At Epidata, we firmly believe in building work teams based on values such as merit, responsibility, and diversity, through policies that promote equal opportunities. And this implies understanding that work experience is no longer a determining factor when selecting new talent.
Having “X” years of work experience, in such a dynamic world as the present, does not in itself signify a value. On the contrary, it is human values and technical knowledge that determine someone’s aptitude for a position, regardless of how many years they have been working in a particular industry in the same way.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to lead a paradigm shift in personnel selection processes, which involves ceasing to promote and conduct searches for collaborators based on the criterion of “work experience”, and beginning to focus on knowledge.
For this reason, at Epidata we will stop considering all job offers that focus on “work experience” as valid, discriminating selection according to “time” variables. We invite you to discover why we believe that time is not a teacher.
Time is not a teacher: values and skills are more important than work experience
The world of work is characterized enormously by a particular trait: its dynamism. We do not use the same applications, languages, or development methodologies that we did 10, 5, or even 2 years ago. After all, the pandemic has generated a change in perspective around technology, but also about the way we work.
Since the pandemic, more and more organizations decided to build a better workplace by orienting themselves towards remote work, understanding all the virtues of productivity, efficiency, and comfort, without losing sight of the commitment to take on new innovative challenges for the market.
But are job search processes up to such a transformation? It seems not. We consider that measuring a person’s professional “value” by the years they have been doing a task does not make much sense. In the present day, evaluating work experience when hiring someone could be counterproductive.
Having “10 years of experience” does not necessarily mean something relevant to the current industry. Does this mean that experience is worthless in the market? No, quite the opposite. According to the RAE, experience is “knowledge of something, or skill for it, acquired by having done it, lived it, felt it or suffered it one or more times.” Experience is knowledge, and the focus is on measuring knowledge, not “task years”.
Epidata, promoting equal job opportunities since 2003
The elimination of searches based on the “years of work experience” criterion is just one of how we have been promoting equal opportunities since 2003. Since then we have worked on several things that we decided to do because we truly believe in them.
For example, “blind CVs” is another way to avoid discrimination based on work experience, as well as sex, and other prejudices. We feel that it is a form of discrimination that has become naturalized in the market and that needs to be changed. Therefore, we emphasize and seek to ensure that there is no discrimination of any kind at Epidata.
Thus, the selection parameters for new collaborators are based solely on the company’s competencies and values. This has resulted, for example, in our management team being one of the most diverse in the market, with a mix of ages, religions, tastes, styles, nationalities, and a large majority of women.
Knowledge and Merit: The Key to Continuing to Grow in the Business World
Now, it’s time to stop discriminating based on “years of work experience”. In an increasingly changing world, where professionals have to adapt to the emergence of new technological challenges, the ability to transform and assimilate new skills becomes one of the determining factors in the workplace.
If we want to promote constant innovation in the market, guaranteeing developments that transform the lives of millions of people, it becomes essential that selection processes adapt to the current reality. This implies removing the selection criterion based on “years of experience” and replacing it with true knowledge and adaptability.
This will be one of the keys to the future of work, which will result in the creation of the best workplace in the coming years. The desire to grow and the acquisition of modern technical skills should guide future team selection processes at work because time is not a teacher.
About Epidata
Global privately-owned company specialized in innovation outsourcing, dedicated to providing software development and software design services, application modernization, RPA, machine learning and Big Data, among others. Its solutions transform businesses, optimizing operations and co-creating better digital experiences for customers and employees.
Epidata has alliances with leading innovation and knowledge companies such as Microsoft, GitLab, Mulesoft, Salesforce, Oracle, MariaDB, Red Hat and UiPath. These partnerships help other companies to stay current.
Epidata operates in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and the United States (San Francisco, California), where it has a track record of successful support to multinational corporations such as Stanford Research Institute International, JP Morgan, Tenaris, Turner, Telecom, HSBC, Monsanto, Walmart, Asana, among others.
