Feeling confident about job prospects because of your extensive work experience? According to researchers at Ohio State University, previous work experience may be a downside if you don’t also possess the adaptability needed to fit into a new workplace. If you are well into your career or have spent years with one organization, it would be advisable to consider addressing these new findings.

“Organizations pay a premium for workers with job experience that will allow them to just step in and start contributing immediately,” said Steffanie Wilk, co-author of the study from Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. “But what employers don’t realize is that some of what their employees learned in previous jobs will end up being a negative.”

“Employees need to realize that not everything they learned in previous jobs is going to help them in a new job,” Wilk said. “They need to be sensitive to the context of their new organization and be willing and able to adapt to their new surroundings, even if that means unlearning techniques or ways of doing things they have developed in prior jobs.”

“Managers tend to assume that employees with previous experience don’t need as much guidance and hand-holding as inexperienced workers,” Wilk says. “But experienced workers may actually need more help, because they have to shake off the ineffective habits from old jobs and learn how to best serve their new employer.”

The research also indicates that individual differences in workers’ personality traits–particularly adaptability–may be key in determining how successful they will be in a new job.

Another factor in how well employees do at their new jobs has to do with cultural fit: does their new company have a culture consistent with what workers knew from previous jobs?  If so, they will probably have a more positive experience, according to Wilk.

Wilk conducted the study with Gina Dokko of the Stern School of Business at New York University and Nancy Rothbard from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Published in:
“Unpacking Prior Experience: How Career History Affects Job Performance”
Gina Dokko, Steffanie L. Wilk, Nancy P. Rothbard
Organization Science Vol. 20, No. 1, January-February 2009, pp. 51-68

Press release available at Ohio State University.