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SO this is really frustrating to me. Whenever I see an in interesting job online and than scroll down to look at the requirements, it often says "experience required for X months/years". That is great and all, but the underlying question that keeps popping up in my head is HOW do you get that experience if all the jobs seem to require experience to start off with?
Example #1
Sales & Service Speicalist @ Bank of America
Required Skills:
Minimum of six months customer service experience
Minimum of one year of successful sales experience in a goal and/or incentive-based environment within the past three years
Skilled in optimizing sales opportunities to existing and walk-in customers
Ability to generate new business by outbound calling and by reaching out to the local community
Excellent oral and written communication skills with exceptional influencing skills
Ability to work effectively as a team member and with customers
Strong analytical and problem solving skills. Ability to derive innovative solutions
Demonstrate problem-solving, teamwork abilities and ability to be proactive
Pass pre-employment assessment
Whenever I look online for jobs and I find something that is interesting, stuff like that shows up. That's all good and everything, but WHERE do I even begin to get customer service experience and/or sales experience if all the stupid jobs want experience in the area?
If you are a cashier, does that qualify you for "customer experience"?
I would like to get into a sales position, but every position I've ever seen so far says that you need some sort of background experience in sales already (and I have none....where do you get background experience from?)
What other jobs can provide me with the necessary experience so that I can pursue other job opportunities that have experience requirements and such?
 
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you have to work your way up to that kind of position from within another company I suppose, like work at a big box store doing anything really and hopefully you can get moved to a customer service or sales position after awhile. Then after than you can either stay with that company or start applying to places like that bank with the experience you gained.
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To get experience in sales and services either go educate yourself, like Uni, many times a part of the program you attend will be to actually work for someone once you reach the end of your education.
Option number two would be to apply to low status jobs that gives you that experience, for example car sales, direct marketing, cold calling, working in a supermarket store at a product information desk and so forth.
This sounds like a job that you actually already need practical experience in sales and services, which you do not have so you should start looking for a low entry job and once you been there for a while and actually aquired some experience then you can apply to jobs that demands it.
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This wouldn't have stopped Warren...
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Man I know exactly what you're talking about.
I have had great grades in school, a ton of work experience, laudable recommendations from previous employers and still it's really hard to find a job I would learn to do in a week's time to support myself during Uni.
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This is pretty simple actually. What you're looking for isn't in your regular online job-listings but more of your regular low-wage job that offers training. The companies don't have the time to assess if you have 'talent' in what you're applying for and rather rely on people who have actually had experience or time in the field.
How do you get that experience? Well everybody starts somewhere. Don't just set your goals on something prestigious.
Imagine yourself but with a related degree or with minimal work-experience for whatever you're applying for.
Now imagine that version of yourself having a difficult time attaining that position--that is what the job market is like most of the time. You need to work your way there, or have a way to connect yourself to a reasonable position.
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The only low entry jobs I have seen around the area are for fast food places like Mcdonalds and Subway. Ill check my local superrmarket too for any openings, any other places that offer regular low wage jobs that can help me get experience?
I was a dishwasher for a year and a half and I know that's a low wage job, but it's in the wrong category of expertise I am trying to build up so I don't want to go back to that and am focused on expanding my view of alternate jobs
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Smaller companies with a smaller budget (and thus smaller salaries) often drop their standards of experience.
That's how you work your way up and move across. All companies have ladders with the steps being distanced differently depending how high a ladder (or big the company is) goes.
You will see this with similarly named jobs with similar descriptions, but the requisites are different.
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cashiering is customer service
u can apply to a lot of jobs that u might not be qualified/have enough experience for. i got a job in mortgage lending despite having 0 experience in that kind of thing or any related anything, all i had was experience with customer service via retail (job im doing now i have 0 customer interaction) and some school stuff.
dont be afraid of applying to things you might not think u are qualified for. you can also apply to a position that requires less experience and try to move up, i know some ppl that i trained with started as bank tellers and are doing the same stuff as me etc.
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On May 26 2013 08:01 Torte de Lini wrote:
Smaller companies with a smaller budget (and thus smaller salaries) often drop their standards of experience.
That's how you work your way up and move across. All companies have ladders with the steps being distanced differently depending how high a ladder (or big the company is) goes.
You will see this with similarly named jobs with similar descriptions, but the requisites are different.
You would think that smaller companies care more about their employees because if they have a few bad employees they can fail, but big companies can coast on brand name.
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On May 26 2013 08:32 AiurZ wrote:
cashiering is customer service
u can apply to a lot of jobs that u might not be qualified/have enough experience for. i got a job in mortgage lending despite having 0 experience in that kind of thing or any related anything, all i had was experience with customer service via retail (job im doing now i have 0 customer interaction) and some school stuff.
dont be afraid of applying to things you might not think u are qualified for. you can also apply to a position that requires less experience and try to move up, i know some ppl that i trained with started as bank tellers and are doing the same stuff as me etc.
bank tellers require customer experience....I wish I could apply to be a teller and work my way up but as far as I see it, that's something i still have to work up towards
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On May 26 2013 08:49 Race is Terran wrote:Show nested quote +On May 26 2013 08:32 AiurZ wrote:
cashiering is customer service
u can apply to a lot of jobs that u might not be qualified/have enough experience for. i got a job in mortgage lending despite having 0 experience in that kind of thing or any related anything, all i had was experience with customer service via retail (job im doing now i have 0 customer interaction) and some school stuff.
dont be afraid of applying to things you might not think u are qualified for. you can also apply to a position that requires less experience and try to move up, i know some ppl that i trained with started as bank tellers and are doing the same stuff as me etc. bank tellers require customer experience....I wish I could apply to be a teller and work my way up but as far as I see it, that's something i still have to work up towards
jw have you tried applying and had them tell you no bc of your lack of experience?
customer service skills are essentially just being able to interact w a wide variety of people and in different situations and be able to keep your calm. ppl hiring know this as well, and i bet if u seem like you have a good attitude etc. then they wont really care that another applicant that they are considering worked at the mall or whatever.
if you are being blocked by yourself by thinking like "im not qualified for this" or "i dont have the experience for this" then you should lose that and start to apply for things that you might think are outside of your experience/education but you think you would be able to do.
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Most of these requirements are from low-wage jobs, I mean you can be a salesmen or blue shirt at best buy and that qualifies for customer service skills.
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On May 26 2013 09:05 AiurZ wrote:Show nested quote +On May 26 2013 08:49 Race is Terran wrote:On May 26 2013 08:32 AiurZ wrote:
cashiering is customer service
u can apply to a lot of jobs that u might not be qualified/have enough experience for. i got a job in mortgage lending despite having 0 experience in that kind of thing or any related anything, all i had was experience with customer service via retail (job im doing now i have 0 customer interaction) and some school stuff.
dont be afraid of applying to things you might not think u are qualified for. you can also apply to a position that requires less experience and try to move up, i know some ppl that i trained with started as bank tellers and are doing the same stuff as me etc. bank tellers require customer experience....I wish I could apply to be a teller and work my way up but as far as I see it, that's something i still have to work up towards jw have you tried applying and had them tell you no bc of your lack of experience? customer service skills are essentially just being able to interact w a wide variety of people and in different situations and be able to keep your calm. ppl hiring know this as well, and i bet if u seem like you have a good attitude etc. then they wont really care that another applicant that they are considering worked at the mall or whatever. if you are being blocked by yourself by thinking like "im not qualified for this" or "i dont have the experience for this" then you should lose that and start to apply for things that you might think are outside of your experience/education but you think you would be able to do.
ok. Ya my mindsets been pretty "im not qualified for this" and "i dont have the xp for this", Ill work on losing that
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Just apply to the job and give it a shot. My second job having to do with data analysis that looked for strong excel skills, I just went for it and worked through it even though I didn't know much about excel. The key is to have an independent mindset, but keep any contacts you have in case you need some help or a push in the right direction on a project. Often times people will just hire someone if they like them and feel like they're confident and make a good addition to the team (i.e. team player).
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It's the norm nowadays. There is a joke for business graduates.
Need work for experience, need experience for work. Endless cycle.
You can still apply for them though, nothing wrong with just applying. But imo if you are thinking to work for big companies like bank of America, you will need a lot more than what you have right now.
Usually jobs from big company that asks for degree minimum will reject anyone who doesn't have one unless that person had a lot of outstanding experience to prove he is fit for the job.
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On May 26 2013 11:09 ETisME wrote:
It's the norm nowadays. There is a joke for business graduates.
Need work for experience, need experience for work. Endless cycle.
You can still apply for them though, nothing wrong with just applying. But imo if you are thinking to work for big companies like bank of America, you will need a lot more than what you have right now.
Usually jobs from big company that asks for degree minimum will reject anyone who doesn't have one unless that person had a lot of outstanding experience to prove he is fit for the job.
I certainly would like to end up at a larger corporation, but I gotta find the experience first  lookin to join the rat race/endless cycle if you know what i mean
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On May 26 2013 08:33 obesechicken13 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 26 2013 08:01 Torte de Lini wrote:
Smaller companies with a smaller budget (and thus smaller salaries) often drop their standards of experience.
That's how you work your way up and move across. All companies have ladders with the steps being distanced differently depending how high a ladder (or big the company is) goes.
You will see this with similarly named jobs with similar descriptions, but the requisites are different. You would think that smaller companies care more about their employees because if they have a few bad employees they can fail, but big companies can coast on brand name.
Yeah I've thought this was the case too. A small company (e.g. a start-up) would want to look very carefully and ensure that the person they hire or the intern they take on is very specifically qualified for the job and adept at what he/she does, as far as I know.
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United States24615 Posts
On May 26 2013 08:49 Race is Terran wrote:Show nested quote +On May 26 2013 08:32 AiurZ wrote:
cashiering is customer service
u can apply to a lot of jobs that u might not be qualified/have enough experience for. i got a job in mortgage lending despite having 0 experience in that kind of thing or any related anything, all i had was experience with customer service via retail (job im doing now i have 0 customer interaction) and some school stuff.
dont be afraid of applying to things you might not think u are qualified for. you can also apply to a position that requires less experience and try to move up, i know some ppl that i trained with started as bank tellers and are doing the same stuff as me etc. bank tellers require customer experience....I wish I could apply to be a teller and work my way up but as far as I see it, that's something i still have to work up towards
My friend became a bank teller with no customer experience so make sure you check with more than one place if you are serious.
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On May 26 2013 11:53 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On May 26 2013 08:49 Race is Terran wrote:On May 26 2013 08:32 AiurZ wrote:
cashiering is customer service
u can apply to a lot of jobs that u might not be qualified/have enough experience for. i got a job in mortgage lending despite having 0 experience in that kind of thing or any related anything, all i had was experience with customer service via retail (job im doing now i have 0 customer interaction) and some school stuff.
dont be afraid of applying to things you might not think u are qualified for. you can also apply to a position that requires less experience and try to move up, i know some ppl that i trained with started as bank tellers and are doing the same stuff as me etc. bank tellers require customer experience....I wish I could apply to be a teller and work my way up but as far as I see it, that's something i still have to work up towards My friend became a bank teller with no customer experience so make sure you check with more than one place if you are serious.
ug. I guess I just have to accept the fact that I am going to get rejected A LOT before I get a job. Really, being completely honest here I hate getting rejected for jobs, especially the ones that I really want. it's not easy :/
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You are defeating yourself if you aren't even applying because of the "needs experience" requirement. Every business wants people who know what they are doing without being told, if they get that person or not is a completely different story. Don't assume somebody with 4-5 years of experience has applied yet, go in and talk to them before deciding that you have lost! That being said good luck... it really is extremely difficult 
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Apply anyways. The worst thing that can happen is you never hear from them again.
Honestly, in large corporate environments, most of the HR people write listings which essentially require you to already do the exact job wanted for some period of time beforehand, even for positions which you can literally not have ever held outside of their company. (There are also humorous examples of tech positions requiring things like 5 years of experience in programming languages and/or technologies that have not existed that long.)
I've brought it up elsewhere in a different blog, that there is less of a skill gap or education gap in the world and more of an expectations gap. I've spent the past 10 years working in a security related field that, while sometimes tedious and obnoxious, has been fairly good. You want to know my "prior security experience"? I was a systems administrator, so of course I knew about computer security. (The type of physical security work I do now is completely different, but it does help being the guy that knows computers even when I'm disallowed to actually install printers.) + Show Spoiler + It's not really just physical security, but that's the best generalization I can get.
When in doubt, apply anyways. If the process involves an "application form", you get pretty quick filling them in as most are almost identical. Resumes, cover letters, they take a little more work and time, but you should also be learning more about what you've done and how it fits the buzzword oriented hiring cultures as you do it. One of the better points in my many attempts to get a better job is that not getting the job rarely bothers me (except when there's stupidity, but that's neither here nor there) but I view each opening as a challenge in finding how I can fit what I have done to what they are looking for as best as I can, without lying. And yeah, some jobs I know I don't qualify for in the least, but if I don't apply I won't know what could happen. And I've gotten at least one very lovely rejection letter for a position I knew I wasn't going to get (can you say "representing the country at a Cabinet level overseas"?) that at least puts my name somewhere in the vicinity of the radar. (Also had some good suggestions.)
Most applications are put into the system, and you never hear about it again. But if you don't put them in, you deny yourself the chance of even hearing about how you didn't fit (which gives you a way to address that in the future). And of course, you'll never get hired without applying to start with.
TL;dr - Apply anyway. The worst thing that could happen is nothing - and that's exactly what will happen if you don't. But you might be surprised and hear back.
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Some jobs like this can require volunteer work, which would count towards experience.
I know with my 9 months of volunteer work (during training) in a school i was able to land a job in a montessori because of it.
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Is it customary to get negative replies for applications in the US?
When I was about to work full-time, I wrote 7 applications and got 7 job offers, now that I want to work part time during college I wrote 7 applications again and didn't get a single reply, not even a negative one.
I even applied to a chain grocery store as a cashier and didn't hear back, despite having 2 years experience in sales, 3 years experience in customer care and really good grades in school. I must be doing something very wrong.
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On May 26 2013 17:51 Meow-Meow wrote:
Is it customary to get negative replies for applications in the US?
When I was about to work full-time, I wrote 7 applications and got 7 job offers, now that I want to work part time during college I wrote 7 applications again and didn't get a single reply, not even a negative one.
I even applied to a chain grocery store as a cashier and didn't hear back, despite having 2 years experience in sales, 3 years experience in customer care and really good grades in school. I must be doing something very wrong.
In the US, you will generally not receive any reply unless you're hired for a wide swath of positions. Most especially for any large chains. There are also other things that can pop up. A follow up phone call or visit can be worthwhile.
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I'd say in general you will not get any response back. If you do get a negative response it is just some copy and pasted pre made one that says "thanks for the interest, will be contact you if we are interested."
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I have to say, that's incredibly rude.
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the fear of getting rejected from a job reminds me a LOT about the fear of getting rejected with girls. The worst that can happen is that they say no, things don't work out, and you move on learning something I guess
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Rejection isn't the worst that can happen.
I got three replies now that basically say:
"We won't give you what you want, which is a part-time job, but we'd love to have you as a full-time employee."
Which is basically the job-equivalent of getting friendzoned...
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so as for actually picking stores, I should just drive around and like visit different stores and ask about if they are hiring?
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On May 27 2013 23:12 Meow-Meow wrote:
Rejection isn't the worst that can happen.
I got three replies now that basically say:
"We won't give you what you want, which is a part-time job, but we'd love to have you as a full-time employee."
Which is basically the job-equivalent of getting friendzoned...
That's more like "No I'm not looking for a fuck buddy, but I'll certainly date".
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totally agree with 'ignore and apply anyway'.
I have seen interns get 'needs 3+ years experience in corporate compliance' jobs.
edit:
On May 27 2013 04:44 felisconcolori wrote:Show nested quote +On May 26 2013 17:51 Meow-Meow wrote:
Is it customary to get negative replies for applications in the US?
When I was about to work full-time, I wrote 7 applications and got 7 job offers, now that I want to work part time during college I wrote 7 applications again and didn't get a single reply, not even a negative one.
I even applied to a chain grocery store as a cashier and didn't hear back, despite having 2 years experience in sales, 3 years experience in customer care and really good grades in school. I must be doing something very wrong. In the US, you will generally not receive any reply unless you're hired for a wide swath of positions. Most especially for any large chains. There are also other things that can pop up. A follow up phone call or visit can be worthwhile.
it is quite common in the US to do a follow up call. Hiring culture there is quite different, as the timeframes involved in the US are way shorter.
In Germany, you are quite often looking at being able to leave your job around 4 months after giving your notice. In the US, this can be as little as minutes, so people shop for jobs a lot more. It is also way more acceptable to change jobs for reasons like 'shorter commute'.
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EPT
