Tips for Getting a First Job with Little or No Experience

If you are a young adult looking for a first job, one of your most difficult challenges may be that that experience is needed to get a job, but a job is needed to get experience. This was true when I looked for my first job after college, and it is still true today, but there are strategies that you can use to help improve your chances of landing your first job.

Tap past experiences to make your resume as compelling as possible. Volunteer work, unpaid internships, and part-time jobs all can help to give a skimpy resume a little more heft.

Focus on achievements not just descriptions of responsibilities or skills. Perhaps your volunteer work includes organizing a fund-raiser. If so, detail how many people participated and how much money was raised. Firms using unpaid interns are required to provide training, so if you have unpaid internships on your resume, highlight what you learned that is relevant to the job you are targeting.

Arrange informational interviews. An informational interview can be an excellent way to learn more about a job, a firm and/or and industry from someone with experience, to get tips on how to break into the industry and what credentials are needed or desirable, and to network. It also could result in a job lead.

Develop a powerful line-up of references. This is another area where, given your lack of or limited work experience, you may feel you have little to fall back on. However, if you think creatively about job references, you may have more supporters than you realize who can help you get a job offer. In particular, try to identify individuals who can vouch for personal qualities that will make you a great employee (reliability, initiative, teamwork, independent thinking and so on) or who can point out your accomplishments. This could be a professor who was impressed by your work on a major research project, a staff member at a volunteer organization where you spear headed a fund-raising campaign, a manager who relied on you at a part-time job, or your supervisor at a summer internship. Be sure to ask before naming an individual as a reference and to let him know when and from whom he may get a call.

Be willing to take a "starter" job with potential. This worked for me when I was starting out and it may work for you. My first job after college was as an administrative assistant, but my boss promised to create a professional position for me doing research and writing after six months. He was true to his word and a career was launched. Based on my experience, getting through the door at a firm where you would like to work could be a successful strategy for you. Try to identify firms that have a history of promoting from within.

Sign up with a temp agency. If you aren't having any luck getting interviews, consider signing up with a temp agency. While accepting temporary positions will take time away from your job search, they can have some significant benefits: temporary jobs can give you needed work experience, provide valuable networking opportunities and generate needed income. Also, if you do well, a temp position could become a permanent job.

More from this Contributor:

First Person: Making the Most of a Skimpy Resume

First Person: Getting Your Resume Read

How to Use Job References when You Have a Skimpy Resume

First Person: The Value of Informational Interviews