Transcription
So you can't get a job because you have no experience, and you can't get experience because you don't have a job. So you get stuck in this endless cycle, and it feels so miserable, and your career just falls further and further behind.
Well, the good news is, I'm going to tell you how to break this cycle, and anyone can do it. The first thing you've got to realize is, your resume is by far the most important part of your job application. It's more important than your interviewing skills, and it's more important than your network, and etc., etc. That's because your resume can get your foot in the door into any company, whether you have a connection there or not. And even if you have godlike interviewing skills, you'll never be able to show it if your resume doesn't make the cut.
Also, interviewers will perceive you differently based on the strengths of your resume. If you look like a superstar on paper, then you automatically start every interview with a hundred extra bonus points. What I'm trying to say is, you should be spending a lot more time thinking creatively about how to make your resume pop, especially in the experience section, instead of pumping out the same mindless cookie-cutter garbage that 95% of people do. And chances are, if you're watching this video, you're part of that 95%. But I sympathize with you, because most people don't know what a really good resume looks like. You actually have to look at a ton of real-world resumes in your field to get a feel for this, and most people will never get that opportunity.
But fortunately for you, I've looked at thousands of real-life resumes from the best of the best of the best, and I am sharing my knowledge with you shamelessly in an attempt to get more YouTube subscribers. Here's the deal: everyone stretches the truth on the resume. It's as if there's this unspoken game going on to see who can hype themselves up the furthest without outright lying. And I've looked at the top, top, top-tier resumes from people all over the world, and some of the things people say are so outrageous that it's almost bold. And if I were to dig into any of these points and really grill someone on their statements, they'd actually find some creative way of supporting it so that it's not an outright lie. At which point, I think, "Wow, I'm not even mad. I'm actually impressed by your creativity here." The overall statement may be horrifically overblown, but wow, it actually kind of makes sense.
Basically, you need to take this creative mindset and channel it into your own resume creation process, specifically today, in the most important category of your resume, which is your job experience. So let me give you a few examples of how to creatively add experience to your resume without lying. You hear that, Mom? Dad? I am not encouraging people to lie. You did not raise a bad son.
Option number one: volunteer. Now, this isn't the most creative solution, but it is the default answer, so I have to mention it. Get experience by volunteering. One creative thing you can do on your resume, however, is take your volunteer experience and put it in your actual job experience section on your resume, not in some separate volunteer experience section on the bottom. This makes people think that you held an actual job in the field, and not some unpaid part-time gig on the side. And it reinforces to hiring managers that you actually have relevant experience, and no one's going to do enough research to find out otherwise.
Anyways, what I don't like about volunteer experience is, you got to jump through so many hoops just to work for free. You have to find relevant volunteer opportunities in your field, if they exist. Then you have to apply and pass some sort of interview process. It's not easy. If and when you do start, you might not even be getting relevant experience. You might just be doing mindless data entry all day, and you can spend months and months and months on this and really get nowhere.
Let's explore a more creative option. I recommend you start your own company. Yes, seriously, start your own company. No matter how little you might think of yourself, I sincerely believe that you and anyone else in this world can start their own company. And starting your own business doesn't have to be this big deal. You don't have to hire anyone, you don't have to register as a business, heck, you don't even need to make any money. You can be your only employee with zero customers. The goal here is to build experience at a company that you can put on your resume. No one said that experience couldn't come from your own company, right?
And because experience is completely time-based, you gotta start your company like right now. Because if you want to say that you have a year of experience, well, the earliest that will happen is a year from today. So go start your company right now.
But what does it mean to actually start your company? Like, when is your company born? Well, legally, here in California, you can start a company without even registering it. But legality aside, when is your company really born? Is it when you start to have a website? Is it when you have an actual product? No, not really. In my opinion, your company is born whenever you start to seriously start thinking about it, and hopefully, that's today.
The most important decision you gotta make is, what does your company actually do? And like I said, it can be really, really, really simple. Like, I'm very proud to say that I started my first company when I was in high school. And when I say this, people immediately get some sort of reaction, like, "Wow, this guy is like Bill Gates. He's some young entrepreneur who started really early." That's not really true. In reality, my dad just had a bunch of old fishing rods lying around, and I just helped him sell them all on eBay. Nothing impressive about that.
Of course, on my resume, though, I wrote down all this fancy stuff. I said I started my own e-commerce business. We had thousands of dollars in revenue, and I said I did all the research, the marketing, the logistics, etc., etc. Nowhere did I mention the words "eBay" or "Dad's fishing rods" or anything that would make my experience or business look weak. And so, to the unsuspecting reader, I may have looked like a real treasure. And even if they did grill me on this, at worst, they would be impressed by my honest sales attempt. Heck, if I was applying for a sales-related position, all the better.
Just remember that at the end of the day, all great resumes are super embellished, and whoever's interviewing you probably does the same thing on their resume too. So you got to figure out something similar for the company that you're creating, something that's relevant to your field, and ideally, something that does actually get you some real experience.
Let me give you a few more examples. So, my industry of choice is Salesforce. And if you don't know what Salesforce is, it's basically a super spreadsheet. Think Microsoft Excel, but with a lot more features. And right off the bat, you can also sell a lot of your old stuff on eBay and track all of your sales and inventory using Salesforce. You'd probably do this in Excel anyways, so you might as well use Salesforce and get some experience there. And the moment you make your first sale, you can already say you're profitable.
Let's take it a step further. Let's say you want to be a consultant in your industry. Well, why don't you go ahead and start your own consulting company and start calling yourself a consultant today? What is a consultant, anyways? It's just someone who helps people. So why don't you go find the most popular forum in your industry and start helping people by answering questions? Congratulations, you are now a consultant, and you're actually building real skills in the industry too.
Another example. Let's say you want to enter a technical field like Salesforce development. So for this, you have to actually code something for it to be legit. So why not code your own company website, or code a blog for yourself, or do the same for a family member or friend? Then you can start saying you have actual clients. All the while, you'll be building great experience that looks great on your resume, and you'll be building fundamental skills for yourself. Then, when you get decent, you can actually start selling your development services on websites like Upwork or Fiverr. Start with low rates and easy projects and see where it goes from there. Suddenly, you're going to find that you're not faking anything anymore. This is the real deal, with real experience and real money, and that looks great on your resume and in your wallet too.
Final example. Let's say that you have hobbies outside of work that you've always found particularly interesting, or you have business ideas that you've always wanted to pursue but never really got around to it. Take all that great energy and include it somehow in your new company. I've always enjoyed tennis since a young age, and I've particularly enjoyed nerding out over tennis rackets. I've tried pretty much every single tennis racket out there, and I enjoy it so much that I've always wanted to start some sort of tennis store. So for my own business, I could start a tennis racket review website. And since I'm in the Salesforce industry, I could build it using Salesforce. Pop a few ads on it, and boom, all of a sudden, I have a business. And since I love tennis so much, that would keep my interest going on this project. And at the end of the day, you just gotta have fun with it.
Those are just a few examples, but I hope it sparked some creative ideas for you. Remember, start with something small, simple, and manageable, and see where it goes from there. It's more important to spend your time thinking of things that are interesting and fun to you than it is on insignificant things like what your company's name or logo is going to be. Remember, we just want to do enough to fake experience on your resume without feeling like an actual liar.
While you're at it, consider this: what you're starting could be a legitimate side hustle for yourself. And everyone should have a side hustle. Everyone I know who's successful has some sort of side hustle, and it's one of the best things you can do in your career because it really rounds out your thinking. So if you don't have a side hustle, you might not be reaching your career potential. Think about that. This is really win-win type of advice I'm giving you. I feel like there's so few pieces of career advice that are so blatantly good that you just have to do it, but this is one of them. Uh, you know, I give a lot of really good career advice. I should really consider some sort of side hustle doing it.
All right, that's it for me. I hope you enjoy this content. It's something I get a lot of questions on, and it's something I've wanted to talk about for a long time now. Give me a like, give me a sub, or just say hi in the comments. That's cool too. Thank you. And to all you go-getters out there, go start a company. Cheers.