I finally got around to watching Tim Ferriss’ Trial by Fire show on the DVR.  Pretty cool.  Tim took five days out of his life to learn an ancient Japanese art that normally takes years to accomplish.  At the end of his five days, he had his ‘trial by fire’ – he either passed or failed.  In this case, he passed a test that could take you or I a year to do.

So I guess you could say Tim has a year’s worth of experience in the art of yabusame, right?

Today I had a short phone interview with a recruiter who is looking for a person to fill a senior SEO position at a major travel company.  The first few questions were normal, what’s your salary requirements, will you relocate, etc.  Then she asked about my experience.  I’ve only been doing SEO for about three and a half years, so that’s what I told her.

As soon as I said that, she might as well just hung up.

She asked nothing about the websites I run, the rankings I’ve achieved, or the happy customers I’ve created.  Once I gave her a number, she pretty much decided I wasn’t who she wanted.

In her book, Tim Ferriss would have 5 days experience at yabusame, and I have 3.5 years worth of SEO.  It’s not what you can do, how much you can learn, or what you can achieve, for her it comes down to time.  IMO, that’s a mistake.