How Should You Respond In An Interview When You Lack Work Experience?

You have done the brave thing to apply for a job/position for which you lacked experience. One important thing to remember here is that the interviewer has gone through your profile already, and has willingly scheduled an interview with you. They already know what your experience and skills are. Thus, they are also aware of your lack of experience. At this stage, the hiring managers know what you don’t know but want to understand what you can do for them.

Things To Keep In Mind

Before diving deep into how to exactly answer the questions in the interview, let us discuss some tips you should keep in mind in general, when stepping for an interview with no experience for the first time.

Show Enthusiasm

You need to show your interest in the job, why you are passionate about the role, and why you want to work for the company. The interviewer wants to know that you are hungry to start and will be willing to give your 100% percent. If the interviewer can catch this enthusiasm, they are more likely to hire you.

Use Smart Words

The words and adjectives you use to describe yourself when asked – tell me about yourself – will help the interviewer gauge a better picture of you. Using words like – industrious, collaborative, innovative, problem-solver, etc., will help to grab the interviewer’s attention.

Fast Learner

A good thing is to express your intent to learn and grow. If you are able to convince the hiring manager that you have the ability to grasp, adapt and learn the job fast enough to reap benefits for the business, you surely have a place to work from.

A Good Thing Is To Express Your Intent To Learn And Grow

Rehearse The Answers

It is imperative to practice your answers to the most common interview questions. To come across as someone who is prepared, confident, and organised, rehearsing your answers and having a script ready in mind is essential before you attend your job interview. This is also beneficial to overcome any interview jitters before stepping into the spotlight.

Should You Pretend?

The answer to this question is a straight NO! When you don’t know the answer, say that you don’t know. If you make up a story of maybe explaining an experience that you don’t actually have, you are most likely to forget the details, mix up names and confuse yourself and the interviewer. They have been taking interviews for a lot longer than you can perhaps anticipate, and they can smell cooked stories. However, you can always demonstrate what you might do in that situation if you’re thrown into it at any point.

Example – Say the hiring manager asks you if you have any experience in handling conflict at work. If you don’t have any prior experience in handling such a situation, your reply should sound something like this:-

I don’t yet have any experience in handling conflicts at work. However, if I were in a similar situation, I would ensure there’s an open dialogue between the team members and that they have clarity over their responsibilities.

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3-Part Approach To Answering

You have been called for an interview after a close study of your current experience. This means that you need to build on your current experience. The resume is a snapshot of your experience and you need to think hard about this – “Do I really have no experience even remotely close to the job description?”

The answer will lie in what you have written in your resume that would have stood out to the hiring managers. Thinking through this, you will realise that the hiring manager has identified some transferable skills from your resume. You might not have done something exactly as written or required but you may have done things that are similar to the demands of the job.

For example:

While applying for a job as a manager, you may not have been in a managerial position but may have handled a team of five students during college when you were heading the Marketing Club. So, you can mention that you have team-handling experience where you were responsible for delegating duties to your team members.

For any questions to which you do not know the answer or don’t have the desired experience, you should use the following 3-part approach to answer:-

Part 1

You start honestly and give the true picture. The answer should be:-

• “I have yet to do that.”
• “I lack experience.”
• “I have to come across such an opportunity.”
• “I still have to gain that experience.”

There’s nothing more that should be said.

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Build On Your Current Experience To Fulfill The Demands Of The Job

Part 2

While you have illustrated that you are not aware, you should indicate that you are willing to find the answer or find your ways to gain that knowledge/skill/ experience. In such a case, you respond with:-

• “But…”
• “However…”
• “Even so…”

You bring up analogies that would draw on some of the other experiences that you hold. The answer should be:-

• “I have never worked with Python but I have worked with HTML.”
• “I don’t know the exact process but I used a similar XYZ analysis process for one of my projects in high school.”

So, in a way, you would be telling the interviewer that you haven’t done exactly what they’re asking but have done something similar, which would help you build up further on that skill.

Part 3

We are all faced with unfamiliar situations in work and life, what the interviewer wants to know is how quickly you can adapt to these hurdles and respond effectively. This is where you give them your game plan, a window into your psyche. The answer that will close your discussion would be:

In any situation where I have encountered unknown problems, here is what I do to get myself up to speed quickly:-

• “I speak to the stakeholders involved.”
• “I seek guidance from superiors and my teammates.”
• “I plan and ensure I have clarity from my supervisor.”

When the answer is given in three parts as discussed, this is the kind of picture that the interviewer is likely to form:-

Yes, the candidate does not have the experience as we had already gathered from looking at their profile and they were honest about it. But they do have some similar experience and also a plan to learn and get up to speed.

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It doesn’t matter as much if you don’t have the training, as much as it does for you to show that you are trainable. Organisations are willing to invest their time and resources to train fresh minds as they are aware it’s easier to work on a blank canvas. The intent counts more than the content.

Parisraja Bajpai is an Organisational Psychologist, with extensive experience in talent acquisition, talent management, employee counselling, employee engagement, training and development. She is currently heading the HR department at Futopia Global Pvt. Ltd. The views presented in this article are solely of the author and do not represent those of the organisation they are associated with.