Never Pretend to be an Expert
By: Mick, March 15th, 2007
Saw an interesting post at the Career Hub about the abundance of “experts” in the employment field. Funny, because it seems that everywhere I go, I’m running into experts, on everything from resumes to interviews to sourcing. And there are plenty of people out there that are certainly experts relative to my knowledge of these subjects, but what does being an expert really entail. That’s why Are You an Expert? struck me as such a great post.
Career Hub uses the angle of search results to make its case, but I have been just as overwhelmed by experts simply by cruising around my usual blog trails. They are everywhere and I think there are lessons to be learned from their ubiquity.
If you are searching for a job and you claim to be an expert in anything, you better know what the hell you’re talking about. And not just the nuts and bolts. You better be able to explain why each nut and bolt is where it is and what they are doing there. Claiming expert status is pretty easy these days, considering that few people are truly called on to demonstrate their knowledge or their credentials. That’s a big part of the reason why I claim to be an expert in nothing. But it’s also why I think everyone should be a little wary of anyone claiming expert status.
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