In recent months, a series of disasters across Indonesia has once again reminded us how quickly circumstances can change.
For many people, these events may also bring a quieter form of uncertainty. When businesses, communities, and livelihoods are affected, it is natural for some to begin wondering what these changes could mean for their work, their income, or the stability of their careers.
For organizations, the uncertainty can be equally complex. Priorities may shift, operations may be disrupted, and needs that seemed predictable can suddenly become less certain.
Perhaps this is worth reflecting on through something we have experienced before.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic showed just how quickly the relationship between people, work, and opportunity could change.
At the time, many people found themselves facing layoffs, reduced working hours, or career uncertainty. Opportunities that had previously seemed stable could disappear almost overnight.
Yet, at the same time, another group of people was discovering new opportunities.
As businesses adapted to a dramatically different environment, certain capabilities suddenly became more relevant. Digital skills, remote collaboration, e-commerce, logistics, healthcare, and other areas gained new importance.
Some professionals found themselves entering opportunities that had barely existed or had not been considered particularly important before the pandemic, while new roles and even new employment opportunities emerged alongside them.
The contrast was striking.
Not necessarily because one group was more capable than the other, but because the circumstances had changed. And that distinction is important when we think about talent.
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Talent Value Is Contextual
A candidate’s experience does not exist in isolation. The same experience can carry very different meaning depending on the circumstances surrounding the business.
Someone who has spent years navigating supply disruption, rapid operational changes, digital transformation, or highly uncertain markets may have developed capabilities that were not immediately obvious from their title alone.
But that does not mean every experience gained during a difficult period is automatically valuable.
The more important question is what the person actually learned to do because of it.
Did they make decisions with incomplete information?
Did they find new ways to operate when established methods were no longer practical?
Did they work across functions when traditional boundaries became less useful?
Did they adapt without losing sight of what mattered?
These details can reveal a different dimension of experience.
This is also why two candidates with seemingly similar backgrounds can carry very different value for the same organization. Their résumés may describe comparable responsibilities, but the circumstances in which they performed those responsibilities may have shaped very different capabilities.
Experience tells us what someone has encountered. Context helps us understand what that experience may have developed.
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What Crisis Reveals About Talent
Periods of disruption can therefore change more than demand. They can reveal capabilities that are difficult to see under normal conditions.
When established processes work as expected, many professionals can perform within them. But when assumptions change, people may have to decide without complete information, operate with fewer resources, redefine priorities, or find solutions that were not part of the original plan.
Those moments can provide a different kind of evidence.
Not necessarily about who is more resilient or who is better than someone else, but about how a person responds when the conditions that supported their previous way of working are no longer available.
This distinction matters.
Resilience is often discussed as a personal characteristic, but many of the capabilities associated with navigating disruption are also shaped by experience.
Someone may have learned to make decisions under uncertainty because their previous role required it. Another may have learned to build structure where none existed. Someone else may have developed the ability to move quickly because circumstances repeatedly demanded it.
None of these qualities is universally superior or inferior.
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The Hiring Question Changes Too
This is where changing circumstances create an interesting challenge for hiring.
Organizations naturally hire for the needs they can see today. Job descriptions, competency requirements, and selection criteria are built around current priorities.
But the business environment does not remain still.
The capabilities that matter most next year may not be exactly the ones that matter most today. And experience that seems only moderately relevant in one context may become highly meaningful in another.
This does not mean companies should attempt to predict every possible disruption.
It means that talent assessment can benefit from looking beyond the surface of experience.
Instead of asking only:
“Has this person done this job before?”
A deeper question may be:
“What has this person’s experience taught them to do when circumstances change?”
The difference is subtle, but important.
The first question looks for familiarity. The second looks for capability that may travel across circumstances.
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The Market Does Not Stand Still
The circumstances surrounding a business will continue to change.
Natural disasters, economic shifts, technological disruption, changes in customer behavior, and other unexpected events can alter what organizations need and, consequently, what becomes valuable in the talent market.
That does not mean every hiring decision needs to be built around uncertainty.
It simply means that the value of talent cannot always be separated from the context in which that talent will be used.
The strongest experience is not necessarily the most impressive experience in absolute terms. Sometimes, it is the experience that makes sense for the conditions the organization is facing.
Because talent has never existed outside its circumstances.
Change the circumstances, and sometimes, you change what becomes valuable.