Pitching Yourself with Zero Years of Work Experience
As a careers professional supporting students in Bloc’s web development and UI/UX design programs, a question that I get asked almost every day is this:
“How do I sell myself when I have no actual work experience as a [developer/designer]”?
For career changers, it’s tough to know how to navigate that daunting question of:
“How many years of work experience do you have relevant to this job?”
The consequence of not knowing what to do can lead you to:
- Not apply to jobs that ask for [x] amount of years of work experience, and
- Not feel confident enough in the interview stages to truly sell yourself as a strong candidate.
While all of this is difficult to navigate as a first-time developer or a designer, here’s the good news:
Others have gone on before you and succeeded in their job searches with zero work experience, just like you! Don’t believe me? Check out Bloc success stories here.
Folks who were truck drivers, English teachers, non-profit event managers, and stay at home moms before entering into their jobs in tech have done it; so, why can’t you?
The question you might be asking yourself at this point is:
How did they do it?
Well, that’s exactly what this post is for!
Based on the stories of Bloc graduates that I have had the privilege of working with, I wanted to share my tips on how to succeed in selling yourself as a strong candidate with zero years of work experience by owning it, and presenting yourself in the following 3 ways:
1. Put Your Best Foot Forward, Work Experience or Not.
Yes, the truth is: You can’t fake work experience even if you try your best to do so. Even if you try your best to sell yourself on your resume or your LinkedIn as having work experience, eventually in interview stages hiring managers and recruiters will get to know what you do have experience in, and what you don’t have experience in.
While you can’t fake the fact that you haven’t gotten paid to do projects in development or design — you can express the fact that you do have experience building projects on your own (or through a mentorship program like Bloc) and have strong working familiarity with tools/technologies that are relevant to the companies and jobs that you’re pursuing.
While you may not have 100% of what the job description asks for, don’t focus on the 40% that you can’t claim to know and have; focus the conversation on the 60% that you can claim!
As an interviewer, they want to hear what you do have to offer, and your confidence in that.
Speak to that and speak to it with boldness! Don’t shy from talking about your experience, even if it wasn’t technically “work” experience.
2. Highlight Strengths that You Offer as an Entry Level Candidate.
Oftentimes there is a misconception of the fact that someone is junior or entry in their experience, and therefore have less to offer. This is not entirely true!
As an entry level candidate, your strengths include:
The Enthusiasm to Learn
The Humility to Adapt to a Team
The Knowledge of the Newest Tools/Technologies
While these soft skills may sound like they’re not actual strengths, in relation to mid or senior level talent in your career of choice — these strengths are actually a lot more difficult to find than you would imagine!
Based on conversations with hiring managers, I can confirm that junior level talent attracts companies for the above reasons, and actually do stand out in the job market despite having no experience.
That’s why some companies have specific new graduate and apprentice hiring programs — because they see the value in “greener” folks!
3. Show Your Enthusiasm and Willingness to Learn.
As a newer, entry-level hire, you can’t guarantee to an employer that you will already have immediate mastery over everything that they want you to do — but your top strength is in showcasing your ability to grow and learn whatever it takes to succeed with that company!
You are selling yourself mostly based on your potential, with your projects or other evidence to back you up. However, the rest is up to the company to decide whether or not you have a promising future to grow and flourish with them if given the opportunity to do so.
Your job in an interview is not to answer interview question with a perfect answer; your job is to show your willingness to understand and acknowledge that you need to grow and develop during your first job.
And who’s taking ownership of this learning process? You!
If you can show an employer that you’re a humble learner and have the willingness to take that into your own hands (without being handheld the whole time!), that employer will see that they are hiring you based on the 10% of your skills that you already do have and showcase on your portfolio of works, and 90% of you that they trust you will grow into once they hire you full time.
A great way to do this is by helping them envision how you would teach yourself the skills that you need on the job -
Would you create a 30/60/90 day plan for yourself even if they didn’t require it, so that you can measure your own success month over month?
Will you try your best to answer your own questions, but know when to ask questions on things that you don’t know?
Will you continue to pursue additional learning outside of the job to strengthen your skills continuously, as a non-stop learner?
You will want to make crystal clear to an interviewer that the answer to all of the above is “yes”!
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In Conclusion…Yes, the job search ahead of you as an entry level candidate is going to have its ups and downs — but hopefully this post gives you a few more ideas to add to your toolkit when it comes to building your confidence and resilience throughout the search, until you make it to that final job offer.
There are lots of folks who are out there who have done it before you — and with the right amount of commitment, dedication and A/B testing on all of the above, you can get there too.
Happy job hunting!
Cheers,
Kara
Senior Career Developer @Bloc
