Experience Matrix
THOUGHT
In a world that needs everything to get easier, and in a world that wants things to take less time, it is getting harder to determine someone’s competence for the task to be done. Determining someone’s competence is not easy and is not quick.
It’s particularly difficult for knowledge workers to ‘prove’ expertise in a concise and simple manner.
We might agree it’s more obvious for a chef, or a cabinet maker, or a tennis player. Those who are experts in activities with a tangible or immediate outcome can be evaluated based on that immediate and tangible product.
But knowledge workers, such as those in STEM careers (science, technology, engineering and math), do the messy task of taking information and transforming it to be more valuable before they pass it on to the next in the process.
This information-passing is demonstrated in emails, meetings, reports and designs. As well as amorphous evidence, quite often a person does not work solely on a task; the outcome or product might in fact be a new bridge, or a rail corridor, or a safely operating process plant or manufacturing business.
EVIDENCE
Anyone in a STEM career for about ten years will have already faced some tests in their career. The type of tests I mean are:
1. Job interviews
2. Annual performance review
3. Credential exam
4. Career decision.
My exposure to the credential exam recently, made me realise that I’m not very good at describing my abilities to someone who doesn’t know me very well, but who may well be judging my abilities for a very specific reason.
RECOGNITION
A consistent approach to this might help demonstrate ability and competence.
Competency has aspects of knowledge, skills, and experience.
If we agree those are a basis for competency then we can assess them in those categories, by focussing on things we “build, make and show”.
Knowledge is assessed by:
· review of what has been built up from training or education, usually of the formal type but can also be on-the-job type training;
· what has been made. These are our outputs, designs, documents; and
· showing the end result. This might be scores on an exam, completion certificates, or approved design drawings.
Skills are assessed by:
· Review of the built up skills from repetitive demonstration;
· What interactions have been made with others; and
· Showing of feedback through demonstration through reduction of mistakes, or consistent production of high quality output, or improved or changed co-workers responses.
Experience would be assessed through:
· A build-up of exposure to situations, preferable more and more complex ones;
· Review of the stories that were made from those situations; and
· A show of the reviews from others, being co-workers or clients or colleagues.
Putting this into a model, we have a matrix:
TAKE AWAY
When faced with a test, consider using the ‘evidence matrix’ to sort through your abilities, knowledge, and points of excellence.
Listing out the applicable aspects for each point in the grid will provide concrete, tangible evidence of your contributions. When you ask yourself directly for each of these items, you can’t help but be specific and particular.
