So I keep hearing about companies hiring for specific experience and I still think it is shortsighted. The problem is that companies don’t seem to believe in hiring excellence and training for specific skills. My question: does this originate from the trend in employment to hire for specific skills and then discard the employee (contract mentality but cheaper)? Or is it that the company doesn’t really believe that the employees are good enough to transition (like mainframe programmers and the issues bringing them into PC-centric worlds)?

Sports teams in the draft always say they are picking ‘the best athlete available,’ even when they have to convert someone from, say, quarterback to defensive end. Now it isn’t always the truth, but at least they’ve realized there is value in quality over specific skills. Will large companies?