“You need experience to get experience”: The Story of a Uni Student Trying to Jump on the Professional Merry-Go-Round
Alexander Georges
You're a uni student approaching the end of your degree. You're applying to grad roles to kick off your career. The first obstacle? A resume screening, prefaced by a fairly blunt statement that 'suitable candidates will have industry experience'. It doesn't help that you've just been focusing on your retail job to get by. It also doesn't help that you're up against people that have had jobs set up for them by a friend, an aunty, or one of their parents’ mates.
It's true that as a uni student there is a Catch-22 to securing your first industry position. But it’s likely you’re more equipped than you might think. Here is the story of me, a fifth year Software Engineering student at a 'world class' university, landing my spot on the professional merry-go-round. Hopefully it can inspire you to realise the breadth of experience you already have behind you.
TLDR; I had everything I needed, less the foresight to see it and confidence to believe it.
In my early teens I ran a (mildly successful) blog, as a fun way to pass time. Little did I know this would be my first exposure to setting up and hosting a website, coding, creating content, and marketing - all skills I used in my degree and in my grad job.
The moment I turned fourteen, my mother hounded me to get a job at the local McDonald's. I did not see any value in putting on that dorky uniform and scooping fries all day. I started, tolerated it, ended up enjoying it, and stayed there for five years. Only in hindsight can I appreciate that this was where I really developed my interpersonal customer skills. I managed a team of employees, building my leadership skills. I was curious, asked questions, and discovered a lot about the machine that is one of the biggest brands in the world. I learnt how to be proactive and multitask like crazy. At the time, I didn't even realise I was doing any of this. (In fact, it is my time here and my 'Smile of the Year' award that I have been asked the MOST about in interviews!)
When I made it out of school, I started tutoring high school mathematics. Word spread, and one student quickly turned into many more. I would work with students, parents, and teachers, managing logistics, scheduling, and payments. When I could no longer handle the load, my sister jumped on board. It was a couple of years before I pieced together that what I had was a budding business.
Over the last few years, my father has started a real estate property management business. I have been very involved in managing the technologies behind it daily. For a long time, I saw this solely as a labor of love. Only once I noticed that I was directly applying the knowledge from my lecture slides, was I comfortable recognising it as a job.
When COVID-19 hit, I was trying to find ways to stay connected with my friends. This led to the conception of a business idea - Pander Packs - a delivery service to send pandemic-inspired gift boxes to friends. Suddenly, without even consciously realising, I was delving into the role of a product manager and entrepreneur.
And that's not to mention the societies I've led, the hackathons I've attended, uni projects I’ve been a part of, basketball teams I've played in, and relatives I've helped with odd jobs. Each of these has added a unique flare to my practical knowledge base and experience. Perhaps all the phone and computer troubleshooting I've done over the years for my uncle has given me a stronger perspective on how to recognise needs in building a product and finding solutions for different people.
Even with all of this experience, whenever I attend an industry-sponsored uni event, the same insecurity always arises: ‘How do you perform in an organisation alongside highly experienced and talented leaders? How do you overcome imposter syndrome? Do you ever feel good enough?’
The truth is, this is an insecurity ingrained in the uni student experience. We often lack the needed confidence in our ability to move ahead in a highly competitive real-world. It's about time that we snap out of it, and realise how much experience we have gained already to make it to where we are. This is the epiphany that landed me my first industry position. Only once I was there, reflecting on the skills I was applying, did I comprehend how much I had my experience undervalued. Not recognising this earlier was a disservice to the arsenal of skills I’ve unknowingly spent years developing, honing and perfecting.
I would encourage anyone in a similar position - to think about what they have already done and what they have gained from it - whether it was a job in retail, a social activity, or even a project you worked on with your mates. How can we expect an employer to believe in our capability, when we barely believe in it ourselves?