Top 3 tips to get a job with no work experience

I recently hosted a group of business undergraduates from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana), who visited several firms in Singapore as part of their Business in Asia program. As they were in their final year of study, much of our discussion was understandably focused on how they could land a job quickly after graduation.

Entering the job market with little or no experience can be disheartening and frustrating for any new graduate. It’s no denying that online job sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Monster have made job opportunities more open, plentiful and accessible.

However, these advantages are also responsible for reducing the chances of your resume reaching hiring managers as firms increasingly adopt algorithms and technologies to manage large volume of applications.   

Here are my top 3 career tips that I shared with those soon-to-be job seekers:

Start early, not after. When employers hire fresh graduates like you, they are looking at your future potential rather than past performance as you have little or no demonstrated work experience. So, you need to develop those KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) sought by employers in your chosen field the moment you start freshman year and not after graduation.

As university students, you can gain great skills and experience on leadership, entrepreneurship and teamwork by volunteering at nonprofit organisations, summer jobs, startups and extra-curriculum activities. Be strategic about the competencies you like to acquire and develop to make your resume stand out from the crowd. 

In this competitive job market, you will be left behind if you are not already working hard to acquire the following KSAs:   

(a) Knowledge - Our jobs are transforming at an accelerated rate due to technological advancement, demographic shifts and environmental uncertainty. More and more major employers like Accenture are seeking new hires who demonstrate an interest to be future-ready.

Therefore, it pays for you to understand how your chosen industry is increasingly affected by digitalization, automation and artificial intelligence.

(b) Skills - Unless you are a Rhodes Scholar, it’s difficult for employers to generally distinguish your academic grades from the pack. In fact, research from the Society for Human Resource Management found that employers actually value soft skills more than technical skills.

Generally, graduates who are communicative, dependable and adaptable are found to have a higher chance of achieving success at work.

(c) Abilities – In high volume graduate recruitment programs, large organisations are likely to use online cognitive or aptitude tests as part of their early screening process.

This is because research has demonstrated that graduates with high cognitive abilities in critical thinking, problem solving and the ability to learn are more likely to perform well in their jobs.

The good news is that you can go to several free practice online sites like AssessmentDay to become familiar with the types and forms of questions asked.

Target firms, not jobs. Like most graduates, you are probably not going to be offered your dream job straight out of university. Instead of getting totally despondent from being rejected by numerous employers for a specific role, it’s far better to focus on getting your way into a company of choice.

This could mean accepting graduate internships, unpaid work experience or a different role at a start. This way, you are on the inside getting to know the right people, spot potential job opportunities and impress those higher ups that you’re passionate about the firm or industry.

If you are not able to make any connections to your targeted firms, then you could consider the following 3 approaches to get your foot in the door:

(a) Make connections with fellow alumni through your university or personal network as they are more willing to introduce you to their contacts for job opportunities.

(b) Reach out to your LinkedIn connections who work in the company or industry you’re targeting to set up an informational interview. Rebecca Knight wrote a great piece at Harvard Business Review recently on how you can get the most out of this cold-calling approach.

(c) Attend career fairs to establish in-person connections with your targeted employers. Even large firms like Amazon hosted a nation-wide career fair to fill 50,000 jobs, billed as the largest in the United States so far.. 

Treat ATS as friend, not foe. These days our digital resumes submitted through large company websites, jobs boards and social media are almost all processed by Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or “Resume Robots.” 

It’s important that you know how to work with ATS as this popular recruitment software rejects up to 75% of CVs before they get to a human recruiter. The harsh reality is that ATS is becoming more sophisticated as it increasingly leverages the power of advanced algorithm, artificial intelligence and machine learning.  

I recommend you customize your resume with the right keywords, format and content to boost your chances of being accepted by ATS. I like to suggest you read this paper by Amy Elisa Jackson – “Can your resume beat the Bots? How to make it ATS-friendly?” published on glassdoor.com to increase your success in landing that first job.

I like to thank you for reading this post and you can read my other posts on this link. To foster mutual growth and development, I strongly encourage you to provide your feedback, comments and questions below.