Understanding professional experience and how to acquire it allows people to focus their efforts on professional development. This is because a career path defines a professional’s profile and points to paths and possibilities.
For companies, assessing prior experience is a way to determine whether a candidate is qualified for a particular role. But this goes far beyond simply listing the companies they’ve worked for on their resume; it also involves behavioral skills and projects that showcase the professional’s other qualities.
In a competitive market where many people are looking for job opportunities, professional experience may not follow traditional paths for some people, but every job requires the development of soft and hard skills, which can be important in the future.
What is professional experience?
Experience points to a person’s previous work experience and indicates their suitability for a particular job. There are many ways to gain experience, and even those just starting out in their careers or changing fields can find ways to develop skills that are important for the market in which they intend to work.
Understand how experience can help you achieve better career positions:
New skills
As we’ve said, acquiring new skills, both technical and behavioral, doesn’t require working solely in your field. Those in college who work in retail, for example, can develop skills such as public speaking, teamwork, and negotiation.
Practical experience can even become a reference for the professional path someone wants to follow, by closely following a certain routine or sector, and understanding that they can specialize and contribute to this type of work.
Outstanding resume
Experience is also a way to differentiate yourself in the selection process. Knowing how to present it on your resume , especially if it can be tied to the characteristics required for the position, can help you stand out among the many applicants.
Career expansion
Experience also allows professionals to explore other areas and different ways of performing their work. Besides connecting with other professionals and expanding their network, it can also lead to new paths, exploring new skills, learning about other segments, and expanding their career possibilities.
Trust
Just as practice is the best way to perfect a skill, so is experience. The more time you dedicate to a particular activity, the more confident you’ll become in its execution, becoming capable of coming up with new ideas and even specializing.
How to gain professional experience?
When talking about professional experience, people’s minds usually go to the time they have worked at companies within their field of expertise.
However, with a changing scenario and the arrival of new generations in the job market, non-traditional practices also serve as a reference.
Understand below how to gain valuable experience to stand out in your career:
Apprentice
Most teenagers begin to work before they are 18 years old in order to gain experience and be independent. They take on informal jobs that mean less working hours so as not to interfere with their schoolwork but help them prepare the necessary skills for the job market.
Whether it is assisting with administrative work, informal work, or even helping out in the family business, these are the initial steps of exposing oneself to experience.
Volunteering
Apart from practicing citizenship and donating towards improved conditions for society, volunteering instills teamwork and leadership skills, as well as broadening individuals’ horizons, becoming more compassionate and accommodative.
Exchange
Studying overseas, irrespective of age, is a far more responsible experience, since one does not have a ready support system around them. Apart from everyday, matter-of-fact problems, it makes one independent, enhances their communication skills, and even teaches them to speak another language.
Internship
An internship is the initial step for students to be exposed to the profession they selected for their undergraduate degree. This exposes them to practical duties and makes them understand how to accomplish the tasks they are learning in the classroom.
You can also rely on more seasoned practitioners to act as referrals and investigate various segments within your profession so you can more easily select the professional career you desire.
Studies
Theoretical knowledge plays an important role in the training of professionals, enabling them to seek innovative solutions, understand the market or their field of activity in greater depth, and assess trends more accurately.
Graduation is the first step towards this, but in addition to an academic career with master’s and doctoral degrees, other studies and specializations also allow you to broaden this experience.