• Posted on Mar 29, 2024

🫠 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Ebony, how am I supposed to get experience if no one wants to give me an opportunity?

🔥Answer: I never count on opportunities falling into my lap or people giving me opportunities. It’s happened, but I don’t count on it, and neither should you. When I was in college, I wanted an internship because I heard you needed one (or a few) in order to get a good job after college. Everyone I spoke to told me I shouldn’t get an internship until Junior or Senior year – they didn’t help me! I didn’t let that stop me. I created my own internship and even got academic credit for it. I made a video about how I did this; you can watch it HERE.

Though it’s about an internship, the tips are largely transferable to creating opportunities for yourself in general. Have you heard the saying, “if they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair or build your own table?” People who reach their goals go out and make it happen, they don’t sit around waiting for opportunities to fall from the sky.

My main tip would be to internalize the quote from Zig Ziglar. He said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” In short, if you want an opportunity, find someone who would benefit from giving you that opportunity and have a discussion. It needs to be a win-win as most people won’t give you something unless they already know, like, and trust you. And that’s the 2nd tip. Leverage your warm relationships and network. Let people know what kind of opportunity you’re looking for and how you would bring value if you received the opportunity.

I’ve heard many folks say that volunteering for free can help you get both the opportunity and the experience you need, but I’ve also heard that only the privileged can “afford” accept free internships or opportunities. This is true. It’s also true that giving your time and energy to something for free so that you can reap the benefits of it by getting closer to your goals may very well be worth it. You may not be getting paid, but you’re getting something priceless.

We will take out loans and eat beans and ramen to get a degree in school, but will balk in the same breath about doing something similar when it comes to an unpaid internship or volunteer experience that gets us closer to our goals – and often gets us there faster and at less of an expense than formal education might!

In short, take the energy you’re spending wondering why people won’t give you an opportunity, and put that towards creating your own or troubleshooting how to make your dream opportunity a reality within the scope of your influence and your warm network.

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💜I am on a mission to advance social justice in the workplace! I do this through:

(1) Empowering jobseekers and college students with career wellness and

(2) Helping employers transform their workforce into engaged leaders who prioritize an inclusive workplace culture as a strategic imperative.

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