How to get a first job with no experience? How can a recent graduate get a job without experience?

A good job depends upon how you define it. I believe that a good job is one with decent pay and a good amount of (important) work, that helps me grow as a person. let me get this straight, I don’t intend on staying in one company forever, so to get a better job at a better company, I need to show that I HAVE done something in my old job.

So, since everyone here only relates if there’s a backstory, here’s mine in brief since I don’t want to bore you.

So I graduated from DU, about, 4 weeks ago, and I started my job 2 months back. So, technically, I didn’t even graduate when I started my job.

In specific, a full time, actual, reference/resume/cv required job. Otherwise in my three years of college I have done a few jobs here and there, pertaining to, in NO WAY, the field of my major (economics). So basically, I was interested in pursuing MBA, marketing, I was working as a writer for a company, and in my job experience (internship, LOL, I had a month of experience in Sales, maybe. Really, it was just a maybe)

SO BASICALLY, when I applied to this new company I had zero job experience. Prior to this I had ample amount of demotivating experiences, because I signed up on every single job portal with a shiny beautiful resume expecting to get a job. Let me also tell you that I did that in December, post which I received nothing but innumerable job calls for BPO (of course, with fancy words such as backend operations and stuff. I don’t remember). December, I became active on naukri. It was June, when I got so tired of not receiving the right call that I actually took my last paper and now, ACTIVELY started to look for a job. Etc. etc., all in all, it’s a long process if you don’t do it the right way, and don’t apply to the right jobs.

How to apply for a job as a fresher(or as someone with 0 exp):

1.

Beautiful resume please. Short, 1-2 sides long. I had a 1.5 sided resume, that too because I was avidly into sports and had like 8 medals in different games. Also, till the time I was actually told that my work experience was not actually work experience, I would harp on about it in my resume as well. So, keep it short and clean.

2.

Apply for startups- unless you’re an IT person (god I hate their guts, they have people waiting for them with an 8LPA package) people aren’t willing to take in kids with respectable degrees and a respectable score from respectable colleges. Ask me, Economics honors from Du, IP College, I had to get a frikkin’ 95% to get in, and now, I was asked to become a receptionist. So what you have to do is, to get a good job at a good company, you need experience. (and if you’re one of those who says “ hey, I have experience”, don’t flatter yourself. I co-founded a company, wrote 21 books, and won 8 state level medals. I’m still counted as a fresher. Did give me a raise though cuz they thought I was cool :D). MNC’s need people who won’t make mistakes. Who will be perfect. So consolidate and figure out your trial and testing phase in startups. Learn, and once you have 3-5 years of experience, and a million projects to prove your worth, change your job.

3.

Don’t be afraid- Honestly, you’re a fresher, you HAVE no experience. No Value you will be to the company, because 6/10 times, you will be applying for a job OUTSIDE your major. Don’t be like the kids who harp on about their internships or that one paper they did on something sometime 3 years back on their resume. Tell them ‘no’ when they ask for work ex. Tell them about your jobs, your internships, your papers, but don’t be afraid to tell them that you just graduated. But be good at whatever you do, so make sure that you have something to show them. Show them that you won some writing competition, show them that you were into sports, or show them that you were just plain into studying and that you scored really well. If not, at least show them that you have SOME knowledge about what you want to do. I actually got asked in the interview “no, all that is fine. But what did you actually DO these three years?”

If you feel like you haven’t done anything, get some background about the job. These two months that you wait or run around giving interviews, learn a language, or do a course. Here are a few of my fav sites (also, again, speaking from personal experience, it was really sad when 90% of the companies said “so you know NOTHING about digital marketing?”) HeadHonchos, Coursera, and simplilearn. And the courses are certified so you’ll be good.

Don’t look for a big company, look for a company that is invests in you as much as you invest in them. A good job is one that compensates for your hard work, while teaching you how to grow. (I know, quite contrary to how its supposed to be. You should’ve done the learning before joining. :P)

Anyway, clichéd, but do smart work, not hard work. Don’t send your resume out to 6000 companies. Have a clear plan and work hard. Good luck.

This answer is given by Quora.com expert Gauri Bhatia..

Many employers do hire fresher without experience also because they believe youngsters are creative, abundant positive attitude, willing to work hard, learn quickly and could be easily trained.

So, don’t forget to highlight following points when you attend interview:

1. Assure the employer to be punctual and willingness to work even late hours if required.
2. Don’t be rigid in salary expectations - You can say that you are willing to negotiate.  If required, allow the employer to review your work for one or two months before fixing your salary.  Till then, they can pay some stipend to cover your expenditure.
3. Be computer literate and familiar with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point) and net surfing.
4. Develop pleasant attitude, sport a smile, listen to superiors and never hesitate to get doubts cleared.

There are many candidates who are still in search of jobs without experience and for them I would say just go through the following points and get hired. Don’t worry if you fail; there are lots of job openings for freshers.

Have a goal but be realistic

It is a fact that you cannot get into all jobs without any hands on experience. For example you cannot become a team leader without being an entry level developer. So it is always good to start with an entry level job.

Show certificates or proofs of your previous work

IF you have any previous work in your school or college days like attended workshops and have experience in the respective work. Then just collect those certificates and attend the interview. If you impress the employer with your excellent knowledge and communication skills then you will be hired by the company.

An internship will pay you

You can enroll yourself for an internship program and be a part of the organization to know about the work and experience, tricks, and trade. You will also make some valuable contacts along with a greater chance to be a part of the same or any other organization.

Know well about the industry and its status

Before getting into the industry know about it and some of the industry jargons, keywords may be from some of the reputed professionals to know more. So that you can answer the interview questions well enough to impress and get hired.

Don’t be embarrassed for double duty

After getting into an entry level job, if you come to know about your dream just get to know more about it, learn about it, practice it well and show your skills to the manager so that you can get a lateral entry to your desired position within the company.

This answer is given by Quora.com Nisha Gupta

How can a recent graduate get a job without experience?

In the current scenario, it is relatively tough for a lot of people to get the right job after their graduation. The best part about getting a job from campus placements is, that you have only 300–400 people to compete with and have higher chances of getting a job but if you do not secure an opportunity and apply off campus, then you will have 300,000 to 400,000 people looking for the same type of opportunity and probability is reduced by 1000x.

I don’t mean to scare or dishearten you in any manner but just want you to be prepared for the hustle. As you haven’t mentioned which domain you wish to get into, I will guide you as per the higher chances of securing a job. There are industries such as IT, FMCG, Healthcare, business and consulting etc. Whereas all of them have really good options, IT offers the most number of jobs and is the biggest employer. So let’s talk about it first.

IT industry- IT industry is primarily divided into 2 parts-

1. Service based companies- Companies like congnizant, TCS, Wipro, Infosys hire freshers and make them work on specific technologies. On an average, you get 2.5–3.3lpa initially. While this can be one option to start your career with, you need to understand that the learning and growth there is low as within 2–3 years you will be at 4–4.5lpa only. As you just keep working on specific projects, you might become good at 1 technology but not an all-rounder.
2. Product based companies- Companies which are offering a product to solve an issue or make our lives easier i.e. Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy etc. hire people for various technologies and offer better learning curve as you will be working on a whole system and will learn various aspects of business, rather then just one technology or area. Salaries being offered here are between 4–7lpa initially and you can reach 8–12lpa within 2–3 years of span.

This was about what IT offers. Now you need to understand, what it requires?

So, IT industry requires you to constantly upgrade and improve your skill set in order to grow and achieve the right curve. Let’s look at the trends for last few years in web development.

As you can see, javascript is now the most popular and in demand language to work on. In 2011, it was ruby which was topping the charts. So you have to keep this in your mind that you learn as much as you can, adopt new technologies and you will be able to achieve a good growth for sure.

Next question is, How you can get a job with no prior experience?

In last few years, due to the rise of startup ecosystem in the country, there has been a great hike in the demand of skilled developers and IT professionals. Companies are willing to hire people with the right skill set, even if they don’t hold much experience. All you need to do is to learn and gain practical experience even when you are working.

So to get a job, you will have to follow a step by step process and if you miss any of these points, you will not be able to secure a well-paying job. So these are the 3 steps you can follow-

1. Start learning the skills as per the demand of the industry. You can start with the basics and move to the advance level step by step.
2. While learning, start applying your skills to work on live projects, problem statements and build a portfolio which covers all the practical work you have done.
3. Start building professional connections, work on your profile and CV to make it look presentable and then start applying for jobs. If you follow these steps strictly, in the same order, there will be no questions about being a fresher or professional and you will easily get hired.

I would suggest, you learn from industry professionals and not from training institutions, as the people in institutes, do not have industry experience and are just teachers. If you learn there, you won’t be able to get much of a practical knowledge and will be stuck with no job.

I can suggest you a few online platforms which I have tried personally such as Udacity, edX, edWisor, simplilearn etc.

• Udacity-

Pros- Good curriculum, certification

Cons- Can be expensive, they offer nano degrees, which are not authorized in India

• edWisor.com-

Pros- Industry level curriculum, many live projects, industry professionals as mentors and the most important part is that they offer job assurance in India.

Cons- Do not hold a big brand name as of now.

• Simplilearn, edX-

Pros- Only live sessions learning, certification

Cons- No job assistance, can be quite expensive for a lot of people

While I have tried all of them, you are free to do your own research and choose the right one for you. As you mentioned, you are looking for an opportunity as well, I would suggest that you consider edWisor.com, as they offer a job assurance and can be your best bet.

I am open to discussions and to answer your queries. Feel free to connect or request an answer, if you have anything to ask regarding IT industry, trends and job opportunities.

Wish you luck!!

by quora expert Rishabh Tayal

How can computer science students get experience without a job?

Some classes will give you experience. Build on that by picking some project and doing it on your own or with someone else.

One of the great things about computer science is there are so many tutorials on the internet to help you gain some experience by building things on your own or with others.

For example, I thought it might be fun to build an app for Android. I just performed an internet search for tutorials on the subject and was led me to a step by step guide for building your first mobile app for that operating system. Within a few minutes I built my first app for Android.

Consider looking at job postings for the skills that people want. Then find tutorials that will help you gain more experience with those skills.

by quora.com expert Bryan Kingsford

 Need experience for a job but can't get any job without experience. Is there any way to get experience?

• The Girl Scout Cookie approach
  
  Do people really buy “thin Mints” because they are so tasty that they crave them, in the same way that zombies crave brains — for the entire year, until they are available for a limited time, after which they go back to craving?
  
  No. The value proposition on Girl Scout Cookies sucks; you buy them because of your connections. Your connection to your friends and coworkers are used to pressure you into buying the cookies. Or if you are buying from a neighborhood kid, you are doing it because you want to be seen as a good neighbor.
  
  So use your connections — friends, family, and the people your friends and family know — in order to get someone to buy this thing with an admittedly bad value proposition argument: you!
• The do anything approach
  You use this approach when you have no other options but to get some employment calendar time logged on your resume.
  
  Ideally, you’ll do something that requires you to interact with the public, especially foreign nationals, if you have some familiarity with their language: this instantly makes you more valuable, and it teaches you social skills useful in talking someone into hiring you.
  
  Less ideally, you’ll volunteer, intern, work at a very low (but still legal) wage for the position, etc.. Anything to log the hours so you can say “yes, I have experience”, even if you have to say “yes, I have experience in this other area, and here’s how it will help me be a great employee for you”.
• The start your own business approach
  
  If you can’t get someone else to do the work that you know you’re qualified to do, then hire yourself. I’m not kidding.
  
  Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur; but if you’ve been persisting after 80 consecutive rejections? Buddy, I’m not going to far out on a limb saying that you have the #1 quality it takes: persistence.
• The go back to school approach
  
  This approach will get you access to the internships and externships that you can put on your resume as work experience. That you don’t have these things (and if you have a degree: you darn well should have them) speaks really loudly to an employer that you lack ambition. So Fix it.
• The improve the product approach
  
  Look, the reason you aren’t getting hired may not be your ability to sell your product (you); it may be that the product you are selling isn’t desirable enough.
  
  If you can get a frank evaluation of where you need to improve to get the job next time, you can actually work and improve on those areas. It’s not possible that every single place said “no experience” was the reason.
  
  This can be hard information to get. You should get it anyway. Call up the interviewer, and say “Can you do me a favor? I’d like to buy you a cup of coffee, and in exchange, you let me pick your brains on how I can improve my approach to potential employers.”
  
  You’ve just hit the main key points for a mentor arrangement: (a) ask for a favor, rather than offering them something; (b) offer a minor token in exchange, not equal to the favor, which will not discharge your debt for them granting the favor — coffee or similar is perfect, because it gives you a minimum time window in which to talk to them; (c) the big ask part of the favor, which simultaneously indicates that you respect their input.

By the way: if you end up taking the last approach in that list with all 80? Don’t be too surprised if someone offers to hire you, based on your approaching them this way — or volunteers to act as a mentor going forward, educating you, and otherwise helping you, up to and including using their connections to get you a job someplace else.