An HR Dilemma: Judgment vs. Experience

Hiring quality employees requires great skill but there is also something of an art possessed by those who do the job well. Many factors go into retaining a new employee who will add value. As a result, recruiters examine many factors; aside from some of the obvious qualities such as their professional background, such as potential leadership in addition to the ability to fit the position & within the existing company culture. They also have to assess intangibles like judgment relative to experience. There is a reason why considering the balance between these two attributes is both a skill & an art. Think of judgment and experience as bookends reflecting professional [& personal] characteristics. The problem, of course, as aptly expressed by Will Rogers is, "good judgment comes from experience while experience comes from bad judgment." In my view, when assessing two roughly equivalent candidates, the one with good judgment has the edge.  Anyone can build experience but good judgment is much harder to come by, Why? It reflects the ability to have a thorough understanding of what went wrong before as well as insight into what changes need to be made going forward.