Young Professionals Stress Less About Being Inexperienced

Young Professionals Stress Less About Being Inexperienced A younger friend of mine spotted his dream corporate role being advertised recently, within weeks of graduating from his business degree at university.  Based on his existing industry knowledge, understanding of the  company itself, part time work experience and academic qualifications, he made the perfect candidate. However, admitting defeat early, he told me he hadnt applied. Why? Because he hadnt held a corporate role before or actually been responsible for the tasks outlined in the job description. Wow, I thought. What a shame. His story really got me thinking. His insecurities, while totally understandable, were also largely unnecessary. Let me explain young job hunters listen in. If you read a  job description  and believe you could  do what theyre asking for if given the chance to prove yourself, dont just walk away because you feel youre inexperienced. Every graduate has to start somewhere everyone needs to get their foot in the door somehow!  Not having the  exact mirror-image experience they seem to want is totally okay there are ways around that. (Employers tend to include nice to haves in their must haves section anyway- as you move through your career youll  learn that job descriptions tend to  lie about a lot of things!) If youre up for the challenge, youre going to need to transform your CV into a golden ticket to an interview. How will you do that? By  selling  the skills and experience you do have and showing the selection panel youre more than capable of  being a successful suitor for the role. Think transferable skills. Step 1: Dont work yourself up Before you start dwelling heavily on the negatives  surrounding your lack of nail-on-the-head experience, its worth  acknowledging  that all of the most ambitious candidates will have to overcome a  stretch in skills at some point when they apply for a new or higher level position. Employers want to hire people who like to challenge themselves, not people who only make lateral moves that dont foster personal growth. After all, a CV  is basically just a document that  says, hey potential employer, look at all the things I have done to date, I think I could adapt and apply my skills to add value to your business. Thats the equivalent of  transferring skills, no? Step 2: Print out that  job description Now you know youre not alone,  you need to start  working on tailoring your CV.  Get it  up on your computer screen and print a hard copy of the job description, so you can easily refer to both at once. Read  through it with a fine tooth comb and be sure you understand: Who they want to hire What the main responsibilities of the role will be What prior experience  theyd like the  person to have What abilities / skills the  new person needs to  be able to showcase What characteristics the successful person will need to demonstrate Be sure to underline or highlight specific systems or points that stand out as being really important to them. Step 3: Build a  CV that sells  you well If youre stuck with  where to start, try honing in on transferable skills to get you thinking about your experience. Think back through your academic and professional experience (internships / part time jobs) and identify ways and times youve  practiced the following: Verbal communication Written communication Research Data analysis Organisation time management Team work Leadership Systems technology Step 4: Use  examples Now, you  cannot simply list a number of transferable skills and personal attributes on the CV in the hopes that the selection panel will take your word for it, join the dots for you and assume youre capable of tackling whats been outlined in the job description. You need to  describe how your experiences to date have set you up for being successful in picking  up the responsibilities of the new role. For example, if the job description says: Experience using System M Your CV should include something like: Proven ability to quickly learn  and master new systems, such as System X, Y and Z Forget esoteric jargon that only people who studied your university degree or worked with you in that part time role would understand. Try to contextualise your  statements and back them up. If one of the responsibilities of the new role is analyse data and create reports on X, clearly identify where youve successfully completed a similar task in the past, even if it was on a totally different topic or within a totally different environment. When you think youre done, check out  this article  to make sure your CV is completely up to scratch! Step 5: Nail your  the bio  at the top of your CV Recruiters and / or the selection panel tend not to spend too long on individual applications, due to the sheer volume. Including a bio at the top of your CV is awesome way of selling yourself instantly think of it like an elevator pitch. It should only be a few lines, but address: Who you are What have you been doing / working on / studying recently What sort of background do you have previous employment / industries Your major strengths What  are you looking for and why Step 6: Write a cover letter hit APPLY! For more details on cover letters,  check this article out. Good luck and happy job hunting!