Offline & Online, Experience Is Experience

Previous experience with dot.com companies is less important than traditional workplace skills such as leadership and communication when hiring new talent, say a majority of executives in a new survey. Some 64% of 3,400 top managers from nearly 20 major industries said they consider work experience at an Internet company unimportant, according to the survey's sponsor, BrilliantPeople.com, the online recruiting and career site of Cleveland-based Management Recruiters International Inc. "This survey underscores the fact that despite the emergence of the new economy, and the Internet as a business channel, those qualities that employers of all industries are looking for in their workforce remains fundamentally unchanged," says Allen Salikof, president and chief executive officer at MRI.