?”

  1. Joel Heffner said:

    I wonder if what you say applies to bosses…or just workers. Do CEOs always have experience in their company’s core product(s) or service(s)? As for political candidates for president, they also have the luxury of hiring the best minds in given fields. Maybe in politics what we really need is better judgement for the next 4 (or 8) years.

  2. Mke Smock said:

    Hi Bob,

    I position my firm as “experienced campaigners”. Anybody can can put up a blog, create or steal a little content and be in business these days. It cracks me up how many anonymous comments are left on marketing blogs and how many “About” sections on agency web sites are empty due to their lack of experience. Anybody can have an opinion about copy, design, strategy, etc. I think the internet has really lowered the curve when it comes to both creativity and execution. Way too much noise these days – not nearly enough signal.

  3. Bob Bly said:

    Joel: there is a problem with your premise that judgment trumps experience in a CEO because she can just hire the best minds in the field: how can she evaluate whether the advice these advisors give her is any good? She lacks the experience and knowledge, which leaves her wholly dependent on others — even at their mercy. By contrast, if you know as much or more than your advisors, you can manage and direct them with greater authority and confidence.

  4. Joel Heffner said:

    Bob…actually I agree with you. I was thinking about Apple, Inc. when they hired the former head of Pepsi to run their company…almost into the ground. It was only when Steve Jobs came back that the company sky rocketed. I was just pointing out that many companies seem to do that kind of hiring. Personally, I want people who have a track record who know what they are talking about.

  5. Sante said:

    Experience is a vital asset in our society, although the trend is to disregard it as such. But then this society is one where people bend backwards for their cats and dogs, only to abandon fathers and mothers in old folks homes …

    I think experience must not be confuse with good old down to earth wisdom – I think that’s what this day and age is really missing – common sense that I was taught as a kid, things like the real value of money, the important things in life that I cherish so very much every evening when I sit at the dinner table with my 2 boys and wife Mary that has been with me for 23 years.

    There you go you go be sounding like granpa simpson. Actually I’m (only) 46.

    PS – the CAPTCHA is really hard to read – I’d make it a bit easier to qualify my readers as folks wanting to leave a comment.

  6. Kelja said:

    Experience doesn’t always translate into better leadership, but most of us, when the chips are down, would prefer a leader with experience to one without. My Opinion.

  7. Jodi Kaplan said:

    Yes, experience is important in a brain surgeon or a pilot. However, I think that President of the United States is a unique job, with unique pressures (which is why they all age so quickly). Being a Senator, a governor, the director of a large agency, or even Vice President, don’t seem to be reliable indicators of how well someone does as President. George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter (trying to be non-partisan!) both had strong resumes, but neither one had a very successful presidency.

  8. Craig Hysell said:

    I play rugby. Experience helps get guys past the shell shock of other people wanting to stomp their guts out and lets them learn to operate in a realm where pain and danger are immediate.
    Every now and then we’ll get a rookie who simply has a nose for the ball, a natural. He gets more playing time because he adapts quicker and therefore becomes a larger asset to the success of the team. Because he is a natural he is given more time to learn through experience.
    Experience makes a veteran. Natural ability, the humility to listen and that inherent daring to innovate, create a stand out player; all things you can know about a person as soon as you see them practice.
    Our rugby captains are all experienced, but you could tell they were leaders from day one. It has to be combination if it’s to be truly successful.

  9. Dianna Huff said:

    I agree with Craig. You need experience coupled with the ability to listen and learn. I don’t think that all this new social media stuff is applicable to B2B (I’m thinking of Twitter here), but I do watch how these things are being applied and used. My customers ask about them, I need to give them good answers and not just answer with, “Oh that stuff is for 20-somethings with nothing better to do with their time.”

  10. Julie, writer surefirewealth.com said:

    Didn’t Obama find a way around that part? In another blog, I read that he supposedly acknowledge Clinton’s experience, yes. But he also reportedly said that it was more important to be right on the first day than to be experienced on the first day. Way to go Obama!

  11. Bob Bly said:

    Dianna: I am pretty much where you are. I don;t know how important this new social media stuff will be in B2B. But I am getting educated on all of it so I can discuss it intelligently and not dismiss it out of hand (to be frank, I did the same things with SEO and blogging).

  12. Sanjeev Roy said:

    Experience and/or age is seen as = rigidity, inability to learn new things, less energy AND more expensive. Hence, this great love for the young. I have a feeling this is a cyclical thing and the world will soon get back to valuing experience properly. Sometimes, I feel, particularly in my country (India), where the demographics are crazily skewed towards the less than 25 lot, it is the sheer pressure of youth that undermines experience. Not sure how this is connected but you may wish to read – http://www.bullzi-inc.com/fables_stories/07022008/learning-has-nothing-to-do-with-age/

  13. Ali Manson said:

    Although I currently reside in Great Britain, where voter apathy is at an all time high, I’ve been watching the current candidacy campaign with great interest.

    The experience/knowledge battle is as old as time itself, and one which I reckon there is no correct answer to.

    Back when I was a newbie (some may still class me as a newbie, having only been in the freelance game for a couple of years) my first job was worth $5,000 to me. So I was still able to command a decent fee even though I did not have the “experience” that the client may have desired before shelling out for the work.

    Experience is beneficial, but not always necessary.

    I mean, if people always plumped for the experienced over the first-timer, each and every industry would be a total mess when the experienced people retired/moved on/died because the fresh-faced would have had absolutely no way of getting experience.

    That coupled with the fact that there are simply not enough experienced practitioners in every field to comfortably deal with the workload required means experience will NEVER be the deciding factor when choosing who to go with.

    Every situation should be judged on merit wherever possible. That is the only way to truly see who is the right person for the task at hand…

    PS – Obama for President. All the way…

  14. John Lockwood said:

    Interesting post. I don’t know that young people are as in demand as you say — there may be an element of “grass is greener” here. I know when I was young I struggled quite a bit.

    As for me, I keep myself young by changing careers every five to ten years, such that 40% of the time I’m completely stupid about whatever field I’m working in. 🙂

    I do think the current Web 2.0 trend goes firmly in the direction of anything goes, and let’s-all-participate-on-MyFace (and wherever else) for free, and therefore against the direction of professionalism and creating value. So I’m a luddite in some respects.

  15. addicting games weebly said:

    i just thought that queen latifah is one of the best comedians out there, she is really funny’

  16. incontinence said:

    Very superb information can be found on this weblog.

  17. llandudno guest houses said:

    I love your wonderful writing. great stuff. I hope you produce others. I will carry on subscribing

  18. bhartiya said:

    Interesting post. I don’t know that young people are as in demand as you say — there may be an element of “grass is greener” here. I know when I was young I struggled quite a bit. UP Scholarship Status

  19. Debbie Carrizales said:

    In Last Rugby world cup 2011 the runner ups France who loss against ‘ All-Blacks’ . France have good recording in past rugby world cup . Since 1987, France has reached semi-finals for three, quarter-final for once and runner up for three times also France winning percentage is good they have won 390 out of 714 matches. For Rugby world cup 2019 France already finalized A 36-man Preliminary squad. RWC 2019 watch live

  20. SHASHANK said:

    Very good post

    Interesting post. I don’t know that young people are as in demand as you say — there may be an element of “grass is greener” here. I know when I was young I
    For more= https://www.premium4free.me

  21. majece majece said:

    By the way, on https://payforessaywriters.com/how-to-write-an-essay you can learn a lot about writing essays. I had such experience recently

  22. Tom Hamman said:

    You can find the best and unique Designs on this website. Real Texas Veteran Owned Company , One of the Leading Web Designers in Texas. Please visit and check out our services. Thank you.

  23. Amelia said:

    thanks
    worldforpcapp

  24. MailaMeela said:

    TutuApp is an Android application store that’s an alternative to Google Play. It can be used to download Android apps that aren’t available in the official marketplace although it also offers apps that are present and also an app store for iOS devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It offers all sorts of applications but specially mods or modified apps that offer us extra functions for free. We’re talking about apps that allow us to use paid functions or paid apps for free. That’s one of the reasons why we won’t find TutuApp in the official store for this mobile operating system. The other reason is quite obvious: it’s a direct competitor for Google.

  25. David Hills said:

    Check out the latest article on Best Headphones for Audio Books

  26. Sattaking said:

    Satta king is a satta game which is played by the satta players across the country by online and offline method.

  27. katrine said:

    Indeed, experience does really matter, let’s suppose you are getting hair loss problem, you go to a hair loss Houston doctor. If the person there who is doing your hair transplant doesn’t have experience, then maybe you will end up getting bald.

  28. Jay Sean said:

    Nice to be visiting your blog once more, it has been months for me. Well this article that ive been waited for therefore long. i want this article to finish my assignment within the faculty, and it has same topic together with your article: what is the best dog for senior citizens

  29. Corwin said:

    We all immediately recognize the flat snoot, wrinkled face, and large expressive eyes of the loveable Pug. The Pug breed’s roots can be tracked back to Imperial China in 700 B.C., during the time of Confucius, when the breed wa have been the favored breed or both royals and celebrities—from Napoleon and Queen Victoria to Andy Warhol and Rob Zombie.
    https://pugslandbreeder.company.com

  30. Behnaz haydary said:

    Expectations are really high for an experienced person, especially someone who has an important role to play in personal or professional life.

  31. Masoud farhadbabab said:

    Experience is one of the most important factors in every person’s life

  32. Ayda kamranian said:

    A good job is done by someone who is experienced, because a person is more complete and accurate, and this is one of the importance of experience in each person.

  33. lopiro said:

    very very gooooood.Tnx

  34. BROOKE said:

    I read your posts. It is so impressive. Everything is explained very well in it. Topical CBD products This is a good information source for talk and share. I get so much new experience from here. Really great work. Keep doing it.

  35. alyssa lauren said:

    Does experience matters every time? Experience plays a major role in every field you calleconfidential.com are working with. Experience plays a major role in politics but the lack of experience is not a liability. We can’t say that. People remember politicians only in the way they serve the society.

  36. peymanjavanmard said:


    Peyman Javanmard born in September 1985.

  37. Odisha Shayari said:

    Film Director Kaise Bane

  38. The Citizen said:

    Great
    https://www.citizendailypost.com
    https://www.metrodailyreporter.com

  39. Rios Cosmetics said:

    Rios a multi-brand store providing amazing Concealer and Maybelline concealer. The store aims to provide satisfaction through high quality products like TEMPLATE. Their best concealers are perfect and just what you need Rios fulfills your every demand, with their items like the best concealer in Pakistan.

  40. powerballsite said:

    For this web site, you will see our account, remember to go through this info.

  41. totosafeguide said:

    For this web site, you will see our account, remember to go through this info.

  42. totositerank said:

    “It’s very excellent information and more real facts to provided that post.Thank you for sharing this information.

  43. totositerank said:

    Pretty good post. I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Thanks for sharing us???????????/a>

  44. betsarang said:

    I really liked it. I wanted to leave a note. I was reading your website. I also tried to share the site.

  45. texasholdemsite said:

    This is the best way to share the great article with everyone one, so that everyone can able to utilize this information

  46. totositerank said:

    Hi, i believe that i saw you visited my website so i came to go back the desire?.I’m trying to find issues to improve my website!I suppose its good enough to use some of your ideas!!

  47. betsarang said:

    Wow, superb blog layout! Magnificent, let alone the content

  48. texasholdemsite said:

    Good blog and absolutely exceptional. Thank you for sharing this excellent post.

  49. Borjan said:

    Get ready to step up your style game with Borjan Shoes! Crafted with the finest leather and traditional Pakistani designs, our Peshawari Chappal Online will keep you looking sharp and stylish all day long. Choose from a range of colors and sizes to find the perfect fit for you. Upgrade your wardrobe today with Borjan Shoes!

  50. Sarmun said:

    Get the best quality Bomber Jackets for Men Online from Wearsarmun. Sarmun offers multiple bomber jackets for men at reasonable prices. Grab your favorite Jackets online.

  51. totositerank said:

    I came to this site with the introduction of a friend around me and I was very impressed when I found your writing. I’ll come back often after bookmarking

Leave a Reply