🛑 Stop saying that you have no experience, instead play to your 💪 strengths
If you are switching your career into tech 🛑 stop saying that you have no experience, instead say: "I have different kinds of experience"
If you’ve worked in ANY industry, studied any topic, created projects, wrote up case studies or created anything in a professional sense - you already have experience! Plenty of job postings talk about years of experience as a ‘requirement’.
For jobs that require less than 3 years of experience in the job description, you can have experience from a relevant industry, not only direct work experience in that role.
Professional strengths over years of direct experience
For years I hopped from one unfulfilling job 😰 to another because of ONE missing link in my job searches: I did not know how to play to my strengths.
In fact, I did not even KNOW my strengths until my third job 😅.
I started to recognize my strengths when a manager actually pointed out that NO, not everyone is as organized as me, and NO, not everyone understands all the tiny details plus the big picture at once. This manager helped me realize that the WAY I work, and what I bring to any project and team, is unique to me - and it’s my job to let others know about my strengths!
Never take your professional experience for granted. What you have created in the workplace is your unique superpower.
You can start to understand your strengths by writing them out. Professional strengths can mean:
domain expertise due to years of working in an industry
ways of working (critical thinking and communicating)
professional achievements
professional interests to help drive your career direction
Once you identified your strengths, start finding highlights that relate to your strengths that are ALSO relevant to the skills needed for a new job in tech.
And just like that, you no longer are stuck saying you have no experience! Instead, you have a resume full of valuable highlights from your previous career.
Interested in learning how to accelerate your career in tech through highlighting your strengths? Learn more about the 12 Week Career Launch 🚀 here.