How to Get a Job Without Experience
From the Harvard Business Review | Aug 12, 2009 | by Larry Stybel
You know the Catch-22: "You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job."
Young job seekers have always faced this dilemma. In today's shrinking job market, people with years of experience also struggle with it. Whether they face the reality of a layoff, or merely the threat of one, many older workers are trying to reinvent themselves in order to become marketable in a changed economy.
Whether you're launching your career or trying to change its direction, you can get around this Catch-22 with some creativity and humility.
Here's how I did it:
I was a clinical psychologist in a community mental health center. It was professionally satisfying and financially unrewarding. I decided it was time to make more money. I would become a business consultant.
Imagine my surprise to learn that I could not find a single company eager to hire me. Apparently, they couldn't see that my ability to counsel sexual offenders was a transferable skill!
I couldn't get business experience without getting hired. I couldn't get hired without business experience. What to do?
At a party, I met Dr. Charles Daily, an organizational psychologist and entrepreneur. Dr. Daily was trying to market a new product to help companies make better hiring decisions. He had a good idea and no money to hire someone to help him realize it.
I said to Dr. Daily, "I'll do telemarketing cold calls for your new product. But I insist on being paid. The first payment will be a title appropriate to the job I will be doing - say, 'Business Development Associate.'" The second payment, if I fulfill my end of the deal, will be a good reference and introductions to colleagues who might be able to help me."
For the next two months, two days a week, I did my best to help Dr. Daily get traction for his new service. I made hundreds of calls - hating every one of them. I ultimately was able to set up two in-person appointments for Dr. Daily.
Neither of those led to new business. But Dr. Daily said my job had been to open doors; it was his job to close deals. I'd performed well and would get paid, in the form of introductions to some business associates. Those introductions, along with a resume that included my new title, eventually led to a job with a talent management-consulting firm.
How can you use such a strategy to get out of the no-win loop that circumscribes your professional growth?
Look for a company with a great idea and no money to execute it. Then:
- Be specific about what value you will provide. I wanted experience in the sales and marketing of professional services. I said I would make phone calls and get appointments for Dr. Daily. I didn't say I would generate sales because I didn't think I could do that.
- Be specific about what value you will receive. For me, appropriate compensation was a title I could add to my resume and introductions and a reference from Dr. Daily. Compensation is about value received for value given - and you're thinking too narrowly if you define value only in monetary terms.
- Be specific about time frame. I promised to work two days a week for two months. Be sure that your commitment doesn't preclude you from actively continuing a job search - or performing well enough to keep your present job.
What? You're too proud to offer your services at no charge? Get over it. If you choose the right opportunity, you'll gain industry or functional experience that has immeasurable value - and will ultimately lead to a real paycheck.
Larry Stybel is co-founder of the global career management firm Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire. He also is Executive in Residence at the Sawyer School of Business at Suffolk University.
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Reply from Paul Crist
This is a twist on the "volunteer-first" in order to get the job you want. In this story, I don't see that the author had very much of value to add to his resume...he spent, what, about 20 days total making cold calls? And didn't close any deals. No accomplishment to report.
I have a lifetime of using this tactic...and it has led to some amazing jobs. After selling my home remodeling business in 1991, I returned to university for a second undergrad degree at the age of 33. My first degree had been architecture. But I had become very interested in politics and civil rights issues...I wanted to do something that was more meaningful to me, and I wanted to travel, which my business had never permitted (I started it right out of university the first time, at 22). I was fortunate that I made enough on the sale of my business that I didn't have to work while being back in school...getting a degree in Political Science. But I wanted experience, so I went to my state's US Senator (now retired), and volunteered my services as an unpaid intern. I made an effort to participate in policy and legislative issues with paid staffers ...asked to be permitted to observe and assist...including issues I was not expert in...but when I took on an issue, I studied it like crazy and made myself, in some cases, as knowledgeable as the staffers were on the topic. I did do a whole lot of writing that no one read, but on a few issues, my coleagues were wowed by my analysis of an issue. I was offered a paid job after 3 months, and remained on staff through getting my Master's in International Economics.
After that, I got a job as a consultant in the energy industry (I sold out for big bucks...this wasn't what I had set out to do). I hated the job, on ethical grounds, but stuck it out for a few years. While on vacation in Mexico, I saw a small hotel for sale...and bought it. It took a few years to get the business on solid ground, but meanwhile, I discovered that HIV was a major problem in my resort city in Mexico...My first manager became ill and subsequently died from complications from AIDS. I learned that my city had the 4th highest number of reported cases in mexico, and was only a small city. So I set up a legal non-profit, connected with the Mexican federal and state Secretaries of Health, and got a large US HIV foundation involved... it took work adn time, but we got the first public-private collaboration together to build and operate an HIV clinic...I've continued my involvement for at least 5 years in this effort. The big US foundation just offered me a top-level job, as director of their international government relations. From a project I did, and continued to support, I now have a very good job that will allow me to use my talent and passion to reach millions more HIV patients worldwide, with testing, counseling, and treatment services.
AND, as a result of another volunteer effort...to get congressional authorization to allow Medicare to cover the approx. 200,000 seniors retired in Mexico... I've also become a recognized expert on cross-border healthcare issues. As a result, I'm consulting part time on a project to build a large senior housing project aimed at US retirees...to be built in Central Mexico...another case where I worked on an issue for free, because I thought it was right, and fair for the seniors who had paid into the Medicare system but did not have access to covered services (plus Medicare will save at least 22% over what they are now spending on this cohort of beneficiaries)... and it turned into a lucrative consulting contract.
So...if you want to job, or want a career change.... get out there and DO SOMETHING TO PROVE IT!
Paul
From Eric
I taught myself how to program over the last year and decided it's something I'd like to do professionally. I contacted everyone I know who works in IT and offered to work for them as a "freelance intern" in exchange for a line on my resume and a reference. However, I also asked for critical feedback on my work. If you write on this theme again, it's worth suggesting that approach to others: request mentoring as part of the quid pro quo. It helps you improve your skills and also demonstrates your drive to improve.
And for any doubters out there, I've already had two of the people for whom I volunteer offer to give me paid work. One of them mentioned my interest in mentoring as a reason. He said that a lot of programmers can write code that works, but many of them don't know why, nor do they care. The fact that I was driven to understand what I was doing and seeking to improve was worth more to him in the long run than the fact that I'm less experienced.
From Nick
I couldn't disagree more with this article. It would be so much better and more helpful to your average person if the stark realities were given as advice rather than a "wish list" of how things could turn out.
Firstly: Larry's story is about a professionally qualified individual
a "clinical psychologist " wanting to become a "business Consultant". Exactly what is a business consultant? In one sentence Larry has removed all the obstacles because he wants to transition into a profession that isn't a profession. I can't remember the last time I was given a requirement for a hiring "business consultant".
A better approach is to identify your core skill set and then think outside the box and go to the edges of where your skill set is of use to somebody in your targeted new career and then change your career from there.
You’re lawyer in NY and you want to become a carpenter or artist in Montana…. Find a studio or carpentry firm in Montana and approach them to see if they want legal services at reduced cost as well as letting you get your hands dirty at the coalface.
You’re a waiter in NY and you want to become a beach lifesaver in Miami, try and get a floor job at a beach club in Miami.
It’s all possible but only when starting from a point of reality and not diluting your worth or skills regardless of how limited they may appear to you.
Secondly, no matter how much desire or motivation there is to work for nothing, there is always an associated cost to the employer. Things like insurances for example or cost of offices etc. The really sad thing is that Larry got hired by a friend who clearly didn’t care too much about performance and happy to waste resources. The outcome was all negative for everybody involved. Larry failed since he didn’t actually have any background of success as such to take to any future employer, just experience. And, his employer got nothing out of it.
What Larry should have done here was stick at it, made sure his work produced some sales and then go and look for a new opportunities. That way he’s got a credible story to tell rather than this elusive "very low grade experience”. All Larry demonstrated was his inability to stick to a job and see it through to the end…..I certainly wouldn’t hire Larry or present him to any of my clients.
Lack of experience isn’t the problem it’s a lack of judged approached in trying to make the transition or getting the job. How judged, smart or realistic was Larry’s approach..????
From Ron Peterson
Following your advice would make a person pro-active regarding their job situation, possibly introduce them to a new skill set of marketing and selling, permit them to learn from the feedback of people they spoke with, creatively think of the possibilities associated with the product or service, and otherwise give them a chance at a new or enhanced career. Risky stuff? Hardly. (P.S. While Larry said he hated making cold calls, I found just the reverse, that people were extraordinarily nice when you were professional in your call, and it always led to sales.)
From Mark Pegues
Great article! I actually started my IT consulting firm by doing pro bono work and hiring interns. In my mind it was a forced sacrafice because everybody on my team had issues with finding a job that paid a living wage. Everybody on the team was smart, socially conscious, and energetic.
Now we all are doing good as a result of working together from very humbled beginings. Our shared value/vision was our desire to create or obtain decent employment. It was a win situation for all our stakeholders.