How to find a job or how to find work if you have zero experience? Well, I have been working online for about three years consistently. Now, I teach people how to use social media and the online opportunities to land a job or get gigs in freelancing and – if that sounds like something you’re interested in make sure that you just follow the Master Of Jobs’ Blog. Let’s focus…
How to get a job with zero experience (Online/Offline)
Primarily these ideas for getting jobs online – But, it also works offline. Because I personally have more expertise in the online community that’s why I stress on the word online but you can definitely use these tips even if you are looking for an offline job.
1. You must have a positive mindset
Now, the first thing that you need to keep in mind is that your mindset must be positive. I can’t stress enough the importance of mindset if you want to get work and especially if you do not have any experience. When people do not have any experience – the first thing that they do is that they start thinking that no one will ever hire them because they have zero experience. Guys, remember that even the most experienced person today started from zero that is the common ground for everyone. So don’t underestimate yourself. Establish a positive mindset. Yes, you may not have any experience, but let’s say you have certain skills that other people may not have that easily. You might be able to communicate very well, you might be able to present your ideas very well, you might be very creative and you must be an asset to certain people so far. And now you can broaden your horizon and start offering the same services in a professional way. There are so many things about you that are pretty much you need but you yourself are probably underestimating yourself. So the first thing that I want you to do is to understand that you are pretty unique and you must develop a positive mindset about yourself and trust and believe in yourself and your abilities. Because, unless you do how will you convince someone who’s interviewing you that ‘you should get the job’ unless you yourself think that “you are the best person for a job.” So, develop a positive mindset first.
2. Be confident in your skills
Especially the skills that you wanted to get a job in. Let’s say, you want to work in marketing, you should have good marketing skills. If you want to become a freelance writer – you should have a command of English probably. If you are doing it in any other language, you should be fluent in that language. If you want to make a career in anything, you should have at least the basics of the skill mastered. Now if you don’t have absolute expertise over a skill, that’s completely fine. I think, “no one can be an expert in any field.” Because every field is evolving every day. However, you must have a will to learn.
3. Adaptability, Coachability, and The Will to Learn
Okay, you must be adaptable, you must be ready to learn new things, you must be coachable. If someone is teaching you something new they will prefer you. There are many brands that want people who are absolute freshers. Because it’s easier for them to season them into their brand voice. It’s easier for them to get accustomed to the way they want them to work. As long as you’re sure that you’re ready to adapt yourself as long as you’re sure that you are ready to adapt yourself to your clients’ needs, it’s okay. Don’t worry about what will happen at all.
4. Learning something new
The next thing that you should start doing is learning something if you don’t have that skill already. Let’s say, you really want to work as a marketeer. But, you have no idea on “How to run an ad”. Then, you should learn how to run an ad. If you want to be a web designer, you should learn it. Probably by taking some kind of course online. There are many free courses available on Coursera, EDX, future learn, etc.
5. Gather Experiences
You should look for experiences that you don’t really recognize that you have. Suppose, you want to make a career as a content writer but you are absolute fresher and you have no experience. So, why will someone hire you? Maybe you’ve never written professionally before. But, you have written for the college magazine or for the school magazine, or on a Facebook page. That’s also kind of an experience. Now, you can definitely not say that you have work experience. However, you can say something like: “I’ve been writing for a while now. But, now I am ready to expand my skills and I’m now ready to explore new possibilities that’s why I am applying for this position” – when you are talking to an interviewer. Because that really shows that you are passionate about something. And now you’re trying to make a career out of it. You’re not an absolute fresher. But rather someone who has not excluded the professional side of the skill you already have. Same for marketing, even if you have run a Facebook page, even if you have run an Instagram page and ruin into a significant number of followers – you are someone with more experience than someone who’s starting absolutely from scratch. So a lot of times people don’t even realize that they have a skill because they didn’t think that way. So if there’s something that you want to get a job in, the first thing that I want you to think about is have you tried any part of that job already. A lot of people will realize that they actually have experience and they didn’t even know that they had this experience. So, let me know in the comment section below if after thinking you realize that you have some experience in something that you didn’t even think about as yet. So, once you have that you can probably not add it to a CV. However, you can use it in your interview to show that you have been passionate about something or and show that you’re not an absolute fresher with no idea about the field.
6. Networking with People in Your Industry
You should start doing is ‘networking’. I can’t stress the importance of networking enough. If you want to make it big – be it online or offline. You have to network with people, you have to get corrected with the right kind of people who will be your ideal clients or customers and you need to build a relationship with them and that’s really really hard. When you are starting off in an industry, you will meet a lot of people. And your first job is to get connected with these people and get to know them. When did they start their work, where they are at right now, and what are their future goals? And keep talking to them, I am sure that at least out of 10 people use try to connect to 2-3 people will be responding to you. What happens is that sometimes these people, who are in your industry or the industry you want to tap into. They might need someone to work under them, they might have an extra client that they will refer to someone else. And if you are a close friend if they know you, they might actually refer you. So, that happens a lot a lot of work that you get is gonna be through referrals or by people you know. Most people who got a job, they got it by someone they knew, who knew someone that they knew. Now, what happens is that this interconnected network of referrals becomes very important in advancing your career online or offline even. Because, unless people know who you are how are they gonna hire you. So, this is very important to keep in mind the people you think are the right fit for you.
7. Work For Free
To gain experience, now there are a few guidelines that I will give you in working for free. Working for free is great only if you do it strategically. Don’t work for free for anyone and everyone. But, rather for people who are legit businesses who are reputed and who have a proper website probably. Because there will be many many people. If you start saying that ‘here I am ready to offer a little bit of free work’ and what about the industry you are in. Many people will flock to you. Because people love to your work. And they’ll probably ask you to work for a month for free. Or maybe for several months for freeze. I have had so many students who have worked for several months for free – just to gain some experience. Because the company that they worked in told them that they’ll give them the experience of 2-3 months and they made them do work of minimum a few lakhs sometimes – just under the pretense of that they will give you they give them a certificate. I don’t suggest that if you are working free max to max work for 7 days for free for someone. I think 7 days is more than enough to gain some experience. 7 days is more than enough in most fields to get to know if you will be a good fit for the client. And after that, if that client still wants you they should definitely pay you for your service. I highly believe in getting paid for your services. Even free service is not something I want people to do. So, you should be aware of the kind of person you’re working with. If you’re working for free for someone make sure they are an alleged person, make sure they are a good person, and make sure they are reputed. What you can do is that you can search for their profiles on LinkedIn. You can search for their websites and see what kind of person they are. And if they have any mentions and famous publications. These are two very good ways to kind of analyze the character of the person you’re working with. It’s never 100% foolproof but two things always search the search about the person you’re working for. And secondly, always make sure that you never work for free for more than seven days for anyone. Because you don’t want to be exploited. I think, as freshers, you are very prone to get exploited but my job is to protect you as much as I can. Also, just putting it out there if someone asks for a registration fee or a security fee to give you a job – don’t pay it. Why would someone ask you for money to hire you. Like a lot of people fall for this trap.
8. Clear doubts
Talk to people who are in your industry and ask them as many questions as you want to about the industry – as many questions as you have about the industry. There are many people who will answer your questions absolutely free. In Facebook groups, there are many people who offer mentorship and consultation programs where you can actually pay them a fee to call them up and ask whatever question you have because that will advance your experience by miles. Because you will know everything that they have known. That is one of the best ways to gain a little bit more of experience. And also like no up path that you should take in order to get to a certain point. That is something that has helped me a lot I was a freelancer for some time but it was only after taking a course. It was a course of marketing that I found out, how to get good clients online, how to make a career online as a freelancer, what kind of skills I should learn to update myself. So that really helped me. I’m pretty sure, if I hadn’t taken that course I wouldn’t be here now. What I highly suggest is that – when you are taking a course or mentorship or consultation with someone you always do a little bit of background research on them. And also see if you are the kind of person who wants to be like them. There’s no point in picking someone’s brain who you don’t really want to be like. If you want to be like them only then you go for this option.
9. Make an Impressive CV or Portfolio
Make a brilliant CV and in your CV I am pretty sure you are not able to add a lot of experience. However, you can focus on soft skills. Maybe you have brilliant leadership skills, maybe you have brilliant communication skills, you should make sure that you mentioned that. Because soft skills are very important. I feel like soft skills are very underrated. Soft skills really make or break any business or any job. And if you have good soft skills make sure that your CV mentions that well. Also, make sure that your CV is very attractive. Now what happens is that in the online industry, especially a freelance industry you don’t need a CV as much as you need a portfolio that is of your past work in everything. So I have never really had to send a CV to someone. Because mostly I applied for jobs where they saw what experience I’ve, what kind of results I’ve got for my past clients. So, if you are in that kind of industry, you won’t really need a CV but rather a portfolio. So in that case your portfolio should look really beautiful. Everything that you have done in the past should be right there.
10. Keep Applying For Jobs
There are many ways to look for jobs ‘Internshala‘ is one of them, ‘Naukri.com‘ is one of them and my favorite is ‘LinkedIn‘. In ‘LinkedIn’, you can actually filter jobs, you can just search for the kind of job you want, and you can filter different kinds of jobs available, you can search by location, you can also filter the jobs which have less than 10 applicants. So that you have a higher chance of getting hired. LinkedIn is probably a goldmine if you want to get jobs online. Now, what I suggest is that you keep applying and apply to at least 10 to 20 jobs per day. As I told you guys it’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be definitely hard.
11. Keep Patience
Patience is very important. You won’t get your first job within a week. But I would see within a month or two. You should start seeing some results – if not a concrete job. And let me know if these tips work, let me know if you are working on any of them and I’ll be back with another article.
Final Word:
Just keep building your experience as much as you can on your own unless you get a job. You can always try to get in touch with someone who’s already in the industry and offered to work a little bit for free or offer to work for them for a very nominal fee. If you really want to get started as soon as possible. Most of us have a lot of connections that we don’t even utilize. You just need to put up a Facebook post out there and you’ll get someone who is interested in your service if it’s like a popular service. So for example, for me, it was very easy to get started in marketing. Because what I did was, I just put out a post that I am looking for someone to work for and there were people in my friend list who had themselves have had businesses and I’m pretty sure you also have some people in your friend list who have their own businesses so if you are looking for making a career in marketing you can probably do that. Same for writing, you can offer to write social media posts or blog posts for someone you already know there are so many groups available online where your ideal clients are hanging out. Just search for the keyword you think your ideal client is using and join similar groups. For content writing; it will be content writers, for copywriting; it will be copywriters, for virtual assistants; it will be virtual assistants. Now hang out in those groups and try to see how others are getting work. Thanks.
