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Location: where people are either too stupid to leave or too stuck to move
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I see that jobs require relevant work experience, but my friend seems to think that working anywhere will be worth enough experience to get a job. so i work in retail or as a waitress how is that going to help me get a real career? is any kind of experience better than an unemployment gap?
i doubt it. if you have a gap you could have been traveling or taking a break or doing some other enriching activity with your time voluntarily. if you worked full time as a waitress then that makes it clear that thats the best job you were able to get, which looks bad on your part. i have a short period where i was working a menial job and i prefer to leave it as a gap (not that it matters now two years later). if your unemployment gap is going on 6 mos+, though, you need to volunteer in something relevant to your field or something
Actually, conversely, the wrong experience can destroy your resume.
If you were say, in accounting, then went to retail for a few years, and decided you wanted to go back in accounting, you probably destroyed that chance.
Showing that you held any job is absolutely better than showing you were simply unemployed.
If I saw two candidates, one was unemployed for a year and the other worked as a waiter/waitress for a year and both were equal with all other qualifications, I would take the person who worked in the restaurant.
Showing that you held any job is absolutely better than showing you were simply unemployed.
If I saw two candidates, one was unemployed for a year and the other worked as a waiter/waitress for a year and both were equal with all other qualifications, I would take the person who worked in the restaurant.
This, a million times it is better to have some sort of volunteering/ mimnimum wage position than abosutley nothing. Ideally we all want our past expereince to be relevant to the job we are looking for but having long unexplained gaps of unemployment because we "are holding out for that one job" is death, bloody freaking death on a resume.
I have done a wide variety of jobs in my young life. I have found a diverse background allows you to gain entry into new fields with ease. In many lines of work, finding someone to show up on time, everyday is a big struggle.
This depends on the type of "career" you are looking to break into. If it's a career that isn't competitve and tends to hire people with no previous direct experience and only require soft skills, then, it probably won't matter what type of jobs you had in the past. Customer service is a field that wouldn't care if you were a waitress. However, there are many fields where not having the right background would kill any chance of ever breaking into that field.
IMO, when you put together a resume it should be tailored to the job you want to get. I understand you have to put food on the table, BUT, you don't have to tell a potential employer every single job you have held. If you were a student studying something relevant to the career field you want to get into, then, play that up on your resume and in the interview and avoid mentioning jobs that had nothing to do with the career field you want to get into.
This, a million times it is better to have some sort of volunteering/ mimnimum wage position than abosutley nothing. Ideally we all want our past expereince to be relevant to the job we are looking for but having long unexplained gaps of unemployment because we "are holding out for that one job" is death, bloody freaking death on a resume.
True, but chances are that's not going to be the case. You're not going to find unemployed accountants unless they are either absolutely terrible at their job, or they chose to go into something else.
That's the case with most skilled work.
What's a likely scenario, is you get someone who graduated, couldn't find work in their major, did retail to not even pay the bills, and eventually started trying to find work related to their degree when they start popping up.
Chances are those jobs will go to the fresher graduates.
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