Who should we hire Education vs. experience - Research Paper Example

Education versus Experience: Who should be hired? With the job market experiencing a changing socio-economic dynamics, the working environment has become very competitive and stringent on performance. This then begs the question, what do potential employers favour, education or experience? Would an individual with extensive experience in a certain field have an advantage over another who has passed through the ranks of higher education with exemplary grades or vice versa? Careers are solely served by experience since people with experience will take off quickly on the job and become company asset from the very onset. Work experience is a priceless asset that demonstrates one’s enthusiasm, knowledge and skills for a particular job. It is thus clear that employers prefer experience to education in recruiting employees since the former take on-board experienced talent that contributes to productivity of organisations from the first day. Today’s job market features people who are either book-smart from academia or those who have real work experience. In rare cases one will find job seekers who are well rounded in both fields and hence when hiring, the employer has to narrow down on the best candidate to fit the job description. When an individual is well educated it means that he has succeeded in academia and his knowledge opens opportunities for him. A degree from a top institution opens doors simply through reputation and it signifies that the graduate studied under well-trained lecturers and immersed oneself in a particular discipline; obtaining a broad set of educational skills and expertise in that field. A higher degree is a show that a graduate possesses a particular set of skills that has the ability to be translated into work skills. Whilst, working experience is a proof to the employer that the potential employee has real-work skills and experience. A college degree is only helpful in understanding theories in the work place but practical realities of a certain job are only attained at work. “Higher Education only proves you can succeed in academia, not in a real-world job” (Mueller 1), and this indicates that experience is preferred to education in jobs market. In today’s competitive job market the employers are lowering fresh hiring in favour of candidates who have work-experience, and often prefer “...to take on-board experienced talent who can contribute to their productivity from the first day” (Saha 1). This is influenced by several factors; working experience provides exposure that is much needed in the working environment. The working environment is characterised by multiple situations, circumstances, variables, problems and their suitable solutions and therefore an experienced hand has an advantage in dealing with the various work-related issues. Exposure gives the employee the ability to predict and foresee future variances and hence able to make adjustments to prevent adverse variances, therefore forming a great advantage. Furthermore, working experience provide one with a huge sense of interpersonal compatibility by building better interpersonal skills. This is built by having worked with different groups of people who emerge from varied backgrounds, abilities and experiences; at the same time ensuring working together to direct their efforts to get the work done successfully. Experienced talent is majorly accompanied with the knowledge of interacting with different profile of people both on a domestic and world level. Experience promotes one’s understanding of synergy in achieving a unified goal and teaches one that best results are hardly achieved in solitude; but in integration which pools different expertise to achieve best results at work (Saha). In addition, experienced talent has a multi-skill capability that adds value to an individual as he presents himself for a job opportunity. The multi-skill capability is gained over a long period of time as one is involved in doing different roles; adding an advantage as one applies for a job. This ability enables one to contribute greatly towards the organisation’s success by ones exemplary understanding of various spheres of their work. Multi-skill capability gives the experienced candidate an aptitude, which is achievement-oriented and shows a proof that he is highly motivated and has the drive to exemplary performance. The candidate has prior understanding of what is expected at the work place and therefore exhibit a combination of zeal and drive to supersede the set benchmarks. The experience gives one the motivation to indulge in risk-taking procedures with much conviction of achieving success. Moreover, Work experience shows one’s ability to analyse problems, conduct research and produce best results in minimal time. The candidate has an experience of how problems in the previous job place where ironed out and how research was conducted to achieve the objectives of the organisation. Experienced candidates show optimum bandwidth utilisation. This is developed as the experience gives the candidate the knowledge to use optimal time and money to attain best results. Optimum bandwidth utilisation is a feature only acquired through experience. A survey conducted in the United Kingdom suggested that job-hunting graduates need work-experience to be able to get a well-paying job with various organizations. In the current highly competitive job market, fresh graduates who lack work-experience during their years in the university have little to no chance of getting a well-paying job irrespective of one’s exemplary academic results and the top university they attended. The few graduates who get a job receive a low starting salary, this is an indicator that experience trumps education in the job market and students in colleges have to strive to get experience while in school by applying for internships (Coughlan). It is easier for someone to get a college degree than work-experience since all one needs is money and time, but it takes a considerable length of time to gain appropriate job experience. Job experience is in itself a priceless asset and hard to quantify it in terms of monetary value. Most employers claim that the current education system does not provide the students with the required practical knowledge alongside the much emphasized classroom learning. This frustrates the ability of students to cope with work because they are always expected to be in the classroom learning rather than experiencing how the classroom knowledge is applied in real work situation. Despite the constant pressure in the school curriculum for one to get good grades and finish assignments on time, little to no college work can match the demands of a full-time job. This makes the stuff learnt in college irrelevant leading to the potential employers’ preference to candidates with job experience. In addition, there is so much pressure in the current world to push students to do courses they are not interested in and therefore result in too many students who are just degree holders and not skilled thereby “... promoting a perception among employers that higher education doesn't work” (Olloffson 1). Candidates who have job experience are a better asset for the company. The experienced candidates stand out in the interview as opposed to the college graduate. This is because often, “…a college student can tell an interviewer what she thinks she can do if hired, while someone with work experience can demonstrate what she’s done successfully for others” (Samuels 1). Unlike the educated, the candidate with work experience can express wide range of knowledge about what is expected of him in the actual work context and contribute to the organisation’s productivity from the first day. The experienced candidates require least time and resources for orientation and training as opposed to the degree holders who lack experience. Those who lack experience need to be trained for quite some time before they fully adapt to the working conditions. This leads to the organisation incurring costs and using time that could otherwise be used in production. The employees who lack experience are prone to committing errors at the work place causing losses to the employer as opposed to the employees who have prior experience of the work place. The inexperienced degree holder takes a long time, which is above the optimal to achieve the objectives of the organisation, and hence the employers prefer the experienced candidates. According to Friedman (1), “success in actual work means more than success in education”; thus, employers in the current job market want to see real work results and when a candidate shows a potential employer his accomplishments, it is certain that the employer will pay attention. Real work success provides a proof that the candidate possesses the skills to adapt to any situations that arise as opposed to the knowledge gained from one’s study. For instance, a job that deals with people, actual work results is more valuable than classroom knowledge. In conclusion, the ideal employee who fits best in today’s job market is one who has both experience and education. Nevertheless, in some rare cases can one find well-rounded individual in both and the job seekers are either book smart (from academia) or have real-work experience. The inexperienced degree holders are a liability to the company from the first day since the organisation has to incur costs and spend considerable time to train them instead of focusing the time and resources to the company’s goal. One’s possession of higher education is only a proof of success in the academia world but not in the job context. Therefore, Careers are solely served by experience since people with experience will take off quickly on the job and become a company asset from the first day. The only source of knowledge is experience and therefore, today’s job market will hire someone with experience for best results at the work place. Works cited Coughlan Sean. Work experience 'key to job hunt' for graduates. BBC.2011. Web.Dec.9, 2013 Friedman, Eric. Hiring for Education vs. Experience. eskill. 2013. Web.Dec.9, 2013 Mueller, Annie. Work Experience Vs. Education: Which Lands You The Best Job? Investopedia 2011. Web.Dec.9, 2013 Oloffson, Kristi.The Job Market: Is a College Degree Worth Less? Time. 2009. Web.Dec.9, 2013 SahaSrilagna. Experience trumps education for a job seeker in today’s market. The economic times 2013. Web.Dec.9, 2013 Samuels, Dave. Education Vs. Job Experience in the Workplace. Chron 2013. Web.Dec.9, 2013 Read More