The job market and employment outlook for recent college graduates has changed significantly. The Blair government when it set an arbitrary target that 50 per cent of young people should attend university – no ifs, no buts. But when half the country has a degree, the chances of most of them earning relatively high incomes is correspondingly diminished. This has led to too many graduates: is the nation producing enough graduates to meet the needs of the knowledge economy or is there an abundance of graduates in the workplace who do not need degrees to do their jobs?
Today we’re going to be tackling one of the most frustrating obstacles when it comes to landing your dream job – experience.
Many people suffer from the catch-22 of needing experience to be hired but needing to be hired in order to gain experience. In reference to Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22. A Catch-22 situation is ‘a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape’. This describes the situation many young people find themselves in; they need work experience to get a job, but without a job or other opportunities, they can’t get work experience.
Experience isn’t a formal entity that is earned inside the four walls of a corporate office (although that can be one form of it). It’s the result of taking on a challenge, seeing it through to the end and learning along the way. It’s never too late to take on a job, internship or volunteer project that could look great on your resume. These jobs might not seem like much, but they’ll allow you the opportunity to gain work-place experience and soft skills that are crucial in any work environment. The more willing you are to go outside your comfort zone, the more you will grow and ultimately be prepared to nail that interview or get off to a fast start in your first “real” job
So what does this have to do with leverage?
We believe at this stage stage, it is about hustle & creativity.
For example, If you’re interested in marketing, create a social media account or blog and grow the following.
If you’re interested in product management, use a free no-code platform to create your own app & use Figma to mockup designs. Even better if you document this.
The key point is to demonstrate your value outside of “traditional” workplace experience, you are making an investment of time into your career capital.
Newport defines what he calls ‘The Career Capital Theory:
- The traits that define great work are rare and valuable. Specifically, desirable jobs are creative, allow you to create large impact, and give you control over your work and life.
- Consequently, supply and demand indicates that you need to offer rare and valuable skills in return. These rare and valuable skills are what Newport refers to as your career capital.
In short, go out, hustle and create some work to showcase your skillset if you don’t have the experience, not all is lost hop on youtube and learn. Document your journey on social media
Leverage can multiply outcomes from your effort, your skill, and your judgement. Applying specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. In the above cases you have no idea who will consume or enteract with your content once you place it on the world wide net.
You are one post away from the right person or someone in the network of the right person seeing.
Which leads us nicely onto relationships / people which you can read more about in a following article
Good luck! 🙌🏿
Bedroom 2 Boardroom 🚀 