{"id":3067,"date":"2026-02-28T14:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=3067"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:53:06","slug":"how-to-sell-your-experience-when-you-dont-have-any","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2026\/02\/28\/how-to-sell-your-experience-when-you-dont-have-any\/","title":{"rendered":"How to sell your experience when you don\u2019t have any"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, I\u2019m Anna \u2013 I work as a Student Employability Coach in Careers! Getting work experience can often be like an endless cycle of needing experience to get experience, but if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learnt working here, anything can be experience and there are skills to be found in everything. Read on for some of my key tips to make the most of your experience, even if you don\u2019t have any:<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cI don\u2019t have any experience related to my field\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Something I hear a lot in Careers, and while field-specific experience can be great, transferable skills are important too and can be drawn from anywhere! Have you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Waited on tables, taken orders, wiped down counters?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Or have you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Developed <strong>interpersonal skills<\/strong> such as <strong>active listening <\/strong>and <strong>non-verbal communication skills <\/strong>and also <strong>maintained an organised, clean environment<\/strong> which ensured high-quality customer service?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Employers are always looking for key transferable skills such as communication and organisation; volunteering and part-time jobs are a great place to showcase these skills \u2013 you might just need to add a little bit of <em>pizzazz<\/em>\u00a0(but don\u2019t lie).<\/p>\n<h2>Use your degree<\/h2>\n<p>Uni experience is still experience! You do so much within your degree, it would be a waste not to mention it - especially as this can be a good source for field-specific technical skills such as lab and software skills, as well as transferable skills like presenting and teamwork. If you\u2019ve done a presentation\/group project on a topic that a company specialises in, it shows your interest in the field and foregrounding that will help your Education section stand out amongst other candidates.<\/p>\n<h2>Societies count too<\/h2>\n<p>Societies, either on the committee or as a member helping out at events, are a great place to develop transferable skills like communication and networking. They also highlight your interests outside work. Getting stuck into things shows drive and initiative, demonstrating to employers you are a strong candidate excited and ready to work for them.<\/p>\n<h2>Online courses<\/h2>\n<p>If you really don\u2019t have anything to talk about, then online resources are a great way to get started. <a href=\"https:\/\/unihub.bath.ac.uk\/s\/myemployability\">Have a look at My Employability Profile for a range of resources and workshops hosted by Careers and other University departments. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/library.bath.ac.uk\/linkedin-learning\/home\">You can also access LinkedIn Learning via the Library<\/a> (which the University subscribes to, so it\u2019s free).<\/p>\n<h2>Final thought<\/h2>\n<p>The place where most students slip up is not from their lack of experience, it\u2019s tailoring it to what you\u2019re applying for; employers want to know <strong>how<\/strong> you can use your communication, leadership or collaboration skills in the role. They\u2019re not hugely concerned where you got it, whether in a group project, helping out at a badminton competition, or working in restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>If you need any support, Careers is always open 10am-4pm Monday to Friday during term time.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/guides\/how-to-get-help-from-careers\/\">Drop in and speak to us<\/a> and we\u2019d be happy to help (stand opposite Fresh then turn left).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, I\u2019m Anna \u2013 I work as a Student Employability Coach in Careers! Getting work experience can often be like an endless cycle of needing experience to get experience, but if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learnt working here, anything can...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1174,"featured_media":3069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[752],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers-advice"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2026\/02\/Blog-post-images-36.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}