I had an interesting discussion today which touched on the topic of experience.  Education, personal skills/ ability and your experience make up your capability quotient.

Experience Required

Doctors, lawyers, plumbers, painters heavy equipment operators, pilots are professions that all require both education and experience  before you are deemed a professional that can stand alone.

Accountants often require three years of apprenticeship experience before being certified so these experience period can cover a significant time frame.

A Japanese sushi chef studies for up to eight years before being certified to prepare poison blowfish (fugu fish).  The certification process is quite stringent, you need to prepare and eat a fugu – if you live you pass.

Why Internships

It’s clear (based on experience) that in order to do many jobs safely you not only need to know how (training) and have the personal ability (skill) but to do it right some experience is critical.

The higher the risk associated with errors in execution (e.g., airline pilot) the greater the experience requirement before turning someone loose on their own.

Leadership and Experience

Good effective leadership requires training, skill and experience.  This goes against the argument that leaders are born.  Some aspects and underpinnings of leadership skills can be inherited but training and experience cannot.

Does this mean I cannot be a great leader without experience; my opinion is definately yes.  Can I be a leader without experience, of course but great leaders are experienced.

That is you are not born into it, you must develop the capabilities over time.