Lately, I’ve been looking back on my career and trying to pinpoint a moment.
That moment when I shifted my perspective from wanting to expand my years of experience to wanting to contract them.
I’m calling this the “years of experience” conundrum.
Early in my career, I was leveraging every year – 3 years of experience, 6 years, etc.
In fact, I would even list my start date as the date I began my first internship to show longevity even though some of the time was broken up with school.
At some point, I moved to other milestones for longevity – 10/15/20+ years of experience.
Then, at a moment I can’t remember, the reverse happened.
I wanted to remove dates from “the early years”.
No one needed to know that I graduated and started my career in the 1990s.
It seemed “old”, and the experience number had moved to 25+ years.
A Little Research
According to Gallup research, in 1991 retirement was happening at the average age of 57.
Today that has risen to 61.
In addition, non-retirees in 1991 thought they would retire at 60 (so they are close).
Today, people believe they will retire at 66.
Simple math tells us that retiring at 61 would be somewhere between 35-40 years of experience.
Retiring at 66 would be over 40 years.
After these stats, I decided to ask ChatGPT a question:
“Can you write a blog post on “the sweet spot of experience”? How many years aren’t enough and when do you tip to too many?”
– Lori Sullivan question to ChatGPT
The response was interesting, and I asked for a summary in a few sentences.
Here’s the result:
“The “sweet spot” of experience in a career is often between 7-10 years, where professionals combine robust expertise with adaptability, making them highly valuable.
In the first 1-3 years, employees build foundational skills, and by 4-6 years, they gain proficiency and confidence. After 10-15 years, while deep expertise grows, there can be risks of obsolescence and resistance to change.
Beyond 15 years, veterans bring unmatched knowledge but may face challenges with adapting to new technologies or being perceived as overqualified.
Continuous learning and flexibility are crucial for maintaining relevance and leveraging the advantages of extensive experience.”
– Chat GPT
OK – SERIOUSLY – Beyond 15 years we may face challenges?!
Even if you started your career at 30, you would be on a fast downhill slide at 45.
I also don’t like that the first 1-3 years are foundational.
In some ways they are, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable contributions in the early years.
My Perspective
We need to shift our view of “working years” from 30 to 50.
Let’s assume most people start working around 20 and want to work into their 70s.
We need to break the paradigm that we stop learning when we leave formal schooling.
People at all ages are taking classes, reading, and learning new things.
We need to celebrate and create paths for individuals that want to shift disciplines and try out new careers in their 40s, 50s, 60s, etc.
We need to eliminate the “sweet spot” of experience.
We need to celebrate the gifts that individuals bring at every age – from 20 to 80….and beyond.
The way we are working isn’t working.
Together we create change.
Your Turn
Do you see a “sweet spot” of experience?
Which side are you currently on?
What challenges do you face when talking about your career journey?