Are We Hiring for Experience... or Just Familiarity?

Why looking beyond industry experience could be one of the smartest decisions a business makes.

I’ve been thinking about how often we look for what we already know when hiring.

Recently, I caught up with a General Manager of Marketing whose career had spanned technology, aged care, FMCG and several other industries. They’d worked with some fantastic brands along the way, building a career that crossed sectors many marketers might never consider moving between.

Before we met, their background had caught my attention. How had they successfully navigated such different industries over the past 20 years?

When I asked, their answer was simple.

“I’ve made it my mission to listen to what the market wants.”

I loved that answer. It was direct, commercially minded and said a lot about how they approached their career.

But listening is one part of the equation. The other is convincing a hiring manager to back you when you haven't worked in their industry before. Being able to demonstrate how your experience translates takes real commercial understanding.

And in a competitive candidate market, “someone from the same industry” is often part of the brief I'm given.

It got me thinking: are we sometimes overlooking great people because their experience doesn't look familiar enough?

Why industry experience has become such a big part of hiring

When I work with a hiring manager on a new role, industry experience is often high on the wish list. Sometimes, it's a firm requirement.

And I understand why.

If you're hiring a senior marketer or sales leader, you want someone who can get up to speed quickly. Someone who understands your customers, knows the competitive landscape and has a feel for the commercial pressures your business faces.

You're paying for that knowledge, too. When you're investing in a senior appointment, it makes sense to look for someone who can bring relevant experience and make an impact without having to learn everything from scratch.

But I think there's a difference between needing industry knowledge and using industry experience as a shortcut for assessing whether someone is right for the role.

The two aren't always the same.

Someone who has spent 15 years in your sector might understand its conventions inside out. Someone coming from a completely different industry might need time to learn your customers, terminology and market dynamics, but could also bring a fresh perspective and ideas your existing team hasn't considered.

Neither background is automatically better. The question is which experience will best serve the business you're trying to build.

What we risk missing when everyone looks for the same candidate

I sometimes wonder whether we're creating a sea of sameness in marketing and sales leadership.

If every business is looking for someone from the same industry, with experience at a similar competitor and a familiar career path, we inevitably narrow the talent pool.

And when we narrow that pool too early, we risk missing out on people who could make a genuine difference.

I've seen how valuable it can be to look beyond the obvious fit. A candidate who has worked across different sectors may have developed a broader understanding of customers, buying behaviour, commercial strategy and how marketing contributes to business growth.

They might have managed a complex stakeholder environment in aged care, developed a customer acquisition strategy in technology or worked with established consumer brands in FMCG. Those experiences don't become irrelevant simply because the next business operates in a different sector.

In fact, that variety can be a real strength.

Here are three things I believe businesses can gain by looking beyond their own industry.

1. A fresh perspective on familiar problems

Every industry has its own accepted ways of working.

Over time, those practices can become so ingrained that teams stop questioning them. That's understandable. People are busy, targets need to be met, and there's rarely much appetite for reinventing the wheel without a good reason.

But someone coming from another sector may see things differently.

They might question a customer journey that everyone else accepts, challenge how the business approaches lead generation or bring a new perspective to the relationship between marketing activity and revenue.

They won't necessarily have all the answers. They'll need time to understand why certain decisions have been made. But the ability to ask a different question can be incredibly valuable, particularly when a business is trying to grow, reposition itself or break away from old habits.

2. Transferable skills that go beyond the industry

A strong marketing or sales professional develops skills that aren't confined to one sector.

Commercial thinking, customer insight, stakeholder management, strategic planning, team leadership and the ability to translate business objectives into action are valuable across industries.

Of course, the context changes. Selling a complex technology solution is different from marketing a consumer product, and communicating with an aged care audience requires a different understanding from engaging a B2B technology buyer.

But many of the underlying capabilities remain relevant.

The challenge is recognising them.

A candidate might not have worked in your industry. Still, they may have led a team through significant change, built a successful go-to-market strategy, improved sales performance or developed a deeper understanding of customer needs.

Those achievements deserve consideration in their own right.

The question I'd encourage hiring managers to ask is: what has this person actually demonstrated they can do, and how relevant is that to the challenge we need them to solve?

That tends to lead to a much more useful conversation than simply asking where they've worked before.

3. More diversity in how teams think and operate

When people bring different experiences into a business, they also bring different assumptions, perspectives and ways of approaching problems.

That can be particularly valuable in marketing and sales, where understanding people, responding to changing customer expectations and finding new opportunities are central to success.

A team made up of people who have followed similar career paths may approach challenges in similar ways. Someone with experience outside the sector can introduce a different perspective, perhaps drawing on a campaign, sales model or customer engagement approach they've seen work elsewhere and adapting it to a new environment.

Not every idea will translate. Some won't work at all. That's part of the process.

But if we're serious about finding better ways to connect with customers and grow businesses, shouldn't we be open to learning from outside our own industry?

The key is knowing what someone needs to know on day one

I'm not suggesting industry experience doesn't matter. There are roles where it genuinely is essential.

If a position requires deep regulatory knowledge, established relationships in a specialist market or an immediate understanding of a highly technical product, the learning curve may be too steep for someone without that background.

There are also situations where a business needs someone to step in quickly, navigate a complex market and make decisions from day one. In those cases, relevant sector experience can make a meaningful difference.

But I think it's worth separating the knowledge someone must have when they walk through the door from the knowledge they can reasonably build once they're in the role.

That distinction can change the entire recruitment process.

Before ruling out someone from another industry, I'd encourage hiring managers to consider three questions:

• What must this person understand immediately? Be clear about the market knowledge, technical expertise, customer relationships or regulatory understanding the role genuinely requires.
• What can they learn? Identify the parts of the industry that can be picked up through onboarding, exposure to customers, collaboration with colleagues and time in the role.
• What could they bring that we don't already have? Look at their commercial achievements, leadership experience, transferable capabilities and the perspective their different background might offer.

This isn't about lowering the bar or taking a risk for the sake of it.

It's about making sure the bar is set around what the business actually needs, rather than what feels familiar.

For candidates: you need to do more than tell people your experience is transferable

There's another side to this conversation, and it's one I think marketers and sales professionals should pay attention to.

If you're considering a move into a different industry, it's not enough to say your skills are transferable. You need to demonstrate how.

This is where the General Manager of Marketing I mentioned earlier had such a good perspective. Listening to what the market wants is a strong starting point, but understanding how your experience translates is what helps a hiring manager see the opportunity.

You need to understand the business you're applying to, the challenges it faces and what success in the role is likely to look like.

Then you need to connect the dots.

For example, if you've spent your career in FMCG and want to move into technology, think about the commercial outcomes you've delivered. Have you developed customer segmentation strategies? Led product launches? Built marketing plans around customer acquisition and retention? Worked closely with sales teams to improve revenue performance?

Those experiences may be highly relevant, but the hiring manager needs to understand why.

Rather than focusing solely on the industry you come from, explain what you've achieved, the problems you've solved and how you'd apply that experience in a new environment.

A few practical things I'd encourage you to do:

Understand the market before you apply. Research the business, its customers, competitors and commercial priorities. Show that you've taken the time to understand the environment you're moving into.

Lead with outcomes, not just responsibilities. It's one thing to say you've managed a marketing team or developed a sales strategy. It's much stronger to explain what changed as a result of your work.

Acknowledge the gaps honestly. If you haven't worked in the sector before, don't try to gloss over it. Show that you understand what you'll need to learn and explain how you've successfully navigated unfamiliar environments in the past.

Demonstrate commercial curiosity. Ask thoughtful questions. Show that you want to understand how the business makes money, what its customers value and where the opportunities lie.

Your goal is to make it easier for a hiring manager to picture you succeeding in their business, even if your CV doesn't follow the traditional path.

For hiring managers: challenge your brief before you start searching

For businesses, I think this conversation should happen before a recruitment campaign begins.

When I partner with a client on a marketing or sales appointment, I want to understand more than the position description. I want to know what the business is trying to achieve, what the team needs and what kind of person will genuinely thrive in that environment.

That means asking questions about the brief, including the requirements that might initially seem non-negotiable.

If industry experience is listed as essential, I'd want to understand why. Is it because the role requires specialist knowledge that can't be learned quickly? Is there a need for established industry relationships? Or is it simply because the business has always hired from within its sector?

The answer matters.

Sometimes, industry experience will remain a genuine requirement. Other times, we may discover that the business would benefit from a broader search.

I'd also encourage hiring managers to assess candidates against the challenges they'll be responsible for solving, rather than relying too heavily on how closely their previous roles resemble the new one.

That might mean looking more closely at commercial achievements, leadership capability, adaptability, curiosity and the ability to influence stakeholders.

It also means being realistic about the support a new hire will need. Someone moving across industries may need a more structured introduction to the market, time with customers or access to colleagues who can share their sector knowledge.

If you're willing to invest in that transition, you may open the door to talent you would otherwise have overlooked.

And that could be a very worthwhile investment.

Recruitment should be about the right fit, not just the obvious fit

At New Chapter Talent, I've always believed that good recruitment starts with understanding people and businesses properly.

With more than 20 years of experience recruiting within the marketing sector, including marketing and sales roles, I've worked with leading brands across Australia and New Zealand. One thing that continues to matter to me is looking beyond a job brief to understand the team, its culture, its values and what the business really needs from its next hire.

Skills and experience matter enormously. But so do personality, motivation, curiosity and the ability to bring something valuable to a team.

That's why I don't believe there should be one standard career path for every great marketing or sales leader.

Some people build deep expertise in a single industry and become exceptional at what they do. Others move between sectors, collecting different perspectives and learning how to apply their experience in new environments.

Both paths can produce outstanding professionals.

The challenge is being open enough to recognise the value in each.

It's also a conversation that sits at the heart of the wider marketing community we support through initiatives such as the CMO Chapters Podcast, Marketing Collective Club, Marketing Leadership Awards and Marketing Mentorship Program. Creating opportunities for leaders to share experiences, learn from one another and challenge their thinking helps all of us see what's possible beyond our immediate circles.

I think the same principle applies to recruitment. Sometimes, the person who can make the biggest difference to your business is someone whose background looks a little different from what you originally had in mind.

Are we giving the right people a chance?

I keep coming back to that conversation with the General Manager of Marketing.

Their career hadn't followed a single, predictable path. They'd worked across different industries, learned to listen to the market and built the ability to understand where their experience could add value.

That combination is worth paying attention to.

For candidates, it means being curious about opportunities beyond your current sector and learning how to articulate the value you can bring.

For hiring managers, it means being clear about what the role genuinely requires and being prepared to look beyond the familiar when the right person comes along.

And for those of us working in recruitment, it means challenging assumptions, asking better questions and helping businesses see talent they might otherwise miss.

I'm a big believer in hiring people who can make a difference, not simply people whose CVs look like everyone else's.

Sometimes, the fresh perspective your business needs is sitting just outside your usual talent pool.

If you're hiring for a marketing or sales role, or considering a move into a new industry yourself, I'd love to have a conversation.

Get in touch with me at New Chapter Talent and let's talk through what's possible.