Do they really need an "expert"?

Individuals who pursue personal passions in their professional lives devour every piece of information and acquire any type of relatable experience in order to grow their profile and understanding. Career advisors and life coaches, just like the one I heard speak a couple of weeks ago, encourage us that one of the best ways to increase opportunity, through jobs or leads, is to become a recognized "expert" in our chosen field.

I am as guilty of this as the next overachiever. When asked this past week about what I like about my real job, I simply said, "it lets me be a geek." As someone who read ten times more non-fiction than fiction as a child, analyzing public policy and evaluating financial information are second nature. My strong personal interests towards my career facilitates an intensity the encourages me to reach out to fellows in the field when they pose questions on listservs or at meetings. I love running workshops at conferences, and I make the time in my busy schedule to engage in scholarly-level research (though without the abundance of resources found on a college campus).

If you were to ask me about the externalities in the evolution of the politics-administration dichotomy, I could tell you just about anything you wanted to know. However, does this make me the most desirable person to hear about this subject? Is my immense knowledge and pursuit of "expert" understanding in my personal passions going to encourage opportunities for future employment, especially in the academic sector I desperately want to be part of?

Not exactly. Many times, being an "expert" is the opposite of what an employer or potential customer wants. In the current job climate, more knowledgeable candidates are being turned away for those few available positions in favor of recent graduates and the less experienced. The reasons are several, from the fact that the responsibilities of the positions make the more experienced appear overqualified, to recent findings suggesting that experience often serves to inhibit one's ability to adapt towards achieving success.

Becoming an expert can also make someone arrogant or unappreciative of the abilities of others. This opinion piece from a New York food critic on her displeasure with the "child foodie" movement could easily come across to a reader as a "sour grapes" diatribe from an industry elitist. She does make some salient points throughout her column, but the tone wreaks of the vitriol of someone jaded by her superior knowledge and abilities, unable to appreciate what others without her background might be able to contribute.

True expertise is achieved when one recognizes the limits of their own knowledge and experiences, embraces the ideas of others, and finds ways to incorporate new skills and concepts into their intellectual reference. As many people I help with issues in my profession, I do my best to ask just as many questions to the same group. While I am using this blog to offer tips that can help others in their personal and professional growth, the process of writing and researching these pieces and the feedback from readers are just as valuable in my own development.

Even if you are an "expert", regardless of your actual age, it is important to convince employers and customers (current and potential) that your knowledge and background only encourage you to learn more, serve more, and appreciate the thoughts of others more. Real experts find a lesson in life every day, enabling them to maintain a professional focus that leads them to always achieve.