Should You Hire an Experienced Person or a Newcomer?

| January 29, 2016

Should You Hire an Experienced Person or a Newcomer?

Hiring is the most important part of running a business. After all, you want a solid team to support you and ensure that you succeed. However, hiring the right person isn’t always easy. Small business owners, especially those new to the industry, often struggle when it comes to recruitment.

Of course, you might hire a recruitment agency to help you with the task, but ultimately the decision to hire a person or not lies with you. Most business owners struggle to decide whether they should someone with experience or someone new. There are advantages and disadvantages for both.

Advantages of Hiring an Experienced Person

There are several advantages of hiring an experienced person. After all, there’s a reason why most job listings would ask for people with a number of years in experience. Here are the advantages of hiring an experienced person.

  • They’re more comfortable and tend to adjust to the work environment quickly. They won’t need much training or hand-holding because they’re familiar with what they need to do.
  • Experienced workers are often more confident in comparison to newly graduate employees. They have worked and know how to be professional. They’re also more independent and won’t require constant reassurance that they’re performing a task correctly.
  • Employees with experience are also more comfortable in leadership roles. They’ll be able to handle teams and would be able to supervise their subordinates easily.

However, people with experience are often a little more difficult to assimilate into the company culture. They come to work with certain expectations. It might take them some time to understand your company and adapt to it. Employees with experience might not have the latest knowledge about the industry or a technology either. Most people who work stop focusing on growth and start focusing on their work. That doesn’t always make them an ideal candidate.

Advantages of Hiring a Newcomer

While experience helps, sometimes newly graduated candidates actually prove to be a better choice. That’s one of the reasons why businesses conduct campus interviews and are willing to hire fresh graduates. Consider the following points:

  • Newcomers are a clean slate. That means that there are no preconceived notions or hard to shake habits. You can shape and mould these employees to be the perfect fit for your company.
  • Without a doubt, fresh graduates usually have the most advanced knowledge possible. This is particularly relevant in the field of computers, mobiles, and technology. Employees with the latest and most thorough knowledge about their field will always be an asset.
  • Fresh graduates are always more enthusiastic about the job. Yes, it might take some time to teach them everything they need to know. But once they get accustomed to the work, their zeal and drive can’t easily be matched.

However, the lack of experience does have its disadvantages. Newcomers are usually less confident about their job. They’re also less mature and can be slightly irresponsible. They might not take the job as seriously as they should. When you’re hiring people, it’s best to explore just how well they might fit into the company and what kind of value they might provide.