Young marketing professionals who seek job changes often run into a proverbial wall.
“Sorry, but your experience does not match with what we’re looking for.” Many candidates suffer from the Catch-22 situation of needing experience to be hired, but needing to be hired in order to gain the experience.
It can get frustrating.
But can this sentence be avoided during job interviews?
It is possible to do so.
It is a myth that experience can be gained only through traditional means.
Experience is not a formal entity that can be gained only within the constraints of a corporate role.
It can also be gained by taking on a challenge, and seeing it through to the end (whether you succeed or fail, the learning is what matters.)
This is “PROOF OF WORK.” As long as you can show that, formalised experience does not matter.
Want to get a content marketing job? – Start a website or a LinkedIn profile, post quality material consistently, and gain shares and engagement. You’ll learn SEO and content creation along the way.
Want to get a perf marketing job? – Start off as an intern at a firm where there is good talent. Learn from them while executing.
Want to land a design role? – Start designing on your own, using free YouTube courses to learn. Build a portfolio, offer to collaborate for free with professional designers. Showcase your work.
Proof of work trumps “experience” always.