I've seen a pretty wide age range in entrepreneurship in my own limited experience.
I live in a very entrepreneurial area (RIM, U of Waterloo, many tech companies, big & small), and companies are frequently being formed by new grads, professors, and industry veterans alike. I worked at a company that had be co-founded by someone on his third or fourth venture. I guess starting companies can be a hobby...
Yes, I think you are right. It is wrong for me to think that experience dimishes the capacity of people to innovate. Nevertheless, in some industries, experience (or by extension age) seems to have a real influence that does not allow them to connect. Think of social media, it is rare to see people about 50 years getting a really good social media business. I understand that Walmart was created by an experienced man, but Facebook and similar firms seem to favour younger ones.
Yes, when these social media firms mature, they need the pros and experienced people to run them. In summary, we need a mix of both in any company.
You have to look at your sector and know what works. Thanks for the insight.
"On the other hand, we are working in an industrial age, started by Henry Ford, where each person makes a small sub-assembly, and not the entire product."
No - I think we are now in the knowledge age where knowledge has become a factor of production. In the industrial age, you had land, capital as key elements, now, it is knowledge. The fact is that the most disruptive innovations are not coming from the experienced guys. Take a look at Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, most of these guys never spent years climbing corporate ladder. It is a new game. That does not mean the old experienced folks have no role, it just that to change the world, you need not have 30 years experience. In short, the more experienced, the less innovative. Of course, you can do the old job better.
Wale Bakare 4/16/2012 6:37:05 AM User Rank Sheriff
Re: requirements for resume
That's exactly the trend in field of technology today. But sometimes massive years of experience is good to have, but only a small pocket of experienced people could boost the ability to cope with trendy situation.
Clairvoyant, I have many years experience. Yes, I do certain things that I know in a certain way, but am more than willing to do them differently if that's the better way. I have come across younger engineers painstakingly taking reading after reading, but when I ask them to give me a day, to write a for..Loop in C/C++ to automate taking these readings, they say they take these readings infrequently, so never bothered to automate the process. They are the ones set in their ways, not willing to listen to the wisdom of experience.
If the experienced engineer knows that the company's own procedures are inferior, should he not be suggesting a better procedure (at the appropriate time) to his new employer?
There are very few managers who lead by consensus and willing to adopt the best procedure, even though it was not the one suggested by the manager.
On the other hand, we are working in an industrial age, started by Henry Ford, where each person makes a small sub-assembly, and not the entire product. For most engineering jobs, 5 to 15 years experience is sufficient. Why should they hire someone with more than 15 years experience? The older worker has to sell his breadth and depth of experience, asking the potential employer to consider the extra years of experience as a bonus. After all, a 20 year experienced engineer has 5 years of extra experience to draw upon, than a 15 year experienced engineer.
We know that sport stars reach the pinnacle of their performance at a younger age, and for most sports, retire by age 45. But engineering is a mental occupation.
Clairvoyant 4/14/2012 8:17:08 PM User Rank Sheriff
Re: requirements for resume
I agree, Goafrit. To add to that, some companies do not want someone with many years of experience because they may be set in their ways on how they do certain things. A company will want a new employee to follow the companies own procedures. This is why some companies will perfer a young, fast learning individual who may be fresh out of getting their education.
The biggest hurdle for recruiting is not recruiting someone what he did and know how to do but hiring for capacity to learn and do things the person never imagined. I hire people that can think and evolve and that is why I do not pay attention to years of experience. You can have it, what if that will become irrelevant. I want someone that can evolve with timet. IQ is key.
You are a guru indeed. I tend to think that Job Fairs have limited value. Unless it is the one in college, I just think differentiating oneself in job fair is simply HARD.
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