The Experience Paradox
John Hurt, CPA, CIA, CISA, CRCM, CAMS
CPA ★ CIA ★ CISA ★ CRCM ★ CAMS ★ Accomplished Internal Audit, Risk Management, and Compliance Professional. ★ I build world-class compliance, audit and risk management organizations. johnlhurt.com
November 9, 2025
Have you ever felt tired or ill and wondered what you could do to feel better? Maybe you went to doctors in multiple specialty fields who performed dozens of tests without a solution. That is precisely how it can feel in the job market today. Well, I've had a breakthrough that I'd like to share with you. I've put a name to my malady - Experience Paradox - and I bet many of you have the same issue.
Here’s the truth no one puts on a job description:
You can be performing at a VP level for 20 years and still be treated like you’re “too experienced” for the job you already did ten promotions ago.
I was hired in 2004 to perform a role requiring 12 years of experience, and I delivered at that level on Day One.
But the market doesn’t read that correctly. Instead, it sees your résumé and thinks:
“Twenty years in audit/risk/compliance? Does that mean he’s stuck?”
“Why isn’t the title VP every single year?”
“Is this too much experience for my team?”
“Will he stay?”
“Will I look inexperienced next to him?”
What they don’t see is the truth:
Early acceleration.
Executive responsibilities long before the title.
Nonlinear life events.
Cancer.
Caregiving.
Wrongful arrests.
Retaliation.
Market collapses.
Consulting work that saved companies.
Expertise that deepened, not drifted.
When the story is more complex than a perfect staircase of promotions, hiring managers default to the wrong conclusion.
The Two Reactions Nobody Talks About
1. “This doesn’t add up.”
If your career doesn’t follow the perfect HR-approved arc, people question it—even if the reality is simply life happening around you.
2. “He’s better than me, how do I manage that?”
People won’t admit this, but it’s real.
When your experience outpaces your interviewer’s:
They worry you’ll threaten them.
They worry you’ll expose weaknesses in their program.
They worry they can’t supervise someone who’s been operating above their level for two decades.
They say, “Not the right fit.”
They mean, “You make me uncomfortable.”
The Emotional Cost
I stumbled across a Linked in post a few weeks ago that said the following (paraphrasing): "I need a job! In five days I will have lost everything I worked for my entire life. I need to work... My children need me to work..."
This post broke my heart and led to more than a few sleepless nights since, especially since my own situation is not too different than that of the person who created this post.
For me, two things hit the hardest:
Interviewing well but still hitting a brick wall.
Panels nod, they agree, they’re impressed, and then nothing. They say things like, "That's a great answer!" and "That's exactly what I was thinking", followed by silence or a rejection email.
Because once they imagine you in the seat, they imagine themselves in the seat next to you. And suddenly they don’t feel tall enough.
Being tired of fighting for something you’ve already earned.
This is the wound nobody sees.
Twenty years of experience.
Responsibilities far above pay grade.
Delivering results in impossible environments.
Stopping failures before they became headlines.
Carrying programs on your back.
And still having to prove you can do the job that junior managers are interviewing you for.
It’s not a skills problem.
It’s a market perception problem layered on top of age bias, illness stigma, background-check errors, and economic contraction.
So What Now?
The solution isn’t to shrink yourself. The solution is to change the frame:
Tell the real story:
“I entered the field performing VP-level work from Day One.”
Present continuity, not chronology: Your responsibilities have been executive-level, even when life forced nonlinear moves.
Stop apologizing for experience: Companies need adults in the room more than ever—and deep expertise separates strong institutions from the ones regulators write up.
And above all: Don’t internalize the market’s confusion. Your value hasn’t diminished. Their courage has.
Final Thought
If you’re 50+, 60+, or simply someone whose career didn’t follow a perfect staircase, hear this:
You have not failed. The hiring system has failed to evolve.
The market needs seasoned, steady, unflappable leaders now more than ever—and when the right role breaks loose, it will be obvious why everything up to this point felt like a struggle.
Until then: keep your experience off the leash.
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