What does "previous experience necessary" REALLY mean?

DCFC79

When it says experience preffered/essential it means just that, they would rather employ said person with experience but if none apply then they would go for the next best thing, theres no harm in applying for said roles but not sure on the chances of getting very far

Jacey53

Try to distinguish job-specific or technical skills from transferrable skills.
The technical skills are exactly what they say - they require you to be familiar with certain techniques eg if the ad is seeking someone experienced in drilling for oil and you are not - forget it - you can't make up for the lack of experience.

If the ad asks for office experience or general retail experience, then you need to see how your skills and experience apply. If it asks for experience in selling specialist sports equipment and you worked in Asda, then you wont have that.

Office experience calls for someone who is numerate and literate, can use a fax and a photocopier; has some computing/keyboard experience, can answer the phone etc.

Call centre work is office work, with customer service elements. You work to targets, have data entry skills etc.

Look at everything you have done - paid and unpaid - you'll find you have a lot of experience if you can frame it properly for the job market.

Savvy_Sue

stingeylass wrote: »

And even if an employer would potentially employ people who don't have previous experience, surely a candidate who DOES have experience would be chosen over someone who doesn't?

It would depend on other factors as well: we recruited someone to work in our office who had a lot less office experience than some of the others, but temperamentally it seemed a better fit, and the interview answers were better.

stingeylass wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. I am doing voluntary work and have had part time jobs, but i' wondering if say I apply for a job in a shop that asks for previous retail experience, and then the employer looks at my cv and sees that my previous retail experience was when I was 15, will they even take that seriously?
My more recent jobs have been in call centres, but there isn't much call centre work in my area right now (and I don't really want to go back to that anyway). Could I apply for admin jobs that ask for experience, on the basis that working in a call centre is technically working in an office environment, and that doing my degree taught me computer skills etc?

Remember that experience doesn't have to have been gained in the workplace, so if your only retail experience is a number of years ago you need to highlight more recent experience which would be relevant to strengthen your application.

Jacey53 wrote: »

Try to distinguish job-specific or technical skills from transferrable skills.

A very good point.

Hermia

I think it depends on whether you truly have nothing to show at all. It also depends on the job market. At the moment we are getting sooo many applications for jobs we don't need to compromise on what we ask for at all.

I do have a friend who got a high-paid management job that asked for 5 years management experience and she didn't have any. But she is sooo charismatic, had started many amazing projects at her last job and had won a national prize run by her professional body. You only need to spend 5 minutes in her company to see she would be a wonderful manager. I know a few people who have had similar experiences. If you do have a lot of charisma and are clearly special it's always worth trying.

I would definitely try and think about whether any hobbies or voluntary work could be used for the form. A friend of mine volunteered as a Girl Guides mentor whilst she was at university and she got her first job on the back of that.