Experience Vs Exposure

We must have heard these terms while Interviewing candidates and took decisions accordingly.

Senior professionals tagged to both the terminology and juniors  says they have better exposure to latest trends. Exposure means that you have seen it. Experience generally implies more knowledge of something than just having seen it.Experience is better, we learn a lot from experience. Exposure allows us to get experiences, and experiences deepen our knowledge and understanding of the processes involved. 

We can say that experience is the accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities. Time spent in accumulating knowledge or skill is necessary but not a sufficient criteria for judging expertise. This is because learning curve differs for each individual & depends on participant’s inclination and motivation to acquire the skill. The correct term to describe this learning process should be “exposure”.

An experienced professional is  expected to have a high efficiency. Having a high efficiency though is not an indicator of a better performance. It might be time to rethink the basic approach & create a new process.

However, when the experience is due to exposure results are more effective. We chose to do the right thing & do it well. This makes us more open, relaxed & looking at problems from a higher logical point to resolve.

 I learned - I might not know all the routes or all the details, but my exposure gives me the courage to take the road less travelled.