evan51•2d ago

Overheard my boss say experience doesn't matter for new hires

I was grabbing coffee Tuesday and heard my boss tell HR that 5 years of experience is just a number, not proof of skill. Made me realize my entire resume focus might be wrong. Should I start listing specific projects instead of just years worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

schmidt.blake2d ago

Hit the nail right on the head. I had a boss once who straight up told me she'd take a candidate with two killer personal projects over someone with a decade of sitting in meetings. Years on a resume can just mean you showed up and did the bare minimum for a long time. I switched my resume to focus on specific wins like "cut processing time by 30%" and "led a team to launch a new feature in 6 weeks" and suddenly recruiters started actually reading it. Your boss sounds like they get it, and yeah, you should totally dump the generic years and show what you actually did.

the_shane2d ago

Wait wait wait... your boss actually SAID that out loud? That is WILD. Most managers just nod and pretend years matter but they told you straight up they want personal projects over meetings? That's actually refreshing honesty.