No Experience Necessary

“I'm impressed by your 'yada yada' “ (where yada yada refers to the attributes of our conduct, intellect, and vision). That is what we heard one day while interviewing technicians. This kid was a college student. His graduation was eminent. A computer science degree. And he must have been coached to say something along those lines. It seemed genuine but somehow scripted. Here's the problem with it as I pointed out to my partner after this candidate left. “Hey, lookie here, we impressed a college student. Whoopie!

My problem isn't that he had the ego to come in to our offices and profess his superiority (thus nearly elevating us to his status by being 'impressed'). My issue with his attitude is that he clearly does not place value in the most important element of knowledge: experience. Perhaps he isn't experienced enough. I felt like saying, “...excuse me drooling college pimple who couldn't code his way out of a paper bag...kiss my umpteen-years-of-sitting-in-front-of-a-computer-with-glassy-eyed ass. You don't even know what you don't know yet. You'll not be able to handle technical questions, computer questions, customer questions, boss questions, colleague questions, wife questions, and mother questions with the degree of elegance I have for some time. It will take you years to master the art of time-filling and clock-burning. I will take you longer – if ever – to refine the art of butt-kissing-without-seeming-like-it-is-butt-kissing.” I know, them's fightin' words. Don't worry, I'm a CodeWarrior.

Experience shows most, I think, when troubleshooting or problem solving. Book smarts don't reach the far corners of a boot failure. I was over fixing a friend's computer. He has been a plumber for 30 years. I sat down, diagnosed his trouble, made the proper corrections and adjustments, and his computer was fixed and singing again. He commented that he had invited several people over to fix his computer who had all failed. One, in fact, was a newly trained and certified technology company technician and installer. I hope that was ambiguous enough.

Nothing against the fine and reportedly thorough training program he had just completed, he just lacked the experience of having been there. I asked my friend if it would be better to entrust the most complex plumbing problems to someone who had just graduated from a trade school in plumbing or himself. He didn't hesitate because there are things he knows about plumbing that he can't teach. (Water flows downhill and never lick your fingers...among others) Thoughts, feelings, impressions, and twinges all result from experience (or old age, I've discovered – especially the twinges).

I get that there are entry-level jobs that post no requirements to be hired. No experience necessary jobs, however, don't exist. You have to have made a sandwich, or at least seen a sandwich made to make one.

I heard a statement the other day that said, in effect, "...if you are a different person today than you were a year ago it is most probably a result of something you read or someone you met." To this I would add Jeff's wise and crappy advice, "...it could also be a result of something you did (to gain experience) or a disease you got."

I've seen people change for change sake. No external forces, no real reason, just something that made them change. Drastically. I think it would be hard for me to change drastically. I make little changes in my life but I am tightly integrated with my current life. Deviation would create ripples beyond reasonable control. There are those who hate ripples. That's been my experience.