No Experience Required
by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com
Experience, according to the Collins English Dictionary, is knowledge or skill in a particular job or activity which is gained by doing that job or activity for a long time. They do not define a “long time,” but it’s while doing the job.
Before you interview and hire someone, is experience one of the qualifications? Most often, the answer is yes, but you see many jobs advertise “no experience necessary.” These are typically entry-level, unskilled labor positions and usually not well paid. If you hire a tradesperson to work on your home, one of the first qualities you looking for is whether they have experience doing that specific task. Whether you’re hiring a roofer or a plumber, or you going to a doctor, you want to know if they have the right experience and how long they’ve been doing that type of work.
When I was first building a company, among the things I wanted to know was if the person was qualified? If not, did I believe they could grow into the job? I’ve said many times that in this industry, you must build people. It takes years for someone to gain the experience, knowledge and ability to do the job that they’re required to do.
I have hired people who didn’t have the experience starting out, but grew into the job by facing situations and making decisions. I realized long ago that you can’t ask for anything more than someone’s best effort, and most of the time, if you’re getting that, you’re getting a great employee and they’re getting that much-needed experience.
In some cases, a position might call for someone who’s “semi-skilled.” For example, you might find a candidate with a degree in economics but no specific industry experience. In that case, the person can apply the knowledge gained in college to the tasks and gain job-specific experience along the way.
The idea of the value of “experience” came to mind as I reflected on New York City’s election of its youngest mayor since 1892. (No, this is not a column on politics.) In any job, you can be inexperienced and successful, especially if you surround yourself with great people – experts who themselves bring significant experience. But, in a leadership position with great responsibility, inexperience is typically not a good thing. The voters have given him the job, so we’ll see how it turns out. This Brooklyn native certainly wishes NYC the best.
Before I go, I thought I’d share a fun story about experience I found online (author unknown), called The Ship Repair Man:
A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an older man who had been fixing ships since he was young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the older man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the older man for ten thousand dollars.
“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”
So, they wrote the older man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer: $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap: $ 9,998.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference. Experience matters!
As we close out 2025, I want to say how thankful I am that we’re all still here doing our thing in this crazy industry. Thank you to all my friends who read what I write here every month. And with that, my wife Joanne and I send our very best wishes to you and your family for Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year! (And yes, that’s me with Santa a “few” Christmases ago.)
Jack Guarnieri started servicing electro-mechanical pinball machines in 1975 and has been involved in every phase of the amusement game business since then. He was an operator in NYC, then began a distributorship in 1999, PinballSales.com, selling coin-op to the consumer market. In January of 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball (named after his RePlay Magazine pen name), which builds award-winning, full-featured, coin-op pinball machines. Email Jack at [email protected].