Short answer: Experience matters less in hiring than most managers think. A review of 81 studies found that years and type of pre-hire experience barely predict job performance and do not predict who stays. Use experience as a hard requirement only when the job needs a license, a safety skill or someone who must perform from day one. For every other role, measure what the person can do and how they are likely to work: short-answer questions, a pre-hire assessment and a structured interview tell you far more than a long resume.
This guide is for owners and managers who do their own hiring and keep asking for "2 to 5 years of experience" by habit. It explains what the research says about experience, when it really matters, what "relevant", "demonstrated" and "ideal" experience should mean, and how to start measuring skills instead of assuming them.
Does experience matter when hiring? What the research says
Pre-hire work experience is one of the weakest predictors of how a new hire will do. In a 2019 meta-analysis in Personnel Psychology, Chad Van Iddekinge and colleagues combined 81 samples and found a corrected correlation of .06 between pre-hire experience and job performance, .11 with training performance and .00 with turnover (Van Iddekinge, Arnold, Frieder and Roth, Personnel Psychology, 2019). A correlation runs from 0 (no link) to 1 (a perfect link), so .06 is close to nothing.
Relevant experience does not fix the problem. The same study found that experience in tasks, jobs or occupations that match the new role was also only weakly related to performance, at .07. The authors cautioned employers against selecting people on these experience measures unless better evidence appears.
A larger 2022 review of hiring methods points the same way. Sackett, Zhang, Berry and Lievens re-checked decades of research and ranked structured interviews as the top selection method, with a mean validity of .42, while years of job experience came in at .07 (Sackett et al., Journal of Applied Psychology, 2022).
Why years of experience predict so little
Years of experience measure time spent in a job, not how well the person did it. Two people with five years in sales can be your best and worst producer. The resume shows both as "5 years".
Old habits can also come along with the experience. A 2009 study in Organization Science by Dokko, Wilk and Rothbard found that prior related experience helps through the knowledge and skill it builds, but once that knowledge is taken into account, the experience itself had a negative direct link to performance in the new job (Dokko, Wilk and Rothbard, Organization Science, 2009). In plain words: the skills carry over, and so do the old ways of doing things that may not fit your business.
Experience also says nothing about whether someone will stay. Van Iddekinge told Florida State University that his team "found literally zero correlation" between pre-hire experience and whether people stayed or left (Florida State University, 2019). He added that employers often mark down candidates for moving between jobs, and called that another common hiring mistake.
When experience does matter
Experience should be a hard requirement when the law, safety or the timeline leaves you no room to train. In most other cases it is a nice extra, not a filter. The Van Iddekinge study also found that experience predicts performance somewhat better when people first start a new job, so it matters most when you need results in the first weeks.
| Situation | Make experience a requirement? | What to check instead or as well |
|---|---|---|
| The job needs a license or certificate | Yes, the license is the requirement | Confirm the license, then screen for fit and work style |
| Safety-critical work (driving, equipment, trades) | Yes, for the specific skill | A practical test of the skill, plus references about safe habits |
| You cannot train and need results in week one | Often yes | A work sample or job task during the interview |
| Entry-level, service, sales or office roles | No | Short-answer questions, a pre-hire assessment and a structured interview |
| Roles you train for anyway | No | Coachability, problem solving and drive |
Want to check fit and work style before the first interview? See IdealTraits pre-hire assessments.
Relevant, demonstrated, industry and ideal experience: what each one tells you
The words in a job ad change who applies. "Relevant experience" and "industry experience" filter on job titles. "Demonstrated experience" asks for proof that someone has done the work. "Ideal experience" lists what would be nice, and many good candidates read it as a requirement and do not apply.
| Term | What it usually means | How to use it well |
|---|---|---|
| Relevant experience | Work in a similar job or with similar tasks | Name the tasks, not the titles: "you have handled upset customers" beats "2 years in customer service" |
| Demonstrated experience | Proof the person has done the work and done it well | Ask for an example in the application or the interview, then check it with a reference |
| Industry experience | Time in your industry, such as insurance or auto sales | Require it only when product knowledge or a license is needed from day one |
| Ideal experience | A wish list for the perfect candidate | Keep it short, label it "nice to have" and say you will train the rest |
A better ideal experience section describes behaviors. For a front desk role, "You stay calm and friendly when the phones and the lobby are both busy" tells candidates what the job needs, and it invites people from restaurants, retail and call centers who already do it every day. Our guide to skill-based hiring has more on writing ads around skills.
Two candidates for an entry-level sales job
Here is a choice many owners face. You have two applicants for an entry-level sales role.
- Candidate A has worked at a local restaurant for three years. No sales title, but they suggest add-ons to every table, work fast under pressure, and their manager says they are reliable and often stay late to help coworkers.
- Candidate B has held sales titles at two companies. The resume lists no results, and when you call, the former manager says they were pleasant but did not hit their targets.
A resume filter set to "sales experience required" keeps Candidate B and drops Candidate A. The evidence points the other way. Candidate A has shown the behaviors the job needs. Candidate B has the title without the results. The research above suggests you should weigh the evidence, not the title.
Do not decide on the number of past jobs alone. The 2019 meta-analysis found no link between pre-hire experience and turnover, so a short stay is a question to ask in the interview, not a reason to reject. Our post on career switchers covers how to judge people coming from other fields.
How to start measuring skills instead of assuming work experience
Start by naming what the job needs, then test for it at each step. Each step below takes little time and works for one hire or many.
- List 3 to 5 behaviors the job needs. Think about your best person in the role. What do they do that others do not? For example: follows up without being asked, stays calm with upset customers, learns new systems fast.
- Rewrite the job ad around those behaviors. Move years of experience to "nice to have" unless the job truly requires it (see the table above).
- Add 2 or 3 short-answer questions to the application. Ask for a real example: "Tell us about a time you turned an unhappy customer around." The answer shows how they think and write.
- Use a pre-hire assessment before the interview. A personality and problem-solving assessment shows how someone is likely to work, which a resume cannot. Look at the results next to the resume, not instead of it.
- Run a structured interview. Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order, and score each answer against what a good answer looks like. Structured interviews ranked first among hiring methods in the 2022 review above.
- Ask for a short job task. A mock sales call, a sample email or a short data entry task shows skill directly.
- Ask references about behavior. "How did they handle a busy day?" tells you more than "What were their dates of employment?"
- Check back after 90 days. Note which signals matched your best new hires and adjust your list.
One insurance agency put step 4 this way, describing candidates who have never sold before:
"They don't even know they're a sales superstar, but you have them take the assessment even though they have absolutely no relevant experience, and you could say, hey, this person has sales potential."
Dan Kitajima, insurance agency, IdealTraits customer (watch at minute 37)
For more ways to look past the resume, see how to identify top talent beyond resumes and our resume screening tips.
How IdealTraits helps
IdealTraits is an all-in-one hiring platform with AI that helps businesses hire for fit, not just experience. A resume shows what someone has done; IdealTraits shows how they are likely to work. Pre-hire assessments (personality, cognitive and short answer), AI resume matching and one-way video interviews let you see how a candidate thinks and communicates before you book an interview. 18,000+ businesses have used IdealTraits to hire.
Questions about experience in hiring
Is experience more important than skills?
For most jobs, no. Skills and work style predict performance better than years of experience. In the 2022 review by Sackett and colleagues, years of job experience had a validity of .07 for job performance, while structured interviews had .42. Experience matters more when a role needs a license or must perform from day one without training.
Should I hire someone with no experience?
Yes, for roles you can train for, if the person shows the behaviors the job needs. Look for evidence from other jobs, school or volunteering, check problem solving and work style with an assessment, and ask references about reliability. Plan real training for the first weeks, because experience helps most at the very start of a job.
Why do employers still ask for experience?
Experience is easy to see on a resume and feels safe. The 2019 meta-analysis by Van Iddekinge and colleagues notes that employers often screen on experience even though the usual experience measures predict performance and turnover poorly. Asking for proof of skills takes a little more setup but gives a far clearer picture.
This post was first written by Katie Thornsberry in September 2021 and fully updated in October 2026 with new research, a decision table and step-by-step guidance.