“experience” can be overrated.
by ed mendlowitz
101 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice, the complete 2-volume set
q: we were looking for an additional experienced person and hired someone with five years’ experience.
but she said she couldn’t start until january 3rd. she said she had work she had to finish up. two days before christmas she called to tell me her firm made her a “better” offer and she decided to stay there.
it now appears that we will be entering our busy season short a person. this seems to happen a lot. what do you suggest?
a: you have a common problem. you also “invest” too much in looking for an experienced person where your chance of getting someone suitable is not good.
first of all, you are hiring someone of questionable ability. you will only know what they can do after they are working for you a while.
second, you are hiring someone who was not happy where they were. what makes you think they will be happy with you?
maybe they were unhappy because:
- they felt they were not progressing as well as they should or weren’t given opportunities to grow and develop further.
if that is the case, why are you hiring them at either the level they were at or a higher level? chances are they didn’t learn everything they should have for that level – that’s what they told you. aren’t you listening?
- they weren’t permitted to specialize or become an expert and take the cpe they needed to. see previous bullet point.
- they weren’t adequately compensated. that is possible, but how long did it take them to realize that and leave? and if they waited a while, how much enthusiasm did they bring to their job? and if they started looking to leave right away, what makes you think their boss did not anticipate this and decide they did not want that person?
- you might be hiring an unhappy person.
danger signals:
-
- they have not passed the cpa exam.
- they have an unexplained time gap in their resume.
- they got stuck in a place and remained there too long (you define “too long”).
- they did not supervise staff – maybe not able to, or not given opportunity – and if you will provide that opportunity, how much will they pay you for that?
don’t give a raise from their present pay level, but promise to re-evaluate it in six months, and make sure you keep your promise.
if they are returning to public accounting perhaps they left because they didn’t like it. if they realized they made a mistake after a short period they might work out. if they want to return after nine years, then give me a break.
- it was their first job, and realized it wasn’t for them, but stayed a year or two to learn as much as they could so they would be prepared for the next level. this could be a good person and they could be right on the mark because this frequently occurs in smaller firms. however, you will be hiring someone with two years of bad experience or training. why?
- there is an exception, and that is that the firm they were working for had to lay off some staff. if that is the case, then you might be getting a real star, so pursue it. one way to “test” that is to see their work history. did they have five jobs in 10 years, or one or two jobs? i would stay away from the person with five jobs.
the solution:
my solution is simple, but not so simple: hire people out of school and train them properly in your systems, procedures, techniques, style and methods.
this way you won’t have to settle on what’s available. if you don’t do this, think about your reality. on some basis, what you have been doing isn’t working, so consider trying something new – something that the largest and most successful cpa firms have always done – hire people out of school! it is not so simple because most small firms don’t want to hire people just out of school because they don’t want to train them or spend the time training and in many cases, they may not know how to train. this puts you in a bind – between a rock and a hard place. well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? and you decide to “solve” your problem the same way all the time – hiring “experienced” people. why not try the other way – the way that works for all the successful firms in our profession?
oh, back to the specifics of the question. if you hired out of school and trained them your way, you wouldn’t have to put up with hiring people who “can’t start” yet.
footnote: the expression “between a rock and a hard place” originated in the late 15th century by john morton, archbishop of canterbury, who was also the tax collector. he reasoned that anyone living modestly must be saving money, so they could afford to pay taxes; and someone living extravagantly was obviously rich so they could afford taxes. this expression is also called “morton’s fork.”
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