How to get an entry-level job without the required experience

You’re not alone in facing this challenge

Zippia’s career experts analyzed three million job postings and found that 38% of entry-level jobs required at least three years of experience. As if to say, “bold of you to not work a full-time job while attending high school.”

You might be wondering: why would an employer ask for years of experience in an entry-level job posting? Fair question.

Generally, companies want to hire people who know something about their industry. And they want people with the right skills and mindset.  Unfortunately, this has been skewed to an almost comical level, such as requiring multiple years of experience as an entrance to the field.

Job experience can mean a lot of things

Perhaps some companies are looking for direct experience. But more often than not, they are seeking someone with strong potential who can do the job well.

Internships, side gigs and freelance work are obvious places to start. But you could also take steps to focus on building skills, and building your network.

Here are some ideas:

Building skills:

• A college course
• An independent study project
• Private courses and certifications in relevant areas (e.g. SkillShare or Coursera)
• Volunteer work (including projects that you initiate, like neighborhood clean-ups or animal shelter donation drives)
• Leadership roles—even organizing trips for an outdoor club counts

Building your network

• Seek out a mentor, ideally someone who works in your field
• Ask to shadow someone who works in your field
• Conduct a survey about your field of interest and blogging about your findings
• Attend conferences (which may offer discounted admission to students or job seekers)

Get creative! After all, thinking outside the box is a skill many employers value.

Put it into practice

Let’s say you are applying for a job as an administrative assistant. They are asking for previous experience you don’t have. However, your life experiences correlate to several of the skills they listed. Maybe you run a sports league with your friends, which demonstrates leadership, taking initiative, committing your time, and coordinating schedules and handling fees. Maybe you organize large group vacations for your friends and relatives, which shows that you can book complex travel arrangements.

Here is an example you might include in an email to the hiring manager or as a resume summary:

Naturally organized and detail focused with repeated experience booking complex travel itineraries and coordinating fantasy sports leagues for large groups.

Does this person seem qualified to you? Sure seems like it!

Other tips to consider:

1. Be vivid. If you’re applying to work for the Houston Astros, don’t just position yourself as a “baseball fan” (which probably won’t set you apart from the other applicants). Position yourself as someone who “never misses an Astros game” or “treasures your ever-growing baseball card collection.”
2. Look at a job from the employer’s perspective. List all the traits you think they’re looking for and identify something about yourself to match as many of those items as you can.
3. Market your indirect experiences in a strong way, but don’t lie. If you worked the front desk of an office, you could also say that you were “representing the brand in-person, online and over the phones.” Detail the tangible roles that you served so no one gets a false impression.

Apply to the job anyway

Approach job descriptions like an employer’s dream sheet. Not all dreams become reality. So don’t talk yourself out of a job because your credentials don’t line up perfectly. A Harvard Business Review study found that women are more often deterred from applying to job listings that they don’t feel 100% qualified for compared to men.

Change begins one job application at a time. Perhaps one day we’ll see fewer entry-level job descriptions that require years of experience. And we’ll see more companies keeping an open mind about their next great hire.