How to Get a Job with No Experience: 10 Tips
You may have recently just graduated and just entered the job market looking for your first job or maybe you are looking to make a career change and are ready to try something totally new. Either way, as is articulated in discussions on the same over at runrex.com, one of the challenges you will probably face is trying to get a job without experience. It’s one of those things that people find frustrating as most job openings want candidates with work experience, but how will you get the experience without getting hired in the first place? Thankfully, as covered over at guttulus.com, there are several things you can do to compensate for your lack of experience and finally land that job, and this article will look to help you through the following 10 tips.
Highlight your transferable experience
This is an excellent tip if you are changing careers as you can use the work experience you have to show your potential to succeed in the new role as discussed over at runrex.com. Here, you should look to frame that work experience in a way that is relevant to your new career path. Look for the transferable skills that you have developed in your previous career or experiences and emphasize them on your resume. This is easier if your current job is closely related to the career you want, like say if you are switching from a career as a bartender to one as a barista, however, as outlined over at guttulus.com, even if this is not the case, there will still likely be a few skills or job duties that overlap which you can highlight.
Emphasize your soft skills
As is covered over at runrex.com, not only are soft skills really important when hunting for a job, they are also transferrable across industries. This means that emphasizing your soft skills is another tip in helping you get a job with no experience. Soft skills, which are essential in doing any job well, include communication skills, problem-solving skills, organization skills, attention to detail, leadership skills, creativity, interpersonal skills, time management, flexibility or adaptability, and teamwork. Here, you should think about ways you might have cultivated or demonstrated some of these soft skills from volunteer work to extracurricular activities, and use that experience on your resume to demonstrate soft skills.
Build relationships with those who do what you want to do
Networking is an extremely powerful tool when it comes to job-hunting according to the gurus over at guttulus.com, and it can help you get a job with no experience. Reach out to professionals through email or social media, particularly LinkedIn, and invite them out for coffee or ask if they would be willing to talk to you over the phone. Ask them questions about the work they do and what advice they would give to someone just starting in their field, in what is known as informational interviews. These interviews are a great way to build connections that could translate to professional recommendations down the line.
Work your way up from the bottom
You might have to take a lower-paid or unpaid opportunity to work your way up to the career you want. As explained over at runrex.com, this means finding an entry-level position or even an internship and then build your experience from there. While the pay may not be what you feel you deserve, it will give you some crucial work experience that you can add to your resume, increasing your chances of landing that job you are eyeing.
Show why you are determined to work in that field
If you can’t demonstrate experience on the job, potential employers will want to look for proof that you are actually interested in this specific career and are not just looking for any position to pay the bills. This means that even if an attractive salary is one of your key motivators, you should be in a position to clearly explain why that particular career appeals to you. This is because your potential to learn the skills and meet the demands of the position you are eyeing is heavily dependent on how motivated you are to do well. Try and talk about a personal connection you have to the work or a moment that inspired you to pursue this career as discussed over at guttulus.com.
Show your determination through side projects
This is an excellent tip for those pursuing creative careers as there you can prove that you are capable of the work by coming up with side projects on your own. If you want to be a writer, for example, you can set up a free website and start posting your writing to it. If you want to work in marketing, develop a strategy to promote yourself through social media and digital marketing. Likewise, if you want to work in carpentry, you can start crafting some pieces in your garage. As per the gurus over at runrex.com, not only will coming up with your own projects demonstrate that you have the skills required to do the work you want to pursue, but it will also show great initiative on your part, showing employers how passionate you are about this work.
Make your own path to the career you want
As pointed out by the experts over at guttulus.com, not every career path is a straight line. Therefore, if you can get a job at a company you want to work for doing the work you currently do, then you should do it. Then, once you are working for the company, you can start planning ways to pivot and transition into the new career you want to pursue.
Level up by going back to school
This is an option you should consider if the career you want is completely unrelated to what you are currently doing, in which case you should consider going back to school for it. As discussed over at runrex.com, while strong credentials aren’t a substitute for work experience, they still signal to employers that you have demonstrated interest and potential. In such a situation, they will be more likely to take a risk and go for an entry-level candidate if you can demonstrate a strong educational background.
Ask for feedback
If you are in a position where you are getting interviews but aren’t getting hired, then the experts over at guttulus.com recommend that you reach out to the employers or hiring managers who interviewed you for feedback. Here, you can send a friendly email asking for their honest feedback regarding your application which will allow you to learn about what tweaks you can make to your resume as well as what you can do to improve your overall performance in the interview. However, make sure that you only ask for feedback if you have made it to the interview stage.
Consider relocating
You might find that there isn’t enough demand in your area but there might be in other areas, depending on your industry as discussed over at runrex.com. Therefore, widening your search area to include other locations can expand the number of jobs you can apply for and increase your chance of getting one.
Hopefully, these tips will help you find a job even if you don’t have the experience, with the subject matter experts over at runrex.com and guttulus.com always available to help you in all your job-hunting needs.