What If You Have No Prior Experience?

If you are new to my newsletter, I want to say a warm welcome. If you have been with me for a while, here’s a heartfelt thank you. I’m glad to have you here.

Here’s my promise to you: with every email, I will always share 1 actionable tip/strategy you can use immediately to accelerate your career, grow your income and live your best life.

Today, I want to talk about the number one thing that comes up repeatedly in all my conversations with people looking to change careers…

It’s the chicken and egg scenario.

You can’t get a job with no prior experience.

You can’t get experience without a job.

So what do you do?

Look for entry level jobs?

Find the (elusive)volunteer opportunities?

Try Freelancing on Upwork?

All these are good strategies.

The problem is, they have a low chance of success, as you might have already found out.

You can increase your chances by using the skills you already have.

It is the often overlooked but I consider it one of the most important strategies of all.

Here's the step by step breakdown:

1. Look at your work through a different lens.

   Understand the skill requirements for the target job.

   Look at job descriptions to understand what employers are looking for.

2. Strategically highlight transferable skills.

   Identify the skills you already have and compare them with the requirements for the target role.

3. Downplay (and remove) the less relevant skills.

   Your resume should be a summary of your experience related to the target job.

   It is okay to remove irrelevant skills from your resume.

4. Present past experience to align with the job description.

   Map your relevant experience with the duties for the target job.

   Highlight those experiences on your resume.

5. Demonstrate impact to the organization’s bottom line.

   Write your resume in terms of impact to the organizational goals.

   Organization exist to make money, minimize cost or maximize shareholder returns.

6. Highlight any key projects worked on or participated in.

   Project work is team work, not individual effort.

   You don’t have to play the lead on a project to list it on your resume. P.S: Even if you played only a small part on the project, you earned it, so own it.

You have to demonstrate how your past experiences align with the new role you are targeting. 

Here is an example for a Contact Center Representative who wants to transition into a Project Manager role:

Duties: Made 300 outbound calls a day, attended to customer enquiries and complaints and ensured timely resolution of customer complaints.

Transferable Skills: Communication, Business Relationship Management, Stakeholder Management, Negotiation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Teamwork, Facilitation, Leadership, Risk Management, Issue Management & Conflict Resolution.

Impact: As a contact center representative, I managed the relationship with customers, generated over 50 leads per day which led to an increase in customer acquisition by over 50 percent, increased customer loyalty by 10 percent and generated revenues of up to $1M for my organization.

Here's another example for a Nurse to Project Manager:

Duties: Worked with paramedics, support workers and doctors to treat patients, managed multiple tasks concurrently, monitored patient vitals, attended to phone calls and entered details into systems.

Transferable Skills: Stakeholder management, Teamwork, Leadership, Risk & Issue Management, Communication, Hypothesis Testing, Empathy, Process Improvement & Prioritization.

Impact: Achieved 95% patient satisfaction rate by efficiently addressing diverse stakeholder needs, reduced wait times by 25% through effective prioritization and triage, and streamlined intake processes which led to 15% reduction in FTE requirements.

Notice it is the same experience but through a different lens.

Summary of the key takeaways:

1. Understand the requirements for the target role and the skills you have

2. Map the skills you have with the requirements for the role

3. Focus on impact, not duties

No prior experience doesn't necessarily mean you are at a disadvantage. It's all about how you frame your mindset and sell yourself.

Today’s challenge:

How might you represent your skills differently?

Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

 1. 1:1 Career Clarity Call: Pick my brain on all things job search, resume, LinkedIn, personal branding, interviewing, career transition and more. Apply here for $249.

2. Sign up for Jobsmither: the AI powered job search tool to help you create stand out resume, customized cover letters, optimize your LinkedIn profile and seamlessly track your job applications. Get started for free.

3. Apply to join my Agile Project Management Accelerator Program: A 3 month career transition coaching program to get you hired in 3-6 months. Apply here.

Until next time,

Zainab

Remember, you are just one step away…

P.S: I would love to hear from you - what topics would you like me to share more of? I want to make sure I write about the things that matter to you.