What have you tried to gain work experience?

So you’re trying to get a job. Everyone wants experience, but you need a job to get experience to get a job …. It’s an ugly seemingly infinite regress. So how do you break it before you go broke? We have a few ideas.

Sign up for an internship or a coop program through school. You can gain practical experience with a company while still working toward graduation. Since the school is helping you it takes some of the pressure off of you , and the people in the coop office have more experience and contacts than you do.

1) Join some student clubs. Volunteer for major responsibilities that have some relevance to your chosen profession. If you can manage the budget of a student organization then a corporate one should hold no terror and if you can get people to come out to the Ultimate Frisbee championship then you’re clearly a marketing god.

2) Beef up your resume. If you show a lot of business value then an employer is likely to overlook your inexperience. When going over resumes one always hopes to find that one gem, the kid who’s going to be CEO one day and say “I owe it all to one hiring manager who gave me a shot when no one else would.” So help them make that dream come true.

3) Don’t ask for a paycheck. Apply for a job with a big prestigious company and tell them you don’t want to get paid. Budgets today being what they are you’ll probably see the HR lady pinch herself, especially if you’ve taken the steps outlined above. Experience, references and letters of recommendation are a lot cheaper than full time employees so even if you’re not quite right for the slot you’ll look very attractive.

4) Start at the bottom. Pick the company you’d really like to work for and put in for a basic entry-level position. It’s the tried and tested method and it’ll get you the respect of the Old Guard. It’ll also give you a good idea of how the company really operates that will help when you become an executive. Once people get used to seeing you around the place, and that’ll happen quicker than you think, they’ll forget all about the experience you don’t have.