As I am slowly winding down my long career, I was mulling over a philosophical question: is experience helping for success?
I am not a big fan of the success frenzy that plagues social media, corporate documentation and career development programs. Most of my friends boast professional achievements and are somehow able to conveniently attribute the failures to others, or when that is impossible, slip those under the carpet. It is without saying that the most senior professionals are the most experienced, and that they should have been part of more successes as well as more (untold) failures. Should not success and failures feed their thought process, thus making them more likely to succeed in the future? Unfortunately, that is not what we observe in the real world. Researchers say that innovation and invention does not correlate with age. Studies have also demonstrated that it is safer to undergo surgery under a younger doctor than a more senior one.
Are there any benefits to include more costly senior staff in a team? Of course, the importance of understanding complex issues, passing on the “experience” and so-on is the usual narrative that older folks like to promote. This always sound a bit contemptuous; older employees can be protective of their knowledge and keep it for themselves, while I personally have learned a lot also from younger staff... Mind openness is not an age stuff either.
Eventually I came to the conclusion that you do not need senior employees to increase success. However, possibly because of their failures, seniors are usually more prudent in their approach to technical and operational planning and issues. They are also more suspicious of new (sometimes not-so-new) ideas. A senior engineer is more likely to prepare a plan B and C and find ways of mitigating the impact of potential failures. If hiring a senior staff to increase success may not be such a good idea, hiring a senior to prevent a large, costly failure may be a good strategy.