Job experience correlates of job performance.
Abstract
Although measures of job experience are frequently-used screening devices in the selection of em-ployees, personnel psychologists have devoted little attention to their usefulness. This article quanti-tatively summarizes data on the relation between job experience and job performance from a total sample of 16,058. The correlation between job experience and job performance was found to be moderated by two variables: length of experience and job complexity. The highest correlations were obtained in populations with low mean levels of job experience and for jobs that place low levels of cognitive demands on employees. Results appear to be consistent with the causal model of job performance proposed by Schmidt, Hunter, and Outerbridge (1986). Personnel psychologists have devoted substantial resources to the study of the relation between measures of mental ability and job performance. Large amounts of validity data have been accumulated in the research literature. Quantitative reviews of this literature (Callender & Osburn, 1981; Hirsh, Northrop, &
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The length of experience has frequently been found to be a weak correlate of job performance beyond the first two years.
“For reasons such as these, the length of expe- rience has been frequently found to be a weak correlate of job performance beyond the first two years (McDaniel, Schmidt, & Hunter, 1988).”
From The Influence of Experience and Deliberate Practice on the Development of Superior Expert Performance (2006) · cites this paper as McDaniel, Schmidt, & Hunter, 1988
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.124.2.262 · Cited by 4,180 · see citing works
Self-citationEricsson, K. A. (2006) · The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511816796.038 · Cited by 1,629 · see citing works
Factors affecting trust in market research relationships
Moorman, C., Deshpandé, R., & Zaltman, G. (1993) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1177/002224299305700106 · Cited by 3,659 · see citing works
Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/s0160-2896(97)90014-3 · Cited by 1,408 · see citing works
General Mental Ability in the World of Work: Occupational Attainment and Job Performance.
Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.162 · Cited by 1,238 · see citing works
Self-citationEmpowering Leadership and Effective Collaboration in Geographically Dispersed Teams
Hill, N. S., & Bartol, K. M. (2016) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/peps.12108 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
Owens, E., Weisburd, D., Amendola, K. L., & Alpert, G. P. (2018) · Criminology & Public Policy · doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12337 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
- Authors
- McDaniel, M. A., Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Iowa (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 1988-05
- Volume
- 73
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 327-330
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- OpenAlex
- W2089242732
- Cited by
- 368
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 9.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Employer Branding and e-HRM
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Human Resource Development and Performance Evaluation
- Keywords
- work experience, employee performance, length of experience, job complexity, cognitive demand, personnel selection
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
