// RECORDED: 2025-12-16

Why years of experience mean not that much

I was looking back at my experience recently, and remembered one story that is a little bit funny. I had never worked with CNC before, but I took an opportunity to work with laser cutting machines.

The Illusion of Expertise

I was trained for a few days by a guy with more than five years of CNC experience. He felt the hardware; he knew when to slow the cutting speed or when to clean the lens. But when I asked about the software, his answer was always "I don't know" or "It does nothing." I did not believe him. If the functionality exists, there is a reason for it.

The owner thought his startup was operating at peak productivity and that the only scaling problem was hardware. So, he focused only on buying new machines and hiring more people.

Finding the Flaw

After I understood the machine service, I used my free time to learn the software. I observed the machine's work and found massive inefficiency in the laser head movement. Sometimes the laser head would travel across the entire sheet to cut pieces from opposite sides.

I began investigating how to minimize this wasted movement. The freeware software was unpolished, so its route optimization was poor. Despite the simple overall logic, operations needed a strict order: inner pieces or engraving had to be done before the main detail was cut. This created tricky moments.

The Results of Critical Thinking

Despite all these complexities, I found a way to optimize the routes. On some products, I achieved a 75% speed increase (11 minutes versus the previous 45 minutes of work). Simpler products saw around 15% improvement.

Using my approach, I hit my production norms within the third shift. Meanwhile, the other new hire, who started with me, did not meet the lower production limit even after two weeks. The older, "experienced" operators were skeptical too. They already had their paychecks and did not want to learn something that was not forced by management.

When next time you write “at least 1 year of relevant experience” in your job description, think about this: Is this relevant experience really worth that much, or are you just missing an opportunity to find a good person who will actually solve the problems you’re facing right now?