A fortnight back I was attending an inspiring seminar about contemporary science graduate and post graduate courses when the guest speaker, out of the blue, asked us to vote which weighed more in the existing job market: expertise or experience? Most of us voted for experience and he gave us an intense and doubtful look.

In order to be able to deduce an appropriate answer as per the current, ongoing employment trends, we need to first decipher what the terms expertise and experience actually mean.

Generally, expertise is defined as a skill or knowledge that an expert possesses in a particular area that distinguishes him or her from beginners or trainees. However, we need to unpack this term further to fully understand its implications.

Expertise refers to mechanisms underlying an expert’s superior performance. An expert is someone who has acquired a special skill or knowledge in a specific domain through meticulous training and extensive practice like heart surgeons, football coaches, music gurus, etc., and whose smooth, natural and uncomplicated performance tempts us to attribute it to innate capabilities and talents. It is usually thought that expertise is acquired after extended periods of experience and training, however studies by Camerer & Johnson, 1991; Bolger & Wright, 1992 show that at times expert decisions are no more accurate than a beginner’s decisions.

Besides, when scientists began measuring an expert’s superior talents and skills with psychometric tests, no general superiority was found. Instead their talent was task-specific only and that they possessed more knowledge in that field than an average individual.

Therefore, we can safely say that expertise is not an outcome of years of experience, as it cannot measure how good one is at a particular task. Rather experts constantly acquire a particular kind of knowledge coupled with training, are able to retrieve knowledge, apply it and consistently evaluate themselves to become better.

Experience, as defined by Vaneecia Lark, an educationist, is the acts that produce, create, and invent knowledge for effects upon the future. Experience is happening to us all the time. Experience is the training required to refine one’s skills and provides opportunities to apply the knowledge gained over years. For example, an individual after teaching grade six and above for a couple of years becomes an experienced teacher. This means that he or she would have learnt ways of managing a classroom, students and curriculum and would have honed his or her skills of disseminating knowledge proficiently.

Thus, this detailed explanation of the two terms takes us back to the question: what is more important in today’s job market — expertise or experience? Considering the unemployment rates in Pakistan, expertise is what is ruling any Pakistani industry these days. The guest speaker at the seminar asserted that expertise holds more relevance and importance for modern recruiters and divulged substantial reasons for this.

Expertise is imperative because an individual possess the highest level of relevant skills and training to perform a certain task which others may not be very proficient in. For example, one may have taught kindergarten for years yet he/she wouldn’t be called an expert in early childhood education as one needs special degrees, awards, practice and technical knowhow to be titled so. An early childhood education expert would explicitly understand children’s behaviour, different learning styles and special needs and provide appropriate consultancy and adequate supervision which an experienced teacher wouldn’t be able to. Besides, consultancies and contractual positions are surging these days. Organisations look for people who can quickly solve their problems without needing professional development and relevant trainings, thus they look for personnel with definite expertise and hire them immediately on market price.

This is not to say that experience is rendered irrelevant these days; in fact most companies specify that candidates need to have at least two years of experience to be eligible to apply for a position. This is because organisations need the assurance that the candidate has done some similar work and would’ve learnt some valuable lessons.

Relevant experience also indicates one can implement the knowledge and skills he or she has obtained in academic institutions. However one needs to incessantly propel towards progress through deliberate practice to become an expert in a particular field. Deliberate practice, as explained by Carl Beuke, PhD, a psychologist, is characterised by identifying what one wants to do in life (have specific goals), getting accurate feedback on performance from those already in the profession and continuously updating oneself with the latest knowledge and credentials.

Fresh graduates can gain some relevant experience through internships, volunteer work or even community service and must keep polishing their skills. They need to look out for good job opportunities and most importantly, not lose heart. After all, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

The writer is a career advisor at a local institution.