Sep
11
5 Years Experience: The Sweet Spot
September 11, 2008 | Comments Off
I find that a person with 10 years of experience is one of two things: A great Vice President, or a Terrible Individual Contributor. And yes, I say it from personal experience, using my freedom of speech and expecting some of you to freely disagree. The former can lead with experience, the latter is an employee who expects to be paid a lot for the same value than someone more junior can provide, while being unhappy with their stagnant salary. I think the sweet spot for hiring people is 5 years of experience – when they have polished their rough edges and learned the ropes, but still have the passion to learn and grow.
Said that, companies willing to invest in themselves should try recent graduates (especially if they have something special on them, like a graduate degree or unique skills). I find that it is usually more rewarding to train a hardworking person into something they do not know than to make an experienced person work the level of effort required in a growing company.
What happens if I have 10 years of experience?
Nothing special. You can keep your job and enjoy life. Chances are that your experience and skills allow you to complete a full day of 8 hours work in about 2 or 3. Don’t complaint, enjoy your life. Your extra time and reduced stress can lead to a very rewarding life taking care of your kids and pursuing your true passions in life (aside from work). However, don’t complaint about the stagnant salary. Just think that you have earned your relaxed life and that is your reward.
However, if you still don’t like your stagnant salary and can’t live with it, you have several options:
- Change careers. (Maybe into one with more demand that will allow you to compensate with your wisdom your lack of experience on it, but will provide a lateral salary scale with growth opportunity).
- Try to manage. (Easier said than done. If you haven’t been a manager at 10 years of experience, chances are you are already being paid as much as a manager or maybe more. Moving into management may mean a pay-cut, which most people wouldn’t be willing to take.)
- Go on your own. Independently or in partnership with other professionals in a similar situation. Go into a startup – become the Executive Vice President of Engineering of a firm of two (the other one is the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and you still do not have money to pay a President). If you succeed, you provide value and get money. If you fail, you learned a lot and enjoyed the wild ride!
What happens if I have an employee with 10 years of experience?
Please note that I mention 10 years of experience at a similar task. There are different stages in a career. A person may spend 10 years doing Quality Assurance and then 10 years doing programming. Each of these stages is a different experience in their career. It doesn’t have anything to do with the age of the person.
But what if this person still has 10 years doing the same kind of task? Try to find out if his hard work and experience could be used into leading younger, junior employees to grow your company by giving this person a leadership role. Try to find other roles where he can grow inside the company. Otherwise: Motivate him to look for another job. Go through your rolodex and call all your friends and enemies to try to find him a spot. Once he leaves, replace him with someone junior to him. But don’t fire him/her without cause or justification: it would get you into a terrible legal situation. If he/she doesn’t leave, let him/her be. Recognize their value and the fact that they can do 8 hours of work in the 3 they really work: just don’t go overboard in the salary increases if there are no overall value increases.
(Yes, I know. There are exceptions. In some careers it may not be 5/10 years but 10/20 years. You probably understood the point anyway. Thanks for Branding Identity Guru for their inspiration.)
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