Employers are often in search of candidates who have required experience and skills to do a job As an entry level candidate with little or no experience, how do you navigate the job market? Below are a few tips.
EDUCATE YOURSELF
Educating yourself means investing in yourself. You need to step out of your comfort zone to gain the experience that you need. Take classes, attend workshops, get professional certificates with a whole lot of dedication and commitment. Search for more knowledge within your career and tailor that knowledge to your chosen career path. A convenient way of gaining experience could be through leveraging on your inexperience and let that be your motivation to learn and search for more. Embrace your inexperience and educate yourself, ask questions. Highlight your activities even while in school; they also serve as part of your experiences. For instance, if you were part of the school media team while in school and now you are applying for the role of a writer, you might want to tell the hiring manager how you were a part of the school media team and contributed to the writing and distribution of articles. You should be aware that hiring managers are also on the look out for your commitment, tenacity, and dedication. Make them see it.
DO SOME RESEARCH
As an entry level candidate, or someone who is starting a new career path, you must go the extra length to get what you want. You might be applying for a new job, the question is, what have you done? What do you know about the company? Does your educational achievements or experiences relate to the job description? As someone who has little or no job experience, you must be able to sell your achievements. Do some extensive research on the company and how you will add value to the company. Most companies would instantly hire a candidate who has shown some level of hard work and passion. Highlight what you think the company’s area of improvements as are and provide possible solutions. Connect your objectives with that of the company and show that your goals align with theirs. It will be interesting to know that employers are usually more interested in the value you will be adding.
PROMOTE YOUR SOFT SKILLS
Another great way of getting hired without any experience is not to underestimate your soft skills. What soft skills do you possess and how can you promote them to get your employers attention? Highlight your skills and put them in your resume. Skills like time management, communication, leadership, problem-solving are truly relevant, you might want to put that out. Also, carry out a critical research on which soft skills companies prefer and work on it.
NETWORK MORE
You really do not need any experience to do this. Networking is one of the most effective ways to get a job. Do not just rely on job listing, find connections everywhere, attend seminars, workshops, tell people about what you do and can offer. Draft proposal and send out to companies, create an elevator pitch, and send out to companies with your niche. You can also volunteer in a position that is related to your desired field, apply for internships, and transfer all these activities into experiences.
Be realistic and take an extensive assessment of yourself. Show that you are confident in the experiences you have, Go all out, promote yourself, work on yourself and you will see the result.