Why It is Better to Have No Experience

So many job openings require 1-3 years experience in the industry or I did not get a job because another candidate had much more experience than me.  Granted I just graduated college and my experience is limited but I find that as an advantage.

It takes much longer to unlearn a false information, a bad habit, or a wrong technique then to just learn it.  The experienced individual has to first forget the way they conducted themselves and if done for a long time this can be extremely difficult and time consuming and then learn the new and correct method.  If you do something everyday for weeks, months, or years that is how you are going to do something.  So if the new workplace has a different policy, structure, or way to conduct business than you are use to it will not just be unfamiliar but also weird, awkward, and just seem wrong.  An employee that thinks they know how something is or should be done is not only a hinderence to the company but also a liability.  I know from personal experience of the new guy coming in and not learning the operating procedures and just going right to work.  Well this is how I do this and how we did this where I use to work.  Not only did that destroy the flow and order that we had in the workplace but also those "shortcuts" were a safety violation.  Despite the supervisors warnings and instructions he would still on occasion "forget" and do it his old way.  Remember Pluto the planet that is no more?  How hard is it for individuals to remember and consider Pluto no longer a planet.

Fresh clay, it is the material you want to work with, it has the ability to be whatever you want it to be, like a bowl.  But after the clay is worked and no longer new and fresh and has some experience it can no longer be anything you want it to be.  The already made clay might be a bowl, but that experience might have molded and formed it into a bowl of the wrong size or fit.  It takes a lot more work, time, and effort to turn that made bowl into the bowl you want it to be than just using the fresh clay.

Photo Credit: Scott Ableman

Would you prefer to have an experienced piece of clay or  fresh clay?  Any other analogies you can think of that would work? Do you have some bad habits that you need to unlearn?