"Extensive Experience"

You want 5 years experience with Cursor, when this March, 2026, Cursor will be 3 years old??!?

I wish you the best of luck looking for your unicorn candidate that can't exist according to the laws of time...

It's that time of the cycle again...

That time when hiring managers and recruiters are looking for "extensive multi-year experience" in technologies that are barely 1-3 years old...

The technology is moving and evolving so quickly that schools, let alone engineers can't keep up.

Executives are so far removed from their industry that all they are looking at is Excel spreadsheets with profiles that have the right numbers. They are completely ignoring details that are critical for the success of their business.

Meanwhile, the stock market is the most irrational with its "fire first, ask questions later" mentality, causing more chaos and instability.

Here's the reality: If you don't know how to describe what you want, how do I know you will be able to define "Done" for me in a real project?

Do you even know what you are trying to build?

Do you know why you need such talent? and are you willing to pay for that?

In this day and age of AI, you have options, and I'm going to break down what you'll likely find:

• Top-tier talent who went to college for this in 2010-2012 and graduated maybe 4 years ago and have some practical experience under their belt.
• Top-mid-tier talent who picked up on this before it was popular and have experience with it in some real environments.
• Mid-tier talent who picked up on this when it was popular probably 2-3 years ago.
• Mid-low-tier talent who waited and maybe picked up on it in the last year.
• Low-tier talent who are still waiting or haven't learned anything with regards to AI.

Caveat: The "tier" I described above is strictly with AI literacy. They may be highly proficient with other technologies, strategies and topics, but those are unrelated here since we're measuring a very specific something here.

The top-tier talent who went to college and have practical hands-on experience are likely working for Anthropic, OpenAI or Google or even Meta and are being paid handsomely for their efforts. Poaching them will be a challenge in order to get their talents. You will need to offer not just a high salary and (if it interests them) a good corporate environment, but a strong sense of direction, moral, idealogical and other factors must be in alignment.

People who have money are often not as easily swayed by money.

The top-mid-tier talent who may not have gone to college but took an interest in this is probably in or near the same boat as the top-tier talent. They are not cheap and they know their worth (at least, I hope they do). They will be closest to the development of software products and hands-on development of AI tools.

The mid-tier folks are those who picked up on the technology around the time it was getting popular. To most employers: This is more than likely the talent you are going to get! Asking for talent who have more than 3 years of experience with AI is just insane. Even then, don't expect them to be industry experts because most still can't explain the number matrix that makes LLM's what they are under the hood. What they can do is make API calls to get data out of an LLM and generate content.

The mid-low and low tier "AI engineers" who waited to pickup AI or are just now picking up on all these skills are likely going to continue to always be around and even then, non-technical folk are picking up AI every day and trying it out in software, projects and tinkering here and there.

For the industry to suddenly expect top and top-mid tier talent instantly like this, especially with technology that is still, for all intent and purposes, an INFANT at just barely 3 years old is an incredible stretch. Honestly, its unrealistic and it shows incompetence in the market and to me is a huge red flag.

If you can't describe clearly what it is you want in the job description, then what proof do I have based on the JD that you will describe "Done" correctly once I get into the role and start asking the real questions?

Let's flip the table around on this.

If you are an engineer...

I want you to create your profile and put your profile together. I'm not saying stop applying to jobs, just make them second-order to what comes next.

Your profile should clearly describe who you are, what you do and what value you provide. This is the same if you are a seasoned engineer with years or decades of experience or a newb who's just getting started.

Get a landing page put together to shwocase yourself and each time you accomplish something, you can add to that portfolio.

If you are a recruiter...

Stop keyword matching and start profile matching. If people are so easily going to game the system of keyword matching by making sure they have mentioned "ansible" or "AI" enough times on their resume, then the game changes from a database lookup to what an interview should actually be:

Can you get the job done?

This means asking questions about the role, not just what keywords need to be in place.

What is the job trying to accomplish?

What's the goal?

What's the reason behind the hire?

Any story you can provide to give additional context helps the associate know if they should proceed or not.

If you are an employer seeking talent...

Stop thinking you are going to find "the perfect fit" for each and every single role and start thinking about even if you do get someone in the door, how are you going to get them productive in the first few days?

What all does this associate need to be successful?

What tasks can you clearly lay out such that they can be effective from day-1?

How can you provide education for the associate when they do join so they can ramp up quicker?

Not everyone is going to come with the perfect skillset. Some really great talent that just happens to not be skilled in your proprietary product is being passed up because you are looking for a unicorn but also only wanting to pay in corn for this.

The Takeaway

What I want you to gather from this is not a berating of the industry for not doing its job (albeit, I am frustrated and part of this is that), but the strategies in which we can resolve this problem.

At Kizano's FinTech I aim to resolve this. By teaching folks in one hand and getting them up to speed on things myself; I can and would be able to vouch for someone's education and what they know.

In the other hand, by knowing what it is employers are seeking and asking the questions I do in interviews and explorations of project requirements, I can better put together lesson plans that help folks get to where they need to bridge the gap.

I'm just now starting this out and working on the website that will tie it all together. However, this is the premise of what I am building because this is all so broken and I am frustrated and have decided this is what I want to do with my time.

Let's connect if we haven't already because there may be a day I call upon you for your expertise in putting all this together.

Welcome to Kizano's FinTech, where I take you from zero to master in IT and Engineering!