Why I Hire for Transferable Skills Over Industry Experience

I don’t always hire for experience.

In fact, I often hire for something far more valuable: Transferable skills.

Controversial? Maybe. Effective? Absolutely.

Most people look at a resume and check for years in a specific industry. They want someone who has done the exact same thing for a different company.

But here is what they miss:

The "thing" you sell can change. The industry jargon can be learned. But taste, logic, and work ethic?

Those are hard-coded.

One of my first hires was a social media manager. She was a student. She had zero professional videos on her Instagram.

But she had incredible aesthetic instincts. She knew exactly how to grab an audience’s attention.

I told her: "Let’s try video."

The result? Our content stood out everywhere we went. People weren't asking about her years of experience. They were asking, "Who does your content?"

Because good taste transfers. And the ability to grab someone’s attention? That’s universal.

Recently, I was told I couldn’t run operations for a service business because my background is in product and tech.

I respected the decision, but I disagreed with the logic.

Operations are systems, people, and accountability. Marketing is still marketing. Sales is still sales.

If you can run one business well, you can run most businesses.

Of course, there are limits. I don’t want a surgeon who "picked it up on the job." I’d prefer my pilot to have flown planes before.

But most business roles are not open-heart surgery. They are puzzles.

Sir Richard Branson famously hires for transferable skills over industry experience. He states these hires bring a fresh level of understanding that experts often miss.

Stop looking for someone who has done the job before. Start looking for the person who has the tools to do the job better than it’s ever been done.

Hire the person who knows how to solve the puzzle, not just the one who has seen the picture on the box before.