Who Is an Expert? And When Do Years Become Experience?

Have you ever asked yourself: Do I really have 20 years of experience… or do I have one year of experience repeated 20 times? 😏

It sounds like a simple question, but it might make quite a few people uncomfortable! There are people who, simply because they have spent a long time in a particular job or organization, start calling themselves “experts.” Unfortunately, in many government institutions, career progression has traditionally been strongly linked to seniority. As a result, it has become common in workplace conversations to hear someone use their years of service as proof that their opinion must be right: “My opinion is right because I have the seniority!” As if the number of years on the clock were a qualification in itself!

But let’s ask the harder question: Does staying in the same position for many years, performing the same role and the same tasks in the same way, automatically make me an expert? And if an organization has been providing the same services, using the same methods and repeating the same procedures for many years, does that automatically make it an expert organization?

I disagree with this traditional view of expertise. Expertise is not measured by the number of years you have spent somewhere. It is measured by what those years have done to you—and what you have done with those years.

Someone can spend 20 years in an organization, continuously developing, learning something new every year, gaining different experiences, taking on greater responsibilities, improving the way things are done, and creating a visible impact. Someone else can spend the same 20 years doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way—and the only thing that has changed is the number of years on their CV!

That is the difference between seniority and experience.

In my view, an expert is someone who is committed to continuously developing their knowledge, skills, and capabilities—and, as a result, their ability to create positive impact wherever they work. An expert is someone whose contribution can be clearly seen in everything they do, no matter how small the task may be. They are the person you turn to when you face a difficult issue because you trust that their answer is based on knowledge, experience, understanding, and sound judgment—not simply on something they have been repeating for years.

But the person who does the same thing every day, in the same way, without learning, improving, or even asking themselves “Why?”… I’m sorry, but that person is not an expert. They simply know their role because they have repeated it thousands of times.

And here comes the real surprise. Ask them: “Why do you do it this way?” They may not know. Ask them: “How does it actually work?” They may be able to describe the steps they follow, but not explain the reasoning behind them or how the process could be improved.

And that is a very important distinction: there is a difference between someone who knows how to perform a task and someone who understands why it is done, how it works, and how it can be improved.

But wait… there is another very important test of expertise.

Go to the self-proclaimed expert and say: “Could you teach someone else what you know?”

You might suddenly notice their expression change! 😂

Why? Because they see their knowledge as their source of power and their safe zone. They are afraid that if someone else learns what they know, they will lose the advantage they have built over the years.

And here is what I would say to them: If your expertise only grows when you keep it hidden from everyone else, then it is not expertise… it is an isolated island!

A true expert is not afraid of others learning. Quite the opposite. They understand that sharing knowledge does not diminish their value—it multiplies their impact. And a true leader is not someone who makes the team dependent on them for every small decision. A true leader builds a team that can perform, grow, and succeed even in their absence.

And this brings us to an even more important point: real expertise is not measured only by what you know, but by what you can add, share, develop, and pass on to others.

Want to become an expert? Learn and grow. Try something new. Be committed to both learning and teaching. Step outside your comfort zone. Challenge your own capabilities. Give yourself permission to experiment, make mistakes, learn from them, and start again.

Because staying closed off for many years does not automatically create expertise. And remaining permanently in your comfort zone will not teach you anything new or help you grow.

You can spend 20 years in an organization and still have only one year of experience repeated 20 times!

That is one of the biggest professional traps we can fall into: confusing length of service with depth of experience, repetition with growth, and seniority with added value.

And the more concerning part is that organizations themselves can fall into the same trap. They may take pride in having existed for many years without asking themselves: Have our services evolved? Have our tools changed? Have we learned from our experiences? Have we become more efficient, innovative, and impactful?

Because an organization does not become an expert simply because it is old.

An experienced organization is one that learns from its history, improves its processes, adapts to change, transfers knowledge, creates new solutions, and learns from its mistakes instead of repeating them every year and calling that “experience”!

So, do not remain stuck in one place, relying only on what you learned on your first day at work, repeating the same thing in the same way every day, and then expecting others to call you an “expert.”

In a changing world, standing still means moving backward.

The world changes. Tools change. Technology changes. People’s needs change. Organizations change. And therefore, someone who refuses to learn, adapt, and develop themselves may eventually become someone with a long history of practicing an outdated way of doing things—regardless of how many years they have been doing it.

Real expertise is not simply about knowing how to do something old extremely well. Real expertise is knowing when to improve what already exists, when to create something new, and when to confidently say: “I don’t know… but I’ll learn.”

So before you say, “I have 15 or 20 years of experience,” ask yourself a simpler—but much harder—question:

Over those 15 or 20 years… what has changed in you, and what has changed because of you?

Have you become more knowledgeable? More capable? More influential? Have you developed yourself? Have you developed others? Have you left a meaningful impact on the organization? And if you were to leave tomorrow, would your knowledge and expertise remain behind—in the people, systems, processes, and capabilities you helped build?

If the answer is yes, then you probably do not simply have many years behind you.

You have real experience.

But if all you have is the number of years…

That is seniority… not expertise.

To be continued…

Written by Dr. Hamada Alantably