Of late, some employers prefer rightly qualified recruits who have got enough experience in voluntarily serving their immediate community to those others who have got some industry experience.

• What do you think is the rationale behind this recruitment criterion?
• Do you think industry experience in of no value?

Though employers follow different criteria when they recruit talents, inclination to people with volunteering experience is a new trend, of course with certain reasons. The value of industry experience, on the other and, is of some value but it seems dwindling.

The primary reason, it seems to me, that rightly qualified recruits with voluntary experience are likely to have the best of the qualities expected of an employee; ‘servicemindedness’. This is what employers are looking for. Taking up social service initiatives voluntarily is sign enough to show that such people are more concerned about their society than about the reward they are expected to get for a service. Besides, a person who has got some experience in voluntary services can be very easily shaped into the requirements of any job. That is the job of HR development department.

It does not mean that industry experience is of no value. It does have its own strength. Such people save a lot of time and money for employers. These employees come with enough exposure to the field, and it is easier for any company to make then tuned to the job requirements.

However, this pre-qualification seems to be losing its sheen. Basically it is because of the fact that today all emerging jobs are new in one way or the other. So no pre qualification may go very well with the requirement of a different work culture. A new recruit needs to be trained in some way.

Concluding it, employers may have many requirements expected of a recruit. But getting recruited on the basis of voluntary service experience is of course rewarding. Industry experience, on the other hand, is worth it in many ways.

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