How to Get a Job With No Experience

According to the ICIMS Recruiting Platform report, 81% of hiring managers believe that young professionals with at least a four-year college degree are competitive candidates in the labor market. It proves that getting a job with no experience is a realistic objective. The main thing is to know where to start your search. This guide will show you the best places to look for work and useful tricks to catch the employer’s attention. Rest assured, our tips will lead you to the cherished entry-level position.

The fastest ways to start a career with no experience

Ambition is a great feature that often helps a specialist move up the career ladder. However, it can confuse you and lead to frustration at the beginning of your professional path. Usually, fledgling specialists or teenagers who set their sights on prestigious and managerial positions face refusals. It makes them doubt their professional aptitude and, as a result, they often give up. To avoid such situations, try to apply common sense and set attainable goals. This tactic will lead you to a professional triumph step by step. At the moment, your goal is to get a first job and gain experience. Fortunately, you have many opportunities to achieve it.

Internship

An internship is a perfect example of fruitful interaction between a young specialist and a company. In this case, the former takes the first steps in the industry, and the latter fosters valuable talent and a promising workforce. An internship will allow you to put your accumulated knowledge into practice, see how your qualifications work in the real world, and immerse yourself in the corporate environment. Even if you don’t continue professional development in the company where you intern, this valuable experience will help you shape your unique offer to future employers. Therefore, if you want to get hired without a track record, an internship is the best option for you.

Volunteering

If you want to find a job with no experience quickly, be prepared to provide your services for free. But before you get upset, remember that your company is paying you in field practice, new skills, and fruitful networking. Volunteering resembles a gambit in chess when you sacrifice a pawn at the beginning of the game to get the upper hand as soon as possible. Your salary is just a pawn in this case. In exchange for it, you get a valuable item on your resume, which increases your chances of employment. Besides, volunteer work often carries a noble mission. This fact will prove your personal qualities, that are always taken into account when choosing a player in the team.

Part-time job or gig

If you want to land a job with no experience and start earning, a part-time job or a gig will come in handy. This activity may not be related to your education and degree. Nevertheless, it is a source of transferable skills and real-world experience. Consider positions such as retail assistant, barista, sales consultant, administrator, and so on. Each of them will help you develop people or communication skills, conflict management, decision making, and, of course, responsibility for trusted duties.

If you do not have the opportunity to visit the office because of academic activities or other personal circumstances, try to search for a gig online. This collaboration is available in many industries, including IT, design, copywriting, engineering, and so on. Many employers are looking for young performers for a particular project or startup. And you can easily join them if you meet at least basic requirements.

How to succeed in applying for a job with no experience?

Even an entry-level position implies high competition. Many other candidates seek to unlock their potential and climb the first step of the career ladder. Your success in the selection process depends on your ability to "sell" yourself. Contrary to the popular opinion, your self-presentation begins not during an interview since you still need to get it. It starts in your application documents. Therefore, keep in mind a few simple rules that will turn you from an inexperienced specialist into a worthy candidate.

• Focus on your strengths rather than weaknesses. Do not have experience? It's not a big deal! Service record does not equate with the qualifications that you could get during your studies, extracurricular activities, or daily life on campus. Rest assured, you have something to offer the employer. The only thing you don’t have is a reason to leave your resume and cover letter blank. It will deprive you of a victory even before the start of the competition.
• Explore your experience. In fact, you have it. It may be your research and laboratory work within the academic program, participation in additional classes or intercollegiate competitions, contribution to the university community, and so on. Each item helped to get practice and master a particular skill set, and therefore deserves a place in your resume.
• Present your skills. You can do more than you think. Reading a lot of job descriptions, you probably paid attention to such frequent requirements as teamwork, negotiation skills, flexibility. Would you like to see a specialist who can combine all of them? It's you! A joint study of the project with other students confirms teamwork, any request for retaking the test proves the skill of negotiation, and preparing for the exam in one day is an excellent example of flexibility. Apply this technique to other powers and transfer them to your competitive advantages in the cover letter.
• Use the "Yes, but..." trick. To begin with, write down the job requirements, compare it with the lists of your qualifications and skills, and select the non-compliance points. First, these points will show you areas for improvement. Second, apply the "Yes, but..." trick in your cover letter and compensate them for the employer. For example: "I am not an expert in programming, but my fast learning ability and diligent mastering of online courses will put it right shortly." Such ingenious self-presentation will be a good reason for the employer to get to know you better.

How to search for the first job offline?

Even the perfect application documents are valuable only when you have someone to demonstrate them. The issue of finding available vacancies and up-to-date proposals is no less acute for a candidate than constant interviews and endless self-presentations. In this case, it is essential to accept that employers will not line up. Therefore, if you want to get a job without experience, you have to take the initiative and go the extra mile. Fortunately, several proven places can simplify your task.

1. Contact the university or college community. Often, its representatives maintain contact with commercial and non-profit organizations that are interested in new people. Besides, community leaders can keep in touch with employed graduates of past years. Perhaps some of them could share job search insights or even put in a word for you to their current employer.
2. Visit a career fair. Such events attract potential employers or their representatives. Often, the organizations that take part in career fairs are already interested in fresh ideas from young specialists. Therefore, you will not have to explain or justify your lack of experience. Take the chance to establish fruitful networking in an informal setting and learn more about companies and their current offers. Remember that you should not just walk from stand to stand. Instead, ask wh-questions and take the initiative. In other words, help the company to notice you.
3. Attend industry events. It is an excellent opportunity to find many key industry players in one place. But unlike a career fair, they came together on a specific occasion, and their goal is not to search for valuable personnel. It is not a reason to give up. You should just be more prudent and create your elevator pitch. Since networking is still in force in such events, you may get a unique chance to have a small talk with a potential employer. Your elevator pitch, in this case, will help to use this talk to your advantage.
4. Seek help from your social circle. Tell those you are close to that you are looking for work and specify what positions and type of employment you are considering. Perhaps one of your friends or relatives has in mind a person who hires staff and requires young professionals. If not, your job search is still getting easier with proper support.

How to look for your first job online?

If you want to get a job with no work experience, your online activity should not be limited to funny tweets. Given the current level of digitalization, employers and job seekers are increasingly finding each other through helpful specialized platforms. Therefore, arm yourself with your application documents and create a job search strategy for the online space.

1. Monitor job boards. Job boards offer new available vacancies daily. To save time, set up your search for entry-level or junior posts. However, pay attention to vacancies where experience is "preferred." It indicates that the track record is only a competitive advantage but not the primary selection criterion. Therefore, feel free to try your luck. But do not forget to explain your benefits and motivation in the cover letter.
2. Promote yourself on LinkedIn. Your goal is to help the recruiter or employer notice your candidacy. To achieve it, fill in as many sections of your profile as possible, including education, additional certificates, skills. Besides, try to formulate your short description. It should clarify who you are, what your career goal is, and what you can offer as an employee. After filling out, your daily task is to expand your contact list, study the profiles of companies and their representatives, and look for suitable offers and opportunities. Employers need staff no less than job seekers need a job, so these mutual searches always bear fruit.
3. Be not an observer but a communicator. Join groups in professional and social networks and also visit forums or blogs dedicated to your industry, position, or even the issue of job search without experience. First, it is a source of valuable information from insiders that will allow you to stay updated on the latest changes. Second, it is a chance to get new meaningful contacts, one of which can become your lucky ticket.

Wrap up

The job search period is stressful for any applicant. But when it comes to the first job without experience, your task is doubly challenging just because you do not know all the card up sleeves yet. Therefore, it may seem that any of your strategies are losing in comparison with experienced specialists. You should nip such thoughts in the bud since your negative attitude attracts failures and frustrates you again and again.

Instead, focus on intermediate wins.

Continue self-education. Even if the job search period lasts longer than you expected, spend quality time. Useful literature and courses will distract from destructive thoughts and increase your competitiveness for each new application. Do not diminish your value against candidates with a track record. The experience can always be gained while some of your personal qualities and soft skills will remain inaccessible and unattainable even for craft professionals. Remember, our guide just shows the possibilities around you, but the final result always depends on your perseverance and belief in yourself.