20 years or 20X1 year of EXPERIENCE?

Several years ago, one guy, a couple of days after attending one of my talks, called me to see if I could help him with his situation. He told me he was very depressed and helpless, he was retrenched after having worked in a company for almost 20 years and he was then already 50 over years old. So, I met up with him.

First thing I advised him to do was to put the past behind him, even if he were the President or CEO of the company. Now, it's become history. It does not help in any way to keep thinking of the past glamour, glory or any sweet success. It is time to forget the past and move on.

So, I sat down with him and literally helped him analyse and identify his core skills and strengths he had acquired over the last 20 years, so as to chart his next career direction. But, I realised that he did not learn much in his 20 years at work. This is common amongst employees who work at the same job for too long unless they are being empowered to be multi-functional.

Twenty years of experience could mean two things: twenty years of yearly accumulated experience, or one year of experience repeated for twenty years.