Help Getting a job without experience?

[tris-]

Anyone actually managed this?

I think I have been for 5-6 jobs focussed around my degree and each time I have been told "someone with extensive experience got it". So I am wondering, how the hell do I break in to the circuit?

I have had all kinds of jobs since being at uni from working in a factory to being a student mentor, as well as the very specific practical crap your degree teaches you for the job.

Its not just speciality jobs though, I am having problems getting such highly valued jobs at checkout assistant and bar man because I dont have past experience.

Any tips?

 

[Imgormiel]

Anyone actually managed this?

I think I have been for 5-6 jobs focussed around my degree and each time I have been told "someone with extensive experience got it". So I am wondering, how the hell do I break in to the circuit?

I have had all kinds of jobs since being at uni from working in a factory to being a student mentor, as well as the very specific practical crap your degree teaches you for the job.

Its not just speciality jobs though, I am having problems getting such highly valued jobs at checkout assistant and bar man because I dont have past experience.

Any tips?

What sort of job are you looking for?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Inside job usually does the trick.

Otherwise it's CVarama and bombarding them with applications every month or two.

Otherwise, apply for a lower step job and then climb the ladder. Should be easy if you're qualified.

 

[tris-]

Pretty much any which is helpful to the community, but I dont mean a litter picker either.

My degree is acredited by the Trading Standards Institute, so trading standards ideally but it is relevant to many kinds of enforcement jobs. The last oen I went for was within Environmental Health and the previous 4-5 were all for trading standards posts.

I have also applied for the police but my application was rejected with no given reason. also applied for armed forces but been defered for medical reasons untill next year!

It is not possible to apply for these kinds of jobs with a speculative CV, you can only apply if they advertise a post due to equality reasons according to the councils. Ive emailed them all over the country and they all say the same thing.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Oh yeah, forgot to add apprenticeship or some such.

Sh*t pay, but a step on the ladder.

 

[Imgormiel]

Pretty much any which is helpful to the community, but I dont mean a litter picker either.

My degree is acredited by the Trading Standards Institute, so trading standards ideally but it is relevant to many kinds of enforcement jobs. The last oen I went for was within Environmental Health and the previous 4-5 were all for trading standards posts.

I have also applied for the police but my application was rejected with no given reason. also applied for armed forces but been defered for medical reasons untill next year!

It is not possible to apply for these kinds of jobs with a speculative CV, you can only apply if they advertise a post due to equality reasons according to the councils. Ive emailed them all over the country and they all say the same thing.

My route was to do a placement for free for a while - say one day a week if you can spare the time. Sorry to say it but degrees for people these days are ten a penny, most employers now don't give a damn what it is that you studied. In fact they generally don't give a crap how qualified that you are - all that work for nothing.

If you want a good job then professional qualifications are also a standard route. Often they cost and are expensive but they are the route/fashion and yeah I say that because after 20 years of seeing how the employment market works, it's just a fickle piece of shit barrier to finding work ><

Other routes are quite normal, ie do a lesser job to (basically what Toht said) or start networking your friends who are working and then using their influence within the company etc.

I don't have a degree, but I do have years of experience as a journalist via how I did it to get my foot in the door. I have the opposite experience to finding work as you, basically it's NCTJ (professional qualification) or sit on the dole or find clerical work (no thanks).

 

[tris-]

Degrees are ten a penny yes, but my degree is specialised for a few specific roles and acredited by an institute. To do this particular job, you need a qualification by virtue of law, like a solicitor for example. What you say may count for your general office bloke or what ever, but you legally cant be a trading standards officer without being qualified to do it.
The people getting the jobs i am going for have the qualification and somehow got a job without having done it before.

As I said ive tried for lesser jobs, unless checkout assistant isnt a lesser job these days

 

[Imgormiel]

Degrees are ten a penny yes, but my degree is specialised for a few specific roles and acredited by an institute. To do this particular job, you need a qualification by virtue of law, like a solicitor for example. What you say may count for your general office bloke or what ever, but you legally cant be a trading standards officer without being qualified to do it.
The people getting the jobs i am going for have the qualification and somehow got a job without having done it before.

As I said ive tried for lesser jobs, unless checkout assistant isnt a lesser job these days

Have you ever worked before?

 

[tris-]

Yeh, I said above there Ive had all kinds of jobs at uni

You even quoted where I said it

Over the past 5-6 years Ive had about 10 different jobs in all kinds of environments.

Old to new

IT engineer
Call centre wanker
Glass collector in nightclubs x 3-4
Worked in a doctors surgery
Worked for the NHS
Worked in two factories and the same one twice
Worked in Mc Donalds
Probably something else ive forgotten about
Student mentor at uni
Currently a volunteer for the Citizens Advice Bureau

 

[Marc]

Set up your own consultancy business?

 

[tris-]

People would be mad to pay me for advice they could get for free though surely?

 

[Bahumat]

One thing you may struggle with Tris is checkout/bar jobs because they know you are only going to be there until you get a law job. If you're a bit slow they can keep you doing that role for ages.

 

[Bahumat]

oh yeah, not that you are, but dont expect to get a job straight away, it could take 6 months before you get a job in the field you're trained in.

One other thing is to phone these employers/agencies back if you dont hear from them after a few days. When i first started looking for jobs I kept saying to people "yeah they'll call back if they want any more info etc"...but they wont, it's not like i'm bill gates hehe. You have to chase them imo.

 

[Lamp]

It might be worth while popping into some job agencies and see what they have to say. They might be able to get your foot on the first rung of the ladder

Degrees are so common these days. Just because you got a degree it doesn't mean shit these days unless - like you say - its specific to the career you're going into - eg medicine, law. As I mentioned in another thread, I recruit people for the bank I work for and to be perfectly honest, most graduates are not as good as they think they are when it comes to the real-world workplace, but the fact is that without experience I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole (Graduate Training Programmes excepted - I have no choice - I have to recruit 2 grads every year - some of them are ace, a lot of them are shit)

 

[tris-]

I am with an agency and I have my 2nd temp post tomorrow, but thats only for 3 hours then its over.

Bahumat, Ive been going for jobs since December or somethign last year, thats about 7 months now. They always phone me back and give me feedback from the interview, obvioiusly my 1st one was ropey so I used that feedback and worked with a careers gaffa at uni. Now my feedback is always that I did a good interview but someone with experience got the job.

 

[Lamp]

With agency work its all about little steps.

Keep as many fingers in as many pies as you can, but don't dilute yourself too much in the market as recruitment agencies are extremely incestuous.

Best of luck

 

[tris-]

My last posting was market researcher, tomorrow im an exam invigilator. Im hoping the more favours I do for them, the more likely ill get offered better posts.

 

[Bahumat]

I am with an agency and I have my 2nd temp post tomorrow, but thats only for 3 hours then its over.

Bahumat, Ive been going for jobs since December or somethign last year, thats about 7 months now. They always phone me back and give me feedback from the interview, obvioiusly my 1st one was ropey so I used that feedback and worked with a careers gaffa at uni. Now my feedback is always that I did a good interview but someone with experience got the job.

Cool cool, sounds like you know what you're doing. Maybe ask the agencies how you can combat the lack of work experience in the specific field?

 

[TdC]

People would be mad to pay me for advice they could get for free though surely?

you'd be surprised tbh. the trick is getting people to believe they need your advice in the first place.

 

[tris-]

Good point.
Come to think of it, I hear a lot of adverts for companies saying something like
"give us your credit documents and we can check if theyre unenforceable"
Except people have to pay first and they may or may not get something out of it.

This could easily be done for free by citizens advice or consumer direct!

 

[Marc]

Good point.
Come to think of it, I hear a lot of adverts for companies saying something like
"give us your credit documents and we can check if theyre unenforceable"
Except people have to pay first and they may or may not get something out of it.

This could easily be done for free by citizens advice or consumer direct!

You have a specific skill. Free advice isnt always easilly accessible for people who dont have the time. We use various third parties, for info we could, in theory get for free, but because we pay a professional, we know the info/advice is spot on.

Its just an idea mate.

 

[soze]

How about charity free work to get you expireance? I did a spell rebuilding PC's at a local libary for CV material?

 

[tris-]

How about charity free work to get you expireance? I did a spell rebuilding PC's at a local libary for CV material?

I already do voluntary work with the citizens advice bureau!

 

[Cadelin]

Bahumat, Ive been going for jobs since December or somethign last year, thats about 7 months now. They always phone me back and give me feedback from the interview, obvioiusly my 1st one was ropey so I used that feedback and worked with a careers gaffa at uni. Now my feedback is always that I did a good interview but someone with experience got the job.

If you are getting interviews you have a chance to get the job, they wouldn't interview you otherwise. Saying there was nothing I could have improved upon the other candidates were just better is very often not true.

You also have experience. Even if you don't, you do. Find something you have done that fits the criteria they want. If you have been looking for 6 months now you must have got experience doing something.

I applied for a job recently, and it asked for some experience with being a sys-admin, which I had never done. I had however looked after a few computers (parents home network, friends, a couple of computers in the office) and put that down and when questioned about it I was able to answer several of the questions they asked. When I got feedback about the job interview they said that I was that they thought I was second best person in terms of sys-admin skills and the person who was better was rubbish at the other parts of the job. I have made the next round of the interview process.

 

[tris-]

I have done exactly that, re: experience.
Also, see other posts, I have had loads of jobs in all kinds of things.
But if someone has done this particular job before, they are clearly going to be prefered over me!

 

[Hawkwind]

Sounds like you area is too specialised and not enough jobs in the market. Maybe you should rethink your career path

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

Short version : so many people on the market at the moment employers have totally unrealistic expectations.

Why take some guy you have to invest time & therefore money in training when you can get some guy just as cheaply (in the current ecenomic situation) who has experience?

Unfair, but true. Don't waste your time applying for public jobs that are advertised unless you know they have first failed to fill it internally - many of them are only advertised as a legal formality.

If you want tips on your police application and intend to do it again, PM me. Used to work for the Police Recruitment Service before it was reformed about 10 years ago. Most of what i know still applies.

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

Cool cool, sounds like you know what you're doing. Maybe ask the agencies how you can combat the lack of work experience in the specific field?

You can't really at the moment. It's an employers market, whereas 10-12 months ago it was an employees market.

 

[Moriath]

You can't really at the moment. It's an employers market, whereas 10-12 months ago it was an employees market.

true

So many ppl on the look for jobs atm its harder for someone with no experience to get a job because there are bound to be a lot of others looking who are also qualified with experience.

All you can do is keep sending the CV's and hope to get lucky

I know two or three ppl who have experience and all and still havent found a job after 6 months

 

[tris-]

Well I managed to get two postings today from my agency.

1. Exam invigilator
2. Receptionist

Can little things like this be put on a CV? I was thinking of putting the agency as the employer and positions as "various"