Finding Experience Even When You Are Inexperienced

Many new graduates are scratching their heads when they are told in an interview that they are not qualified due to inexperience. Since they are fresh grads, it should be understandable if they have no experience, right? They need experience to work but cannot work without experience. Now, how can we solve this?

Westhill Consulting and Employment states that it would still be possible to find experience when you are inexperienced.

1. OJT

One of the best sources of experience is to get a job internship in the industry you are interested to work in. There are companies which offer on-the-job for incoming graduating students during summers. You will probably start getting coffees or run errand but you shouldn’t have any complaints. While it would probably be a long way to reach CEO, almost everyone experiences this kind of phase. Besides, you can still learn by observing

2. Volunteer

To those who hadn’t had a chance to get to an internship programme while still in college (yes, there are colleges who do not have internship on their curriculum, take for example those in Jakarta, Indonesia), you can start off by volunteering to your field. Many nurses, in order to get enough experiences undergo volunteer programs in hospitals and clinics for some months before finally finding a salary-paying job.

3. Setting up your own business

You could provide advice, sell products online or chase advertising revenue. Even if you don’t make much money, you’ll develop great networks and an attractive CV.

4. Try casual jobs

Any job can help you so don’t be too proud. You can apply as one of staff crew in McDonalds for a few months. This way, you can toughen some skills you have. In terms of communication, you can talk to the customers and engage them. If you are finding experience for accounting, you can count and take data of the profit you have gotten for that day. If you are a graduate of Marketing, you can find ways on how they can gain more customers. These casual jobs are a den of many other jobs

5. Extra-Curricular Activities

Getting involved in groups and societies will enrich your CV but also open doors. For example, joining the wine society at university could give you access to professionals in viticulture and provide you with good references and reviews; sales and numerous other fields.