Congratulations, you graduated! Now you’re released into the real world and have to find a job, preferably even a career, so you can start paying taxes and of course pay off those student loans. And this is where you realize: you need a job for experience, but you need experience for a job. Heh.
Don’t worry. I gotcha. See, here’s what they won’t tell you when you’re starting out. Everything is experience.
Of course your best bet is if you’ve done any internships during your studies. But let’s be real here, not everybody has done that for a bunch of different reasons. However, once you list an internship as experience on your resume, make sure you include your responsibilities and any projects you worked on during your internship.
So this is where you can get creative. Any group project you’ve done can also be listed as experience. Why, you ask? Well, say for example you’re the one who presented the final project in front of class. This means you have presentation skills and are comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. Were you the one in charge of internal deadlines? Project management skills, baby.
Here’s the real fun part. Stuff you do outside of school or work still counts. If you organized a bachelorette party, that’s organizational skills. Coached your baby brother’s Little League team? Team building and leadership.
How do I know this stuff works? I worked throughout university and did some internships too. And while those definitely helped in terms of convincing recruiters that I knew what I was talking about more than the classes I took in university, the thing that really made an impression was the fact that I coached a men’s basketball team. They seemed impressed with the fact that a non-threatening looking 25-year old could order a bunch of grown men around.
Anyway at the core of it, the message is: get creative. Just because it wasn’t an *actual* job doesn’t mean you haven’t acquired skills and knowledge that are perfectly suitable for your first real job.