By | Ryan Kahn | www.themuse.com
If you’re just out of college or embarking on a new career path, probably the most intimidating aspect of finding a job is coming up with relevant experience—because you don’t have any.
The bad news is, I can’t magically create experience to help you pad your resume and cover letter. But the good news is, you don’t need magic—you just need to be creative. Follow these three tips to help beef up your application without making it sound like a bunch of bull.
1. Embrace Your Inexperience
I’ll let you in on a little secret: When you’re applying for an entry-level position, the hiring manager already knows you have little to no experience. So, why beat yourself up trying to manufacture something?
Instead, I suggest embracing your inexperience and leveraging that as motivation to learn. For instance, if you’re applying to a PR firm, you might highlight how you became the star student in writing class when you self-motivated yourself from someone who couldn’t finish a book report to writing a 50-page thesis. Sure, the experience itself isn’t perfectly connected to the PR industry, but this accomplishment perfectly illustrates your dedication, curiosity, and commitment to learn and grow (not to mention your now-killer writing skills). And guess what? That’s exactly what hiring managers are looking for from recent grads.
