By: Amanda Ramkissoon
Majoring in Operations Management
Class of 2013
Despite our diversity, Baruch Students all share similar concerns, the most popular being, “How will I get a job without relevant work experience?” In particular, I was worried about how to find a job in operations with little to no relevant experience.
It is this concern that seems to have plagued many business schools. How can a student with no relevant work experience enter the business field? I had to deal with this problem and as a student career advisor I also saw students facing the same challenge.
While there may be many reasons for students concerns over inadequate experience, there are also many easily accessible solutions.
I think my biggest challenge when applying for business jobs was getting into the right state of mind. I found myself comparing myself to other students who already had internships at top notch companies while I had nothing close to that. I needed to convince myself that although I may not have jobs within the business field, I did in fact have valuable transferable skills.
The first step I took was to identify these skill sets.
- This can be accomplished by attending one of the many workshops offered by STARR, by finding someone that knows you well and can point these out to you, or that can look at your resume and highlight these areas.
- If none of these options are accessible to you at the time, look at your resume yourself and reflect back on what you have done in the past. No one knows you better than yourself. I would like to advise caution here. You need to be comfortable enough to speak on these skill sets and display them during the interview and on the job. So be honest!
- For example, many Baruch students have cashier experience and are Accounting majors. When you look at being a cashier, you may think of it is as simply putting money into a cash register. However, as an Accounting student, this displays responsibility in handling cash and performing calculations, responsibility in record management and many other skill sets that are often overlooked.
I am an Operations Management major who recently secured a job at a well-known investment bank with much of my industry understanding based on one finance class. I competed with mainly finance students and my selling point was, “I have an operational mindset that is difficult to develop in a short time span and I can understand finance on the job.”
It’s all about playing up your strengths and using them to help you stand out. This is your time to shine. So don’t sell yourself short.