Few things frustrate job seekers more than finding a position they believe they could do, only to see a requirement such as “three years of experience required.”
The reaction is predictable: How am I supposed to get experience if employers will not hire me without it?
That frustration is real, and it is not new. But there may be a more useful way to look at the requirement.
Instead of asking only, “Do I have the required years of experience?” it may also be worth asking:
Why does the employer want that experience?
Sometimes the answer is straightforward. The work genuinely requires knowledge or capability that takes time to develop.
But sometimes the experience requirement is also telling us something about what the employer is trying to determine before making a hiring decision.
That distinction matters.
It does not mean experience requirements should be ignored, challenged, or explained away. It does mean that job seekers—and the workforce professionals helping them—may benefit from looking more closely at what the requirement represents and what evidence the applicant can legitimately provide.
That is the focus of IAWP’s new practical guide, What Experience Really Means: Helping Job Seekers Show Employers What They Can Do.
The guide looks at how to think differently about experience requirements, how to recognize when a real gap exists, and how applicants can do a better job of showing employers what they actually know how to do.
If you work with job seekers—or have ever looked at a posting and thought, I could do this job if someone would just give me the chance—this may be worth a few minutes of your time.