No Experience? No Problem! Land a Job Today
The simple answer to finding a job might surprise you
Who is this article for? Mainly it’s for younger people or people who are unemployed, it won’t be very helpful for the professional or a high flier who wants to become a CEO and make millions. This post is about how to get an everyday job.
There are so many articles on working smart, finding ways to make quick money, or passive income. But the reality for many people is that they just need a job and don’t have the luxury of starting a side hustle that may or may not pay out at a future date. (if at all).
People have rent, bills, food to buy, clothing, and other necessities that they need a job to pay for! And a trickle of income from their blog isn’t going to pay off their credit cards. They have to go out and work to cover these things. This is life.
Many think it’s hard to get a job, but actually, it does depend on not only the job but also your attitude. Yes, finding your dream job, or a job that is going to make you rich, is difficult but if you want a job to cover your everyday expenses then not so much.
Here is a story of how I managed to find a job in a day. This is kind of a part 1 of this post.
Excuses
I’m too young, I don’t have enough experience, I am too old! I am under-qualified, over-qualified, (insert other reason here.)
Let’s start with the first. You are too young. There are jobs you can do! Some markets want younger people! Often youth comes with the second excuse: I don’t have enough experience. Well, go and get it! You get experience by working or learning.
I worked on a ferry going back and forth between England and France. Did I have any experience before that? NO! I had to do a ten-day training course to get my ship qualifications, then it was onto the ship and sailing on my own (pun intended). But I learned a lot!
The ship had different jobs, and these jobs were rotated, the idea was that the staff didn’t get bored but I just found it to be a pain, everyone had their own preferences. During my time onboard I worked in the cafe doing kitchen work, serving food, or as a cashier. Also, there was a duty-free shop on board and a bar. So I learned how to use a register, cash out at the end of the day, take and refill stock, to pour drinks, and mix a few basic cocktails. I gained so many new skills and experiences from one job!
Many of these skills are transferable to other jobs. My next job after the ship was working in a bank! (More on this later) But during the interview, one of the questions was “Have you ever worked with money?” And my answer was a resounding YES! I’ve done that. I know how to work a till, cash up at the end of the day, and so on.
Ageism
And talking about the ship. During that training period, there were twenty new crew going through the short qualifications such as food safety, health and hygiene, fire fighting, first aid, and a few others that I can’t remember. (All useful training to add to the CV)
Anyway, the age range of those twenty trainees started at eighteen for a girl who was going to start college the following September and just wanted to make some extra money, up to an ex-firefighter who was sixty and had gotten bored with retirement. Even a pretty physical job like working on a ship, age wasn’t a factor!
I agree some jobs do need experience and many employers prefer to not have to train new staff but there are also a lot of jobs that have on-the-job training.
Being picky
This is another issue that holds a lot of people back!
I don’t want to work in an office/factory/retail/other…
You don’t have a job! You need money to survive! You can’t pick and choose at this point.
Get a job, then get a better one. I have no idea why this is. It just is! But when you already have a job, it’s much easier to find another job!
Do you think I worked twelve-hour shifts on a cross-channel ferry because I wanted to? Or because I needed money? And while I was doing that, I was looking for better jobs.
Partly this is easier because I already have an income, so I can be a bit more selective in what I am looking for. The pressure to find a job just isn’t there.
What’s the best way to find a job?
Now, using the picky method, I had so many things I didn’t want to do. Working outside, manual labor, factories, retail (YUCK)
So I decided I wanted to work in a bank. How do I go about this? I have no banking experience beyond going into the bank to get money out. Not even that actually, I use the ATM!
This is how I did it. Mass spam.
I applied to every single bank that had positions in my area, even positions I wasn’t qualified for! I also applied online by going to the bank websites and looking for advertised positions. At the same time, I was doing that, I was also applying for other jobs, including a job at a special needs school as a carer, an assistant manager at Subway, and another assistant manager job at a delivery company. And many more.
I kept track of all the jobs I applied for and in that month alone, I had applied for over one hundred jobs. Some were pretty mundane like the Subway job, but some were more interesting, such as a flight attendant. Remember, I was working on a ship as a steward and it’s the same job except in the air rather than on the water.
Out of those one hundred or so jobs, I had seven responses.
Two banks. One was local, the other the next town over, both for a customer service agent. These are the people on the floor who help you when you walk into the bank. I did an online interview with both banks. They said they were interested in a second interview but only the local bank got back to me.
The special needs school. I went for a job interview and was offered the job but there was a problem. As I had been outside of the UK for over ten years I needed a criminal record check from Japan. This would have taken around three months and cost over $600! So unfortunately this was a no.
Subway. Wasn’t the advertised job. During the interview, the manager said “Work here as a cashier/server, and in a couple of years you can become an assistant manager and then a manager” I was very proud of myself for complaining to him that this was not the job advertised and I reported it to the Job Centre and they removed the listing!
A steward position on a train. I didn’t even remember applying for it. 4am start at a station nowhere near where I live.
A nursing home director same deal as Subway. You work here for minimum wage and in the future, we will promote you. Again, pass just because of the dishonesty.
Assistant manager in a hotel. This one I wasn’t that interested in, but it was a live-in position so no rent or bills. The salary was not even close to how many hours of work.
In the end, I took the job at the local bank. This was the best chance of any sort of advancement in the future. It wasn’t the position I applied for, as I didn’t have enough experience as a customer service agent (literally showing people how to use the machines or pointing them to the correct manager for their problems).
They took me on as a cashier, and as I was a bit older than the normal starting employee my salary was bumped up two levels. And another bonus, it was the local bank in my town! So it was a fifteen-minute walk from my home, and as it was a minor branch, we didn’t start work until 9 am and closed at 3:30 pm, so I was done by four! And there were no weekend opening times.
After three months I applied for a position in the international department that dealt mainly with Asia. As I can speak Japanese fairly well I was given the job! The pay was almost double my previous salary.
I worked at the bank for a further year before going back to teaching in Asia.
Why this approach?
The mass spam approach just gave me more chances. I applied to so many jobs, most of them I had little to no experience, and even the seven I heard back from I had never done before.
My attitude is to let the employer decide if I have enough experience or not! How does it harm me to apply for the job? A few minutes to send off my CV or fill in a form!
This kind of approach blows the whole “not enough experience” out of the water.
To sum up
Don’t let excuses hold you back. Age and experience aren’t everything
Being picky won’t get you hired. Take what you can at the start
Mass apply to increase your chances. Don’t be afraid to cast a wide net
The only person holding you back is you.
Thanks for reading
Paul
