ALT-1 How a Lack of Experience could Limit your Career Options
A lack of experience is certainly something that will be a turn off to those who make the decisions in a company. It can be hard to get hired unless you have experience, it can be hard to get promoted if you have experience and it can be hard to be taken seriously if you lack experience. The hardest part of it all is that it takes experience in order to get experience, so you can see how it can be hard to launch a career with no experience.
It is understandable why employers might be more inclined to hire someone who has experience. When a business goes to its clients, they probably want someone who has proven that they know what to do. An employer wants to know that an employee will be able to develop other employees, deal with customers without blowing up and has the ability to work without needing a lot of hand holding.
Training costs can be lower for employees that are highly experienced in their field. It is much easier to teach a 40 year old how to run a register as opposed to a teenager who has never worked before. It isn't the kid's fault, it is simply that the older employee has been there and done that before. The job is familiar and takes less time to teach. The lower costs of training and development might factor into the decision to not hire someone without experience.
A lack of experience can also lead to more mistakes. A company cannot afford to be living with the mistakes of a rookie when an experienced employee would not be making those mistakes. Unless the employee has a lot of potential, or the employee is the son of the CEO, the company would much rather not take a chance on a young kid who has little to no experience. This would be especially true for a company that could be in the public eye, or could be if a mistake is made.
The current economy has also rendered it almost useless to apply to jobs unless you have experience. Companies are at a huge advantage because plenty of experienced employees are willing to work for wages they might have received when they first started out. This means that a younger, inexperienced employee has lost their biggest advantage in the job search. Why hire a young kid when they can get a vet at the same price?
Lack of experience is going to be a downfall simply because a company doesn't know what it has. This can lead to mistakes which could cost money, or training and development that can cost money and not yield any tangible results for the company. It can be a vicious cycle, but lack of experience tends to get you shown the door quickly.
