What If I’ve Never Done That Before?

Whether you are a student, looking for that first real job after graduation, or a seasoned professional transitioning to another role, you may feel hesitant about applying for something new. You can hear your thoughts:
“Why would they pick me? I’m not qualified! They will pick someone with experience! There are a lot of other people applying and they’re better than me!”

Instead of highlighting what you see as gaps, forget about those for a while. Let's compile the arguments for why YOU WOULD BE GREAT for that job.

Follow these 3 steps:

1. Imagine you got the job. You are in!
   Who would you need to be to be successful? Here are a couple examples that may apply: accountable, loyal, team-player, impactful, risk taker, great with Excel. Write down all the attributes that come to mind. Then select the ones that are really crucial, that make a huge difference - you can definitely find clues in the job description.
2. For each item on the list, search in your memory. What’s the proof of being that already? For example, your team-player stories may look like this:
   - I organized a camping trip for my friends across Spain.
   - When my classmate was sick, I took on his part of the project as well, so that we finished on time.
   - When we had a disagreement about what’s the right thing to do in the project ABC, I took a step back and focused on our common goals.
3. There may be items you feel you are not that strong in and your doubts bubble up again. How do you close the gaps? Well, how did you do it in your past when you had to gain a new experience? Do you tend to collect info online and learn as much as possible? Do you look around for people who know what you don’t so that you can learn from them? Do you start doing it and learn what you need as you go? Write all that down.

The first 2 steps will hopefully give you confidence to pursue something you are passionate about and will allow you to get an interview. The 3rd step is what’s most important to any employer, really. Whatever job you end up having, there will be times (more often than you may think) when you’ll have to do something you’ve never done before. And good managers hire people with the potential to deal with ambiguity, with constant change, with the unknown. Businesses know WHAT they want to do and hire people to figure out HOW to make it happen. Otherwise, they would simply build a machine.