The thought of having little to no experience in this competitive world can be a bit daunting. Whether you are a fresher with almost no experience, or someone who has just started late, when you hear stories about how experience has helped people move upward in the career ladder, it can feel like you are falling behind. There’s always a way up. Read on.
There are other things you can do to compensate for your lack of experience. So, keep the following pointers in mind as you go about constructing your CV and preparing for interviews.
Network:
One obvious thing is networking. Keep in touch with your professors and peers, and make your job-hunting status clear.
But make sure you don’t lean excessively on peers for advice: after all, they are your peers, and some of them might be in a similar situation.
Instead, talk to the older people. They might have some tips for you. You can interact with them and let them know what your vision is like. Remember, if you feel there seems to be a generation gap in how they look at it, you can still listen and give things a thought.
One major bonus of networking with older, experienced people is that you never know, they might even give your reference to someone important!
Remember, merit is one of the things that can help you land a job. Networking and a good solid reference is another.
The Case About Learning and Development:
You may not have experience, but you can always keep learning new skills.
See what technological tool’s knowledge can help you boost your potential, and get on to learning more about it.
Depending on your field, it is always a good idea to attend relevant seminars, webinars, workshops. You might also get an extra certificate to boast about!
List those “skills” (or at least that you are learning) and you will make a strong case that you are willing to learn and constantly increase your skill-set.
When the Unpaid Experience will finally pay:
If you think you don’t have that much experience, think again! Listing out unpaid experience is not a bad idea at all.
You can always talk about the relevant experience you may have in volunteering at community level, event management, logistical experience at college level, any major research you may have undertaken for your thesis, etc.
Say, you are interested in Marketing, but you don’t have experience. That doesn’t mean you can’t mention the fact that you were on the marketing team during one of your college fests, and how you handled it.
Research and Ace The Interview:
You can use the interview or the interaction to leverage some gains.
For the interview and other interactions to be the thing that boosts your confidence, you need to have that kind of knowledge, you need to have things to say, you need to be able to hold a conversation about the field/industry. And for that to happen, you need to research.
Research on what is going on in the industry. Research what is going on in the company if possible. Research on what is going on in any related disciplines. Find the relevant journals, books, magazines, blogs, websites, podcasts, videos about your field and keep yourself updated.
When you know stuff, you will have stuff to talk about, and that in turn, would fuel your confidence. Just because you haven’t had the practical experience yet, it doesn’t mean you can’t strengthen your knowledge in theory.
Getting a call for an interview is in itself a positive sign: you sent your CV and now the prospective employers are willing to give you a chance! On the other hand, if you haven’t received the call yet, fret not, and keep your search and research on!