Replacing someone? Does industry experience really matter?

When somebody resigns, particularly someone who has been with the business for a long time, there is an understandable urge to get moving. There is work that still needs to be done, knowledge you don't want to lose and probably a team wondering what happens next.

But I wouldn't start looking for their replacement just yet.

Before you turn what you valued about that person into the brief for the next one, it is worth looking at how much the role, and the business around it, has changed.

Does industry experience still matter?

One of the things I hear regularly at the beginning of a search is that the new person must come from the same industry.

Sometimes there is a very good reason for that. Certain roles need specific technical knowledge, an understanding of regulation or credibility with a particular customer base. But I've also had plenty of conversations where we've explored why industry experience is essential and discovered that it isn't quite as important as it first appeared.

Recently, I asked my LinkedIn network, which includes founders and hiring managers, when industry experience matters most. 10% said always, 5% said for senior hires and 15% for technical roles. The remaining 70% said it matters less than people think.

That doesn't mean industry experience isn't valuable. It means it is worth understanding why you're asking for it before it becomes something that rules otherwise brilliant people out.

There is usually a backstory

I see this quite a lot in established founder-led tech and SaaS businesses. When somebody new joins, there can be a lot of context around why things work as they do.

A responsibility sits with a particular role because, several years ago, that person was the best person to take it on. A process exists because it solved a problem at the time. Someone was originally recruited from a particular industry because that knowledge was important when the business was at a different stage.

There is usually a backstory

I see this quite a lot in established founder-led tech and SaaS businesses. When somebody new joins, there can be a lot of context around why things work as they do.

A responsibility sits with a particular role because, several years ago, that person was the best person to take it on. A process exists because it solved a problem at the time. Someone was originally recruited from a particular industry because that knowledge was important when the business was at a different stage.

Don’t use the person who left as the blueprint for your next hire

Someone who has been in your business for several years will have shaped their role. They will have developed knowledge, taken on responsibilities and built relationships that are particular to them.

When they leave, it’s very easy for all of that to find its way into the next job description.

But you aren’t recruiting for the business they originally joined.

The team may be different. Your customers may be different. The role may need more or less seniority. And looking outside your immediate industry doesn't necessarily mean starting from scratch.

Someone from an adjacent industry may understand many of the same customers, commercial pressures or technical challenges, but have seen them approached differently. They can bring knowledge of what has worked elsewhere and, perhaps just as importantly, be more likely to question something that an industry insider might simply accept as the way it is done.

That doesn't automatically make them a better hire. But ruling them out because they haven't followed exactly the same path as the person who left could mean missing experience that would be genuinely useful to the business now.

Equally, you may look at all of this and decide that industry experience really is essential and that much of the role should stay exactly as it is.

The point isn't to change it for the sake of changing it. It's to know which requirements still matter and why.

A resignation leaves you with a gap to fill, but it also gives you an opportunity to question whether you're looking for what the business needs next, or another version of what it already had.

If someone has resigned and you're not completely sure what you should be looking for next, that's a conversation I'm always happy to have.

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