By Brad Rogers, Director of Recruiting, LAC Group
It’s that time of the year again, Spring has officially sprung upon us! May flowers are blooming and thousands of bright eyed, ambitious college students are graduating and looking to put their degrees to work. While college is an excellent time for growth, experience and education, graduates too often enter the workplace with little real-life work experience. This is an ever-increasing challenge, as most organizations not only seek candidates with a top-notch education, but also previous work experience. Here are three potential options for those candidates who are job searching with little or no work experience:
Internship: The word internship usually conjures up images of someone in college who will work for an organization for free. However, today’s reality is that a lot of internships are actually paid, and are available to both current students and recent graduates. Paid internships may not be available for all practices and industries, but where available, they serve as a great opportunity to gain experience, while learning new skills and earning a wage.
Temporary/Contract Role: If an internship is unavailable, it might not be a bad idea to take a temporary or contract role. Everyone would love to be hired into a full-time, permanent situation, but if that is unavailable, taking a temporary or contract role is a great place to start. This not only gives you experience and skills, but it introduces you to the organization. In many instances temporary roles are used as a type of evaluation period, so if you do well and are an asset to an organization, they most likely will seek to hire you permanently. Even if this temporary or contract role does not go permanent, it will give you a good reference for your next role.
Volunteer: Finally, if finding a paid internship or temporary/contract role is not an option, look into volunteering to gain experience. This might not seem like an ideal situation, but even as a volunteer you get to network with colleagues and gain new experience and skills. Try to volunteer at an organization you would ideally like to work for, as you can then learn their specific systems and technologies, better positioning you for a role when they have one available.