What Does Five Years Of Work Experience Means?

By Cheval John

Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles

Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles

You have probably seen this in job descriptions when you are looking for work.

The description that the employer post says they are looking for a person who have five years or more of work experience.

And the most frustrating part of this is most of the descriptions are probably for entry-level positions.

You might be thinking, “What Does Five Or More Years of Work Experience Really Means?”

It is “understandable” that employers are very choosy on who they hire.

They are the ones who are spending the money and want to be careful on who the right person for the position will be.

They are also burdened with the coverage of their employees.

And in this day and age, they don’t want to go through months and months of training the new employee on how their systems work which comes with a cost.

So if they can find a person who meets their requirements, it will save them a whole lot of money.

Though it is good news in the short term, it is bad in the long term.

What they don’t realize is that they are hindering their progress of hiring the right person because they are looking for that so-called, “Rock Star.”

They feel that the so-called “Rock Star” will solve their problems and over deliver.

At the same time, they believe that they will not have to pay them the salary they deserve.

When companies have that type of thinking of looking for the “rock star,” they are missing the very people who are very talented in plain sight.

And when they miss the talent, it is actually costing them more money than if they had hired the employee.

They are also causing low moral in their company because they have put pressure on the current employees to deliver great work with less resources.

And then they wonder why they can’t find the right people to fill their company’s position.

And if you are the person who are trying to find your dream job and are hindered when you see the required “five years of experience,” here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Get a Part-Time Job. The reason is because it will allow you to have consistent cash flow while you are waiting to achieve your ideal workplace

2. Start A Side Business. If you trying to get work that fit your skills like writing, public relations, etc., then starting a company or even “freelancing” your service will give you a head start in gaining your dream work. You might eventually love your “freelancing” business to the point that you might forget about seeking employment.

3. Have a Strong Social Media Presence: Everybody is an influencer. If you can showcase how efficient you are on social media, then you have a great chance of wowing your potential employer.
And the chances of building trust with CEOs, Human Resource professionals, etc. on group chats on social media, will put you ahead of everyone else who are only putting out resumes and hoping for someone to see it among equally great resumes.

4. Start A Podcast: Podcasting is the lowest of competitions out there. You could possibly interview the owner of a company and ask them about how they decided to create their business and get your foot in the door. In addition to this article I wrote for Millennial CEO, here is another reason why you should podcast. Yesterday, Spotify, which has 70 million listeners, announced that they are adding video and podcasting to their music streaming service. That is a huge opportunity for podcasters to gain more listeners in addition to iTunes and Stitcher. If that does not convince you, then I don’t know what will.

When you make a concerted effort to create your own opportunities, you might end up attracting the right employer who will see your talent.

That in turn will allow you to show them what they were missing when they were searching for that “rock star” employee.

Hopefully, they will finally see that the “five years of work experience” in their job description is not really relevant anymore.

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About Cheval John

Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.

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