In today’s competitive working environment, professional experience is a must within the recruitment sphere. Companies need individuals who excel in their job to bring more business value. When candidates have prior work experience, employers can spend less in training and the said employee can adapt faster and better in the workplace.
There is no doubt that job experience is vital to recruitment. But then, where does education degrees stand? Does a college education matter in employment?
Experience vs education
Education expert Ryan Craig stated that students might one day find they do not need a bachelor’s degree to become employable. Traditional four-year college experience could no longer be considered vital when applying for a job and might be a bit “old-fashioned and elitist”. In fact, 58 percent of leading employers value work experience among graduates more than grades or the name of the candidate’s university.
There are a number of advantages that experience has over education. For example, while education can teach a person the theory of how things work and how to apply them, only through first-hand experience can said person learn about communication, leadership, and other soft skills.
How hiring skills over education matters
Today, work skills are intrinsically linked to employability. A student can have the best grades in their respective universities, but without sufficient work experience, they will be at a severe disadvantage when it comes to job hunting.
In addition, job skills are the most sought after during recruitment because the world is facing a skill shortage. Skill shortage exists when employers are unable to fill or have considerable difficulty in filling vacancies for an occupation, or specialised skill needs within that occupation. Currently, the only exception to this are those who have been educated in very new technology and innovations, as such knowledge is required to develop and utilise such technology.
Skills or personality?
While skills are essential when hiring a candidate, the type of personality can determine whether an individual will succeed in their job or not. Attitude is cited to be the foundation enabling a person to develop and perform skills. In other words, skills tell what a person can do but attitude determines what a person can and will do with those skills.
Hiring managers are now weighing the attitude – that certain amount of genuineness that can make the right candidate a great fit for their company’s culture – than skills when hiring a candidate. Many hiring managers today also believed that skills can be taught, but personality cannot be changed.
More often than not, teams that fail to meet objectives or complete projects can stem from one or several team members who cannot seem to collaborate well with the rest of their colleagues. That’ is why having the right attitude is of utmost importance since having a good personality can enable one to work within teams quite perfectly well and engage with cross-functional teams.
