HELP! I don’t have enough experience for my dream job

How do you react when your mind tells you “I don’t have enough experience for the job I really want”? I guess some take that deflating thought, sigh and move on with ticking the boxes in their current role. Others fight back and look for help or someone to talk to. Then there are those who use it as a signal to take action, put a plan in place immediately and know it's only a matter of time once they start before they land the role.  

Mindset Matters 

The problem has nothing to do with not enough experience but rather understanding what experience and skills you have that are valuable, transferable and how you are willing to use them. In essence you have a mindset block and somewhere along the line you’ve been conditioned and now believe that experience is a certain thing got by a certain way that you can’t get because you are not in the actual job you want, building up that experience. If this was really true how would anyone get a job or move jobs into new careers? Everyone would have to start as a graduate, stay in the same role, continue to build up the hours until they have the “experience” and only then go for the next level or role in that field only. 

Transferable skills and Emotional intelligence  

To give you some hope here, the easiest thing to achieve is a level of technical experience or competence of a particular role i.e., the general tasks and competencies needed to do a given role or job so after 6 months to a year, you can work independently. The harder and more difficult areas to navigate are having an impact across an organization and its teams, working with people and building relationships even when it's difficult or you don’t like them, managing the politics and inspiring people around you even if you are not the named leader. Have understanding and empathy for all and dealing with customers and understanding their value and needs to the company. The people that have the most impact in organizations are the people who naturally do these EQ and relationship type activities or are very strategic in knowing the importance of them and bake them into their work even if they are not naturally great at it. Write down what skills and experience you have in these areas and what traits you’ve developed over the years to deliver them e.g. grit, perseverance, conscientiousness etc.  

So don’t over worry about a technical competence for the job of your dreams as you are a greater sum of your skills, technical and otherwise, along with experiences and traits to deliver them. All up this will determine how well you are set for that job of your dreams. Identify any gaps and jump on the new job growth wheel right away to plan and gain what is missing. 

A purpose with passion 

You know right away when you are talking to someone that has purpose and passion for a subject, right? They are more animated, use hands and body language for more emphasis, talk faster and at a higher pitch and are compelling to listen to. When you meet them the following day and their P&P comes up in the conversation they behave the very same way. Does your next role or job of your dreams turn you into that passionate person? If not, you need to ask yourself why but if it does well super because if you brought that to the table for an informational chat or interview you can’t start much better.  

What do hiring managers want? 

Someone who will work hard, can and wants to learn, fits in with company culture, will get on with people and inspire those around them, has something unique they bring to the team and will bring future worth and growth to the company. Now obviously hiring managers expect a current level of technical competence at the given role but if you are willing to learn and you meet the mark on the other areas then wouldn’t you be a person to invest in? 

Stay positive 

Finding a new role or job can be hard and most likely will take time especially if its outside your current industry. Come to terms with this as you start into the process and know that if you take action no matter how small every day or week that is all you can do. The law of cause and effect will kick in and you will get there, it's inevitable. Staying positive is so important because not doing so won’t help you one little bit, in fact it will pull you backwards, falling into the stop-start trap. So, tell someone what you are doing so you have a partner in action to help you when you need a steady hand to hold onto.

And remember that you are making decisions everyday using beliefs you’ve unconsciously picked up during your life and believe are true. For the most part they have served you well and got you this far but if your beliefs are telling you can’t get the role as you don’t have the experience well, it's time to question them and start to look at things differently or you will be ticking boxes for a bit longer.