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Gen Z Job Search: The Years Of Experience Myth

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Gen Z Job Search: The Years Of Experience Myth

I've heard many of my Gen Z members and followers talk about how difficult it is to apply for jobs when every company seems to require two or more years of experience for entry-level positions, the types of jobs Gen Z, the youngest demographic in the workforce, shouldn't have any problems getting.

The idea that you can't apply for a job that requires "years of experience" because you're a new grad is a myth, and I'm going to tell you exactly what to do instead.

You Don't Necessarily Need Years Of Experience, But You Do Need A Connection Story. 

@j.t.odonnell Replying to @millers0620 Gen Z Job Search Episode 1: The Years Of Experience MYTH #genzjobsearch ##genzjobs#genz#jobsearchtips#jobs#job#jobsearch♬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell

First, I want you to understand the reason they say a job requires "two years of experience" is that they want to make sure you've worked at some point in your life. Hopefully, you've had an internship, maybe in college or while you were in grad school, but you do have some sort of work experience.

The second thing you need to know is that you have a secret weapon, and it's called your connection story. What you lack in experience you can make up for with enthusiasm and by sharing how you feel motivated to work for a company.

So, how do you write a connection story?

Step 1: Ask yourself, "Why do I respect and admire this company?" and "What taught me that they were worthy of this respect and admiration?"

Step 2: Think about your own life. What's making you feel connected to them as an employer?

Step 3: Put your connection story together in a disruptive cover letter. Unlike a traditional cover letter, a disruptive cover letter is a storytelling cover letter.

Step 4: Once you've written your disruptive cover letter, reach out to the recruiter, hiring manager, and/or people who work at the company and say...

"Hey, enclosed is the story of why I feel so connected to your company. I'd love to learn what it might take to earn the opportunity to interview or be considered for the XYZ position."

When you say there's a story, that piques their interest. And when you say you want to earn the opportunity, you don't have to point out that you don't have the exact experience. What you're trying to do is to get them to see that you have the intrinsic motivation to do the job.

They can teach you the experience. What they need is somebody who understands why they want to work there. That's what they're looking for, and that's what you need to share with them.

I see this every single day. In fact, I'll tell you a story.

I worked with a young man named Seth. He was a senior in college. He wanted to get a job in recruiting. It required five years of experience. But with this technique, he shared his connection story with the recruiters that were recruiting for the position. And he got the job. He beat out people who had 10 years of experience. And the reason he won the job is because of that connection story. They clearly understood that he wanted to be a recruiter and he was able to say, "Look, I have no bad habits. You can mold me, you can train me, and I'm passionate about this."

You can do the same thing. But it starts with understanding what your connection story is and then sharing it with those employers.

If you want more information or if you want to be coached on this, we can help you.

Check out our free daily newsletter or become a member and get access to affordable, on-demand career coaching.

Good luck, and go get 'em.

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Executive Spotlight: How To Conduct A Productive Meeting
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Executive Spotlight: How To Conduct A Productive Meeting

As a manager or leader in the workplace, a big part of your day is probably spent in meetings—attending them and leading them. For the meetings you set up and lead, how can you ensure they’re a productive use of your (and your team’s) time?

We recently asked our leading executives for their best tips on how to conduct a productive meeting.

Here are their responses…

Ana Smith, Talent Architect & Global Learning Strategist

This is such an important and yet everyday question!

Here are some tips for the super basic ones for me:

  1. Setting a clear purpose and agenda. What do you hope to achieve by the end of the meeting? What topics need to be discussed? Creating a clear agenda will help keep the meeting on track and ensure that all of the important topics are covered. And please share it in advance!
  2. Invite the right people. Only invite people who are essential to the discussion. If you invite too many people, or too few, the meeting will be more difficult to manage and less productive.
  3. Start and end on time. Respect everyone’s time by starting and ending the meeting on time. If you start late, people will start to check their phones or get distracted. If you end late, people will start to get restless and anxious to leave.
  4. Encourage participation from everyone. Don’t let one or two people dominate the discussion. Make sure everyone has a chance to contribute their ideas. Be inclusive. If someone is shy, ask them specific questions to get them involved.
  5. Summarize the key points and next steps. At the end of the meeting, summarize the key points that were discussed and identify any next steps that need to be taken. This will help ensure everyone is on the same page and that the meeting was productive.

In order to make it even more productive:

  • Create a positive and productive environment. Start the meeting by setting a positive tone and encouraging everyone to participate. Make sure the meeting space is comfortable and conducive to discussion. Especially consider this with virtual participants in the meeting.
  • Be an active listener. When someone is speaking, give them your full attention and avoid interrupting. This will show that you are interested in what they have to say and that you value their input.
  • Follow up after the meeting. Send out a summary of the meeting and any action items that were agreed upon. This will help ensure everyone is on the same page and that the meeting was productive. Maybe use one of the various options to create the summaries.
Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the “red thread.”

Kathryn Marshburn, Music Program Manager

Creative employees in a meeting

Having thoughtful, efficient meetings with teams should include many factors. Here are some tips for achieving a successful meeting:

1. Provide objectives, goals, and notes from previous meeting minutes, in an agenda format, and distribute them the day before the meeting (preferably by noon). Ask for anyone’s input BEFORE the meeting and add all responses to the agenda and assign team members to specific topics if needed.

2. Once a detailed agenda (that includes all the important topics and issues that need to be discussed) is completed, be sure to distribute it as a Google Doc. (This makes it easy for multiple members to edit and update during meetings on Zoom). Ensure that each agenda item has a specific timeframe allocated to it and that all attendees are aware of the agenda in advance and will be ready to speak on the topic that has their name noted next to the item.

3. Start the Zoom platform, or other platform, on time as a host.

4. Greet everyone on camera and have a positive, energetic vibe! Welcome any new members or guests. Give team members five minutes to enter the meeting before you start.

5. Welcome everyone and shift to “share screen” to showcase the Google Doc that has the agenda. To keep attendees awake and alert, update the Google Doc LIVE during the meeting by assigning follow-ups, notes, and meeting member names to any input given on the topic. This does work to keep people alert, as they watch you update the document as the meeting progresses.

6. Encourage all attendees to participate and provide their input on the topics being discussed. Ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak and that there is no domination by any individual or group.

7. Keep the discussion focused on the agenda items and the objectives of the meeting. If a topic is taking too much time or is straying from the agenda, gently redirect the discussion back to the main topic.

8. Following the meeting, distribute the meeting minutes, follow-ups, and action items to all attendees. Schedule follow-up meetings or calls to ensure that action items are completed and that progress is made.

These tips should help execute an amazing meeting. Good luck!

Kathryn Marshburn has spent 12+ years in the music and gaming industries guiding teams on identifying targeted goals with an agile approach resulting in driving revenue and reducing risk.

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive

Proactive employees lead a meeting at work

In the past, I was never one to encourage frequent meetings. I have encountered managers who wanted to meet solely to look like something was getting done. This caused frustration with the team.

1. Define a Clear Purpose for the Meeting.

Assign a theme as to why the meeting is being called. Why are we coming together? Who needs to be at the meeting?

Assign a timeline. How long will the meeting be?

2. Set a Meeting Agenda.

What will we discuss, and what are we trying to achieve? Is there any old business that still needs attention?

Who is going to do the talking? For how long?

3. Collaboration.

I would let everyone know that this is a working meeting. Allow open engagement and feedback amongst the team. Set the tone of the meeting that encourages and embraces a space where everyone can express their ideas and opinions without feeling afraid. As the leader, I would make sure the discussion stays on topic.

4. End the Meeting.

As I wrap up the meeting with final thoughts, I would ask if there were any final questions or thoughts. I would thank the team for their input and attendance. I will summarize the discussed agenda points and discuss the next steps.

Finally, I would propose a date for the next meeting so that everyone could put it on their calendars.

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M – $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

How do you conduct productive meetings? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily’s Executive Program.

Travelling to Work via General public Transport or Car : What type is the Greatest Option?
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Travelling to Work via General public Transport or Car : What type is the Greatest Option?

While many folks are still primarily operating from home, there offers been a gradual come back to the office in a number of sectors since Covid limitations eased. Around 27 mil people commute to deliver the results every year, with an typical commute moments of sixty two minutes a day. A few use public transport to go to work, but the vast majority […]

The post Driving to operate via Public Transfer or Car – Which usually One is the greatest Option? appeared first upon Jobacle. com .

Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror!
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Competing With Spreadsheets — The Joy And The Horror!

Bill Gates has a lot to answer for. Every office computer has a spreadsheet application on it. Any task involving numbers is done on a spreadsheet.

Selling contact center technology, I am frequently told, “No problem, they’re only using spreadsheets.”

A professional colleague told me that when people replace existing technology, either they are looking for a solution that does more for the same price that they are already paying, or for something that does the same as their current solution, but for a lower price.

Since everybody’s computer already has a spreadsheet application on it, they see it as a zero-cost application.

How do you compete against a zero-cost application?

Know Your Enemy

Microsoft Excel icon on a laptop

Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.”

Now we’ve identified spreadsheets as our “enemy,” what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses?

The Strengths Of Spreadsheets

Man on laptop looks at a spreadsheet

Their greatest strength is that they are essentially free. Even if a company does buy your solution, they are not going to give up their spreadsheet licenses. They use spreadsheets for so many other parts of the business, so there is no saving by adopting your product.

Spreadsheets are the legacy solution. People have designed and amended their files over the years to meet their needs exactly. People feel as comfortable using spreadsheets as they would wearing their favorite pair of slippers.

The final strength of spreadsheets is their flexibility. The average Excel user regularly uses about 5% of its full functionality. Spreadsheets’ formulae address all aspects of mathematics and contain many tools for analyzing and processing data. Most software cannot emulate all the different functions that spreadsheets have to offer.

The Holes In The Spreadsheets’ Armor

Empty spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel

Spreadsheets were originally designed to make calculations and save them in files. These calculations could be shared by sharing the file.

More than one person can work on a spreadsheet at the same time, but it has its challenges. The key challenge is that the number of users working on a spreadsheet at any one time is limited for practical purposes, to two or three. If you create a database table in Excel, it’s not possible to have 100 users making real-time changes to it simultaneously.

Security is another headache. Spreadsheets can be password protected, but that password protection cannot be integrated into an identity and access management (IAM) tool. The password is unique to the spreadsheet and not to the user If 100 users use the same spreadsheet, then 100 users know the same password. Alternatively, each user can use their own spreadsheet and then regularly merge the files. This requires a lot of manual work, which is prone to error.

Automation is possible within spreadsheets, but it’s complicated. Not many people know how to write macros in VBA. If your product has a functionality that would need a macro to replicate it, then it’s unlikely that your customer’s organization will have someone who can write that macro. On the other hand, if your customer’s spreadsheets use macros to perform certain functions, it’s pretty unlikely that your product will perform the same function as the macro. I have often worked with customers using spreadsheets with macros. When I ask how they work, they will tell me that the person who wrote the spreadsheet has moved on. No one in their company knows how it works, but they have to keep using it.

Replacing Spreadsheets — Including The Value In (Return On Investments) ROI Calculations

Woman looks at a spreadsheet on her computer

As discussed, people look for solutions that do more for the same price that they are already paying, or for solutions that do the same as their current solutions, but for a lower price.

The trick is to understand what are the units of work being done on the spreadsheet and to attribute a financial value to them based on the manual labor. This is usually based on the time it takes to do the work. If you can show that your product can do the same units of work in a shorter period of time, or with the reduced attention of a human worker, then you can estimate a cost saving.

This manual work can include the costs of someone checking the work, and also the costs of rework to rectify mistakes.

The second way to calculate the ROI is to look at the consequences of non-compliance. Keeping customer data on a spreadsheet is not very secure for the reasons mentioned above. It is likely to violate data protection laws. You can also factor the likely penalties, fines, and legal costs into the ROI.

The wrap-up

If you’re selling to small and medium-sized customers, spreadsheets can be a fearsome incumbent to beat. You need to reveal the effect of the spreadsheet’s weaknesses on the business while being ready to handle objections based on the spreadsheet’s strengths.

Are you competing against spreadsheets? Why are your customers considering replacing them? How are spreadsheets holding them back? What do they hope that your product can do that spreadsheets can’t? How does the value your product creates compare to the value spreadsheets generate?