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How do I get a job when I don't have any achievements? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Erin Berkery Rovner, Career Advisor, on Quora:
How do I get a job when I don't have any achievements?
Some of this may be impostor syndrome as most of us feel that we don’t have any achievements.
However, even if you’re doing drone work (or have no work experience), you can still get a job.
Here are some things you can do to move your job search forward despite this feeling (whether it’s warranted or not).
Start Some Conversations
You may feel that you have no accomplishments but that doesn’t mean that everyone else necessarily agrees with you. Often people are harder on themselves than others. If you’re a student, start with your instructors and ask them what they feel that your accomplishments are. Or what they should be to obtain a job. Ask your friends and family members. Then ask all of those people who else you should speak to about gaining accomplishments. Talking to other people will help you to see if you’re overlooking accomplishments and help you to focus on correcting that.
Add Some Accomplishments
This could be building something, it could be putting yourself in a competition, it could be doing some work that is unpaid but might look good in a portfolio. It often seems like this can’t be done.
Even if you attempt something and fail, the hard work counts because most jobs are hiring someone to solve a problem and often that is accomplished through hard work.
Volunteer
Even work experience that is menial, or repetitive or something that is unpaid counts towards finding a new job. Even the most exciting job has boring aspects or parts of it that are repetitive. Volunteering shows that you can do that work and also increases your network.
Find Your Resources
If you’re a student, you should go to career services. If you’re not, you should start with the library or your local municipality. If you’re not close to a local library you should find out what resources are close to you. Check meetup groups. Check web forums. Don’t turn down free or low cost help. One of the things that is very difficult for people to understand about job searching is that it should not be done in a vacuum, and if you are turning down resources at any level, you may not be competitive-regardless of your accomplishments.
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