Experience

You know what really irritates me: the catch-22 in life, that to get a damn job you need experience, but the only way to get a job is to get experience. It is such a stupid run around, and it has happened to me so many times here in Croatia already, where they say they want a young new worker, and end up hiring some middle aged guy who has experience. Do not get me wrong experience is not bad, but in a place like Croatia, and really all over the world these days, the same old ideas and methods just do not work. You need fresh ideas, approaches, creative new methods, and a new way of thinking. But it is so rare that any actual firm realizes this and instead they plow on with the status quo. The best way to see the folly of this is to look at all the biggest firms that were created in the last 25 years. Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Oracle, Dell etc, they were all started by fresh out of college kids, or even in college kids. Why because they have ideas and are aware of what is needed and how to go about filling those needs, they have new ideas for a new generation, unencumbered by people telling them that this wont work, we have to do it like this, it has always been done like this and so on. Really give me 5 companies that have sprung up in the last 25 years that revolutionized anything that were the brainchild of some 45 year old manager who has experience. Simple fact is that they are few and far between, at 45 you do not take risks and you are not inventive, whereas while you are young, you are at the forefront of everything. You set the trends, you create the initial wave of demand, you are the IT demographic, so it makes sense that if you wish to grow your business you should really consult those people who are a part of the generation that in the next 10 years will become your market, if any company is to achieve long term success the first thing they should do is realize that everything works on a generational cycle, and they should be planning to best suit the needs of the upcoming one. How do you do that? Get talented people from that generation to work for you, they are the ones who understand the mentality of their peers and they are the ones who know what products, services and needs are most likely to arise as they have a need for those products and services.

That is the problem in life, rarely are young people taken seriously, that is until they are the ones who are now middle aged and out of touch. Most struggles of such enterprising firms such as yahoo, microsoft, amazon, etc stems mainly from the fact that their founders have reached middle age, and are no longer able to anticipate and be on the cutting edge of development for the new generations. Then just like in politics and sports the same cast of characters that has 'experience' gets brought in to solve the problem, however they only tend to make it worse. Why? A complete and total lack of new ideas, it is like a merry go round of people who were IT for a different generation, but lacked the foresight to train the succeeding generation, because they are as always convinced of their own grandeur and limitless talents. Yet for some reason the same people keep getting the jobs, just like the NBA where usually there are a total of 45 coaches that just spin the wheel of employment, same in soccer, same in politics (the same tired old advisers, with the same old ideas) and same in business (where else could robert nardelli get a job so soon after destroying home depot so badly, and not only that, but get a job running Chrysler, as if HE could save the titanic, i mean honestly, there was no one else willing to take the job or what?)

WAKE UP PEOPLE, WHAT CUT IT 20 YEARS AGO JUST DOES NOT WORK TODAY!