No Experience, No Job?
How To Gain Experience To Prove You Can Handle The Job
A reader asks how s/he can get experience when no one will give her/him a chance.
Note - all letters are reprinted as received (typos and grammatical) but names and other identifying details are deleted.
Q. I am ready, willing and able to work. I have my Resume and will be graduating this June. But every interview I get they tell me without experience they cannot hire me. But if they don't hire me, how will I ever get experience? All I am asking for is a chance to prove myself. How can anyone work at anything other than flipping burgers or the night shift at a retail store if no one will give them a chance?
- Graduating Student
A. You don't mention what type of work you are looking for, but that does not really matter. Are the interviews related to your diploma? How did you get the interview - it sounds like you do know what you are doing, but usually if you get an interview they know you do not have experience. Do their ads state the need for experience? If so, then they are giving you an opportunity to try out your interview skills, or perhaps there was something in your Resume or Cover Letter that cried out "Interview me!". That's good, but it is very surprising you still think you could get a job without experience IF the ad mentioned experience required. Or are you approaching Human Resources Departments and getting general interviews?
And yes, it sounds like a vicious circle - no one will hire you without experience, but how can you get experience if you are not hired? Yes, there is a way. Especially since you are still in school - approach your coordinator or advisor and ask for a co-op opportunity - even if it means your graduation may be delayed. This gives you some experience usually related to what you intend to work at when you graduate.
And you have heard this one before - volunteer! Even if it is not in your area, by volunteering you are showing potential employers that you can handle a work environment and care about the world around you.
If you have part time employment, be it during the school year or during the summer months, make sure you point out the skills you have learned and used from this employment - such as customer service skills, or cash skills.
It is your job to point out to potential employers why and how you can prove you would make a reliable employee. Try thinking of all the things you can offer the company - and write it down before you go to the interview. Be ready to talk about what you can do for the company, not what it can do for you.
Good Luck!
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Copyright March 20, 2008. Paym Bergson and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use of this material will constitute an infringement of copyright.
