When you are a young person entering the job market, things can be quite tricky. One moment you are in university and then you find out that you need to start working, you prepare your CV and finally you start looking at job descriptions.

But wait, job experience?? What do you mean I need to have experience in the market already?

I barely finished university, how am I supposed to have job experience in order to get my first job?

It’s normal to run into a dead end at this point. You need a job but the jobs you are looking at require that you had a previous job. Yeah, things can get a bit confusing.

But wait, don’t lose hope yet.

There are other forms to gain experiences that are valued by companies looking to hire new people and that don’t require other experiences. Yes, that’s right, there still is hope!

One example I can give you are exchange programs that send you to work abroad. These experiences are great to give you a good initiation in the job market and help you develop worldly skills and all kinds of knowledge. Some of these experiences do require previous work but most don’t require anything complicated. We have, for example, the Global Entrepreneur program! This is an exchange program where you can go work in a Startup company in several places around the world in your area of expertise. This experience requires little to no previous works and is perfect for who is trying to enter the job market. Apart from giving you some experience it also provides the differential of being international and being in a Startup, which is the type of company that is having the biggest growth in numbers in the last few years.

So yeah, it’s hard and it can seem like there is no hope left, but it will be okay. This is just one of the several different experiences that can help you get inside the job market in the beginning of your career. Research more about these experiences, step out of your comfort zone and think outside the box because there is always a way!

Kickstart your entrepreneurial journey by finding an opportunity on aiesec.org.