Should I Say I Dont Have Experience But Willing To Learn

Allow'due south say you're applying for a new task, simply you lot accept limited relevant feel. Yous've cleaned upward your resume and crafted a cute embrace letter outlining the value you hope to create for the visitor and how you see the skills you've built transferring to this new position. In other words, y'all've taken exactly the right approach.

But before you hit send, finish and enquire yourself: Are yous making this common, only damaging, mistake?

Ane mistake I see all the fourth dimension in this scenario is calling out your lack of feel for the hiring manager. Yous might not even notice you're doing it, but you lot are any time you get-go a sentence similar this:

"Despite my limited experience with marketing…"
"Although I do not have feel straight managing people…"
"While I only have work experience doing administrative tasks…"

The reason this mistake is easy to make is because it seems similar a seamless transition from why you lot're interested in the position into how you lot are qualified beyond the typical relevant work experience recruiters wait for. Problem is, when you write this, y'all're essentially proverb that you're non a smashing hire, that you're not quite the right fit for the function, or even that you would exist starting from square one. And that's just not the case!

Any your previous experience, you will probable be bringing with y'all tons of transferable skills. So, instead of cartoon attention to your weaknesses, a better fashion to motility on to your qualifications is to state your skills and ability to contribute directly. Stay positive, focus on your strengths, and immediately launch into your transferable skills and infectious enthusiasm for the position. Hither'due south how information technology might look instead:

"I'm excited to parlay my feel in PR to a more analytical marketing position."
"I'thousand ready to take the next step in my career—management."
"I'm eager to translate my success in this administrative position to a more client-focused role."

Sure, the question of how you'll interpret your skills to the ones required for the position may still come up in subsequently conversations—and you should be set up to respond. Until and then, don't exercise the work of throwing out your own awarding for the hiring managing director!

Photograph of adult female writing comprehend letter courtesy of Shutterstock.

Lily Zhang is a career counselor at the MIT Media Lab, where she works with a range of students from AI experts to interaction designers on crafting their own unique career paths. When she'south non indulging in a new book or video game, she's thinking about, talking nigh, or writing about careers. You lot can find her on LinkedIn, Twitter, and her website.

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