Experience Required.

[JPD]

I'm looking for a full time job, and have been going through a few job hunting websites.

I have a teaching degree, and 12 years of retail experience with the last 11 of them being at the same store.

While I haven't had any luck finding a teaching position, I figured I would look for other full time job opportunities. I go to the website, have it filter by full time, and then filter by entry level.

First issue, is a lot of the jobs under the full time tag are not full time, but part time, but then I get into the descriptions of requirements. Almost all of them say they require at lease one year (or more) experience in certain aspects of the job.

When in retail I loved working with customers, but want a change, so I'm looking for something that still deals with people. One thing I'm looking at is receptionist jobs.

How does one get a receptionist job, with no experience doing that kind of work??

/Rant over.

[TheHuckster]

One thing I recommend: Apply anyway.

I've gotten a foot in the door while falling short of requirements in the past. If you interview well, they could make an exception in your case.

[jackfaire]

The fact you have a teaching degree puts you in an opposite position from me. I have a lot of job experience in a variety of jobs but no degrees, beyond high school.

This usually means I can easily find work but at the same time the jobs barely pay enough to keep food on my table.

Something to keep in mind that I have learned over the years is that those "requirements" are flexible based on who applies. If you're the most qualified person that applies they will hire you. The more people that meet their requirements the less likely they will over look them.

Also having worked in customer service does give you receptionist experience. Find the tasks that are the same across the two different jobs and then describe the tasks/skills from your previous jobs on your resume to emphasize those traits they are looking for.

You may find you need to make different resumes for each kind of job. For example I focus on my warehouse jobs when applying for a warehouse job but my call center work when looking into that field.

[SongsOfDragons]

I ran into this problem after I left uni closer than I'd like to admit to ten years ago. The only way I could find to get a job was to temp.

Now I HAVE the experience under my belt, multiple years in local gov and now my crowning jewel four years in a niche area... some of these niche employers are now employing Geography graduates straight out of university.

Where were these fucks ten years ago!?

[JPD]

Update: Applied for a job that I thought would be a good fit. Call to check on the status of my application. They are not currently hiring, (Even though the job was just re-posted a few days ago.