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Not 'experience', but 'experiences'
There is a subtle difference between the two words 'experience' and 'experiences'. Experience generally refers to the number of years one has put into various organizations during one's entire career. Lot of people tend to focus on this aspect while recruiting. And many prospective candidates seem to tout the number of years of experience that he/she has in declaring his/her suitability for the job. In my opinion, the recruiters (and therefore the candidates) should be focusing on the variety of 'experiences' that a person has had while determining one's suitability for the job. By experiences I mean the variety of different opportunities or projects and skill sets a person has picked up during his/her entire career. The more varied the experiences of a candidate which are suitable for the job, the more appropriate the person will be for the new job. Although this is quite obvious to a lot of recruiters this is not always very obvious to prospective candidates. And in a system of governmental entitlements that we have in India, this is not always understood correctly. So, my advice to prospective candidates(which most of us are, while we are pursuing our careers) would be to gather as much experiences as possible at the job you are doing. Volunteer for orthogonal or related work opportunities. Do not be satisfied with just doing one job well while ignoring other related skills. And there are several soft skills and hard skills that need to be picked up while doing any job. However, these skills have to be complementary and fit within a framework that exemplifies and enhances the person you are and the direction in which you want to take your career. This also does not mean jumping from job to job to gather various experiences. One should try to get them within one's own organization as long as it is possible. Leave an organization only when it is no longer possible to do so. Think about growing the tree of 'experiences' rather than racking up just number of years of experience.
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