Hiring managers want one thing: Proof that you can do the job that you’re interviewing for.🕵️‍♀️ And you have to prove it as soon as they read your resume, portfolio, or talk to you on the phone. First impressions matter when job hunting. Every recruiter and hiring manager wants proof, no matter what the job title is. There’s no way around it.

If the people interviewing you have to debate in their head if you’re capable enough for this job, then you don’t have enough proof. Proving your value requires an over-abundance of clear, easy-to-understand *evidence.* Usually, this evidence is passive: It’s the materials like resumes, portfolios, LinkedIn profiles and other text-based items that spell out your past experience.

Other times the evidence is active: When you talk on the phone during your initial phone screen or big round-table interview, people can tell in the way you present yourself (and what you present) if you have the right experience or not. The easier it is for you to prove your value to them, the easier it is for you to get hired. Make it easy for them to hire you.

Years of experience

Don’t take job descriptions at face value. They could be written by a novice recruiter who is straight up guessing about the job requirements based on a web search. They could be written by an entire committee of people who have collective assumptions about what’s required (again, not realistic). Or it was straight up copy-pasted and frankensteined from another job description (this is super common).

After personally reading thousands of job descriptions, I am yet to believe one at face value. I’m also yet to see anyone ever reference a job description during an interview. Ever. No interviewer has ever printed out the job description and then asked me if I meet the requirements for every single bullet point listed. That. Would. Be. Wild.

A job description is more like a reference for what level of experience a company is looking for. It’s likely they’ll get applicants that check a lot of boxes, but to find someone who meets their criteria 100%? Very rare. If companies truly wanted the exact years of experience to get hired for a particular role, they would be posting it down to the day. It would be like: “requires 4 years, 6 months, and 2 days of experience.” Here’s what I’ve used as my own rule of thumb:

Look at what skills the job is asking for, then determine if your past experience will fit the role. In most cases, companies are flexible on the actual years of experience. But be mindful that some companies & industries might be very particular about a certification or hours of training in order to qualify. Example: You can’t pilot a plane, or operate special machinery without a few hundred (or thousand) hours of experience. Your mileage may vary based on your chosen career path.

Nevertheless, “experience required” is fungible for most corporate jobs; meaning, X amount of experience can be replaced by an equivalent amount in another industry, education, certification, case studies, or something else that’s relevant. And “years required” can be replaced by equivalent management skills, depth of knowledge, academic papers, or personal projects. Real work experience is best, but any experience is valuable if you can tell the right story. (More on that later.)

But what about those of us who have no professional experience yet? How can you prove you can do something without any proof? How do you create something from nothing?

    • Being Different Matters - a step-by-step guide to choosing a career path and completing a job hunt from start to finish

    • Freelance, and Business, and Stuff - a stellar book if you want to start working as a freelancer