How do I get into an industry with no experience?
Every industry looks sealed from outside and porous from inside. The gap is usually information rather than ability.
- Session length
- 30 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Matched on
- Your field
Three things worth knowing.
Find the entry route the industry actually uses. It is rarely the graduate scheme on the website; more often it is an adjacent role that nobody advertises as a way in.
Build one piece of visible evidence: a project, a portfolio, a small piece of freelance work. It answers the only real objection, which is that you have never done this.
Talk to three people already doing the job. They will tell you in half an hour what six months of research will not.
A sequence that works.
- 01
Map the real entry points
List the jobs people in your target role held immediately before it.
- 02
Close one gap, visibly
Pick the single missing thing and produce evidence of it.
- 03
Use the side door
Adjacent roles inside the right company beat perfect roles at the wrong one.
- 04
Ask insiders
A 30-minute session with somebody in the industry saves months of guessing.
What to avoid.
Waiting for a qualification to grant permission
Applying only to the most competitive entry scheme
Hiding a career change instead of explaining it
Assuming your previous experience counts for nothing
The things people ask first.
Do I need a specific degree?
In regulated fields yes. In most others, evidence you can do the work matters more.
Is an unpaid internship worth it?
Only if you can afford it and it leads somewhere named. Unpaid work is a barrier, not a rite of passage.
How do I explain the switch?
In one sentence: what you learned, why this next, what transfers.
Get this answered for your situation.
A mentor who does the job you are aiming at can tell you which of this applies to you.