I’ve had plenty of opportunity to chat with people about interns, young professionals, and college grads. There is an article over on Business on Main that talks about starting up right after college and I’ve been reading some thoughts from Douglas Karr.

Douglas Karr (of the Marketing Technology Blog) and I had a brief sparring match on his post, You Don’t Pay for Social Media Consultants. Now, it is hard for me to read this post and not feel like he is pointing the finger directly at me.

Let me tell you a little bit about me.

  1. I am a consultant, business owner, and young professional who has no prior experience in the world of digital marketing.
  2. I have had one job at Roundpeg, a small business marketing firm, for 6 months after I graduated college.
  3. I started my first company at 24 in 2006.
  4. I worked my butt off, failed a ton (and I mean… a ton), and delivered some value to clients.
  5. I complete digital/social media training and high-level strategy.
  6. I do not implement and I am not a developer.

Doug states in his blog and comments that if you do not have the experience you should go get a job… and gain some experience. What happened to the spirit of entrepreneurship? From Doug’s blog comment:

Not sure I agree, Kyle. If someone doesn’t have the experience, they should take the time to go work somewhere and get it. I see too many companies steered into a mess by folks who lack the experience.

Maybe I am taking this out of context but it should be fairly insulting to every young entrepreneur who decided to go out on their own and start something… without having experience.

There should be a case made that results are paramount not experience. If a company hires someone with no experience and the person delivers… shouldn’t that be the only thing that matters? Sorry if you were outsold in the process.

Let me be very clear, I agree with Doug on showing results but I know plenty of older, more experienced professionals who have failed miserably even with plenty of experience. Business owners should hire based on experience, passion, drive, and relationships.

I believe a younger individual (or someone who lacks experience) can deliver on at least 3… and eventually the fourth!

What do you think?