The Most Common Hiring Mistake: Overvaluing Experience, Undervaluing Talent

When it comes to hiring, the single most common mistake I see is a matter of attitude. Hiring

managers tend to overestimate the importance of experience and underestimate the

significance of talent. Make no mistake—both are important. However, the emphasis is often

misplaced, with too much weight given to what is easiest to assess rather than what truly

matters. The result? Poorer hiring decisions and suboptimal results.

The Experience Trap

It’s natural to seek candidates who have already held the position you’re hiring for. After all,

what better indicator that someone can do a job than seeing that they’ve already done it? If your main priority is ensuring that someone can fulfill the role as expected, this approach makes sense. But if you want to hire the best people, experience alone is a losing strategy.

Consider this: if you’re looking for an outstanding Director of Marketing, what are the chances that a truly exceptional director is eager to take your open position? If they are exceptional, they likely aspire to a higher role—perhaps a Vice President position. Their current employer, recognizing their value, is probably treating them well and working hard to retain them. If they love their job and are excelling, they have little motivation to make a lateral move.

Now, think about a mediocre Director of Marketing—or worse, a poor one. They may be

unhappy in their current role, and their employer may not be thrilled with their performance

either. They might sense that their job security is shaky (or already gone). These candidates are much more likely to apply for your job, eager to move laterally into a fresh opportunity. And, on paper, they have the perfect experience to get an interview.

The Talent Advantage

Skilled hiring managers can distinguish between candidates who have merely held a position

and those who have excelled in it. This helps avoid hiring mediocre candidates. But avoiding

bad hires isn’t enough—the goal is to find and recruit truly great talent.

Of course, there are exceptions. Sometimes, an exceptional candidate is looking for a lateral

move due to external factors—relocating for family reasons, a company shutting down, or other personal circumstances. These are objective facts that are easy to verify and might be your opportunity to get an outstanding player with exactly the experience you’re seeking. But that’s rarely the case.

A more reliable strategy is to look for high-potential candidates on the rise. Consider an

outstanding Marketing Manager who is already operating at a Director level but hasn’t been

promoted due to company constraints, tenure-based hiring policies, or budget restrictions. They may lack the title and some responsibilities of a Director, but their talent and ambition position them for success. Someone will promote them soon—will it be you?

Prioritizing Talent Over Experience

The best hires aren’t always the ones with the exact experience listed in your job description. To recruit top talent, you must be willing to take chances on less-experienced candidates and, more importantly, become excellent at assessing their potential.

This isn’t as risky as it sounds. Everyone you work with has, at some point, taken on a job

they’ve never done before. The best employees thrive on new challenges and grow rapidly to meet them.

While assessing talent is harder than scanning a résumé for experience, it’s the most crucial

skill a hiring manager can develop. In future blog posts, I’ll explore strategies for identifying and evaluating talent effectively. For now, keep this in mind: to hire the best people, focus on talent and potential more than experience.