5 Ways to Gain Your First Work Experience (DF#117)

Hannah Maruyama [00:00:00]:

So the upside to apprenticeship and paid on the job training is the fact that it's paid. Somebody else is taking on that risk for you, and so you no longer are assuming the risk of learning while not getting paid. Someone else has skin in the game. Someone else is invested in your outcome because they are outlaying money in order for you to learn.

Ryan Maruyama [00:00:24]:

Aloha, folks, and welcome back to Degree Free where we teach you how to get hired without a college degree. We are your hosts, Ryan and Hannah Maruyama. It is great to have you back.

Hannah Maruyama [00:00:33]:

Welcome back. Welcome back to the podcast. As always, folks, Ryan and I are stoked to have you with us today.

Ryan Maruyama [00:00:38]:

We are. We are always stoked as always, and let's jump into today's topic. Today, we are gonna be talking about 5 ways to gain your 1st work experience. You might be going through this. You might have gone through this, Or you might even have a kid or a child of yours who's also going through this. You apply to a job. You finally get an interview. And then after the interview, they're like, well, maybe if you had a little bit more experience.

Hannah Maruyama [00:01:05]:

Or we're looking for someone with a little more experience.

Ryan Maruyama [00:01:09]:

Exactly. What's so difficult about that is, like, well, if you give me the job, then I'll have more experience.

Hannah Maruyama [00:01:16]:

And, usually, it's entry level roles that will be saying this to you as well.

Ryan Maruyama [00:01:21]:

So we're trying to solve the problem. Like, how are we supposed to get a job if you don't have experience? If all of these jobs are requiring, and once again, as I always do, I'm putting that in quotes. How are we supposed to get a job that requires experience when you don't have any. So today, we are going to be breaking down the 5 ways to gain experience out there. And so You can use these different ways either yourself or, as I said, your child as young as working age Can do any one of these 5 different methods to gain your 1st experience.

Hannah Maruyama [00:02:00]:

We're gonna start with the more obvious ways and then work our way down to the less obvious ways to get work experience.

Ryan Maruyama [00:02:07]:

The obvious ways, the first one is gonna be get a job. This is degree free pathway number 1. For those that don't know about the degree free pathways, there are 5 different things that you can do if you're thinking about not going to college or you're thinking about Making your career change and you don't wanna go back to college to do so, it's gonna be the 5 degree free pathways. I won't belabor all of them here, But number 1 is get a job. If you wanna learn more about the degree free pathways, you can go to degreefree.c0forward/pathways. You can take a free course that we made for you, and then I will also put links to different podcast episodes for these things at degreefree.c04/podcast In the show notes.

Hannah Maruyama [00:02:47]:

Getting a job is obviously the best way to get experience because you're getting paid to learn a skill.

Ryan Maruyama [00:02:52]:

Yeah. Exactly. As long as you can land that job with whatever experience you have right now, then you take that. You learn. You gain the experience. You're getting paid. We're not gonna belabor how to get a job or why you should get a job. That's pretty much the entire point of this entire podcast. But if you wanna take our 7 day get hired challenge to get hired, get out of the job that you're in now, you can go to degree free.c0forward/gethired.

Hannah Maruyama [00:03:18]:

Or you can sign up for our job change accelerated course at degreefree.c0forward/jobchange. Although we're not gonna spend a lot of time on it, the way that you can convince someone to give you a job so you can get experience is that you can convince them that you bring other unique experience to the job, not necessarily the type they're looking for, but a type that adds value. You can do this by making sure that you hit this home in the interview and on your resume.

Ryan Maruyama [00:03:43]:

Yeah. And you wanna Sure that you are focusing on the future. What happens a lot of times is you focus on the past and you focus on not having that experience. But instead, You focus on the future and what the experience that you have now, how you can use that and bring that to their business. That's what's important. A couple of other ways when you're thinking about getting a job and you don't have an experience, the first is going to a less crowded market. The less crowded market has less competition, and, therefore, less competition means a higher likelihood that you get that job, and, therefore, you can get that experience. The second thing is if you're already working in a role, then possibly just looking for opportunities to move up and Learn new skills. That's one of the things that is really common in all the degree free guests that we have on is that they take the opportunities that they have in front of them To learn new skills. They say, okay. Well, I'm doing this job currently, but then how about I go and cross train and learn this thing? And then I learned this thing, and I learned this thing. And then the more that you do that, then you're gaining skills and experience in all of these related areas that you can then put on your resume to get another job. This usually works better in smaller companies and not bigger companies. Smaller companies just because you wear more hats.

Hannah Maruyama [00:05:01]:

They need more help.

Ryan Maruyama [00:05:02]:

Exactly. And they don't have as defined structured departments. For me, I did that. I was Trying to gain experience in other things while I was a dishwasher on my very first job. Like, this was my very first job, so I didn't have experience in anything. And so they taught me how to be a dishwasher, and I was like, okay. Well, this sucks. I don't wanna do this anymore, or at least I don't wanna do this for a long time. And so I just asked them. They hey. Can I be a cook instead? And they're like, well, we need somebody to wash the dishes. And I was like, okay. Well, can I, like, do both? Can I cross train? And then They're like, well, yeah, I guess. That makes sense as long as you wash the dishes too. So then I was able to train as a cook while I also wash dishes. So that is prevalent in every job that you can do.

Hannah Maruyama [00:05:51]:

I did this when I was trying to get my 1st bartending job, actually. I tried to apply at this really busy bar, and they wouldn't hire me because I had no bartending experience. So what I did was I went down the street to a bar that nobody wanted to work at, and I applied as a bartender there with no experience. And they were a lot less picky because, as you said, less crowded market, smaller business. So I went down the road, and I worked at that place until I had enough experience to reapply the Busy Bar that I actually wanted to work at. And What do you know? They hired me.

Ryan Maruyama [00:06:21]:

Matt Walters, who is a degree free engineer that came on this show, I'll link his show in the show notes, degreefree.c04/podcast. But you can go back and listen to his story. He talks about how he worked his way up from a pool tech All the way to where he is now as an engineer because of doing this at the beginning. He didn't have any experience with Anything. So he got the initial job as the pool tech, and then he just started learning more and learning more and learning more and gaining that experience, Eventually becoming a building engineer, eventually becoming the next step up and the next step up, and that's how he got to where he is. And so it's a really, really effective way to gain your 1st experience in those roles or in anything that you wanna do.

Hannah Maruyama [00:07:06]:

I highly suggest people go listen to that episode too because it was really

Ryan Maruyama [00:07:10]:

And and so moving on, the 2nd way that we can gain our 1st experience is we can find an apprenticeship or on the job training. This is degree free pathway number 2. If you go to degreefree.c04/pathways, you can learn all about it there.

Hannah Maruyama [00:07:23]:

Okay. So the upside to apprenticeship and paid on the job training is the fact that It's paid. Somebody else is taking on that risk for you, and so you no longer are assuming the risk of learning while not getting paid. Someone else has skin in the game. Someone else is invested in your outcome because they are outlaying money in order for you to learn. That's a really good position to be in.

Ryan Maruyama [00:07:45]:

Hey there. I hope you're enjoying this episode of the degree free podcast. At degree free, we wanna help everyone thrive and succeed without needing a college degree. And the only way to truly reach everyone is with your help. If you're getting value out of this episode or if this is your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th episode that you're tuning into, if you could just ship this to a friend. Just click that 1 button and share it with someone in your contacts or on your stories. It would mean the world to us. And more importantly, get our message out to more people who need help getting out of their current Situation. If you could do that right now, that would mean a whole lot. What's also good about this compared to getting the job Is that usually with apprenticeships and on the job training, when you go in and make an arrangement like this, is that they know that you are green. They know that you don't have a lot of experience. Whereas getting a job is really good, but this is also good as well. It Might even be better even though you might get paid a little bit less. But then you can be very honest and forward that you don't know anything or you don't have experience in this yet.

Hannah Maruyama [00:08:52]:

Yeah. Structure for learning, which is part of the positive, which is that there are a lot of programs set up to teach you how to actually do this skill, and your learning is a lot more comprehensive because it's structured to allow you the time and the leeway to actually explore and learn and get good at the skills that you need to work on. The downside is that if you feel you've mastered the skill, you do have to finish what you're doing. And so even if you feel you could go and get work now, you They'll have to complete the program before you go off on your merry way. Now a lot of people when they hear apprenticeships or on the job training, they immediately think of the trades and write it off, but that is just not the case anymore. Apprenticeships are coming back in a big way, and you can see them now especially in high demand fields in tech. That's where they're really coming back. There's a lot of cybersecurity. There's a lot of software development programs that are all paid, and they will let you learn skills while you're working for a company. And then lots of large corporations like IBM, Deloitte, and even Lockheed Martin are all starting their own apprenticeship programs and expanding them from the smaller ones that they previously had because they've been so successful, and they're such a high retention of employees. And they're so skilled because they train them.

Ryan Maruyama [00:10:04]:

Yeah. They're Finding that it's actually cheaper to train you up from the bottom than it is to take their chances On a college graduate or somebody that gained experience in a different way, they figured if we can create a training program And then we can create an apprenticeship program, gain their experience, gain their knowledge, and then put them to work afterwards. That is a much better outcome for us, which is why they do it.

Hannah Maruyama [00:10:33]:

Yeah. And with great success too. Because as as I said, their retention rates for their apprenticeship programs are extremely high. So there's essentially 2 ways to get these apprenticeship or on the job training programs. You apply for them like a job. It's the same process, or you can build your own. And this is where you would approach somebody that has the skill set that you want or the experience access to the experience that you want, and then you offer to work for them and see if there's some way you can come up with a deal where you pay them or they pay you or whatever in order for you to get access to either their knowledge or the experience that they are able to let you have.

Ryan Maruyama [00:11:10]:

Yeah. It's a really powerful way to do it because with the programs that are regimented And that you apply to just like a job, the competition is really high.

Hannah Maruyama [00:11:20]:

Extremely. Because everyone wants to get paid $58 an hour to learn how to develop software.

Ryan Maruyama [00:11:24]:

So if you'd go to the BYOA is what we called it for short, which is build your own apprenticeship. If you go to that, there's a lot less competition, which means there's a higher likelihood That you would actually get that job, that you would actually get that apprenticeship. The thing is is that a lot of business owners are very busy Working in their business. Right? They're working in it, and they're busy fulfilling the products and services to get whatever it is done. A lot of them need help, But they might not have the money to pay full price for somebody. And then 2, they don't have the time to put up a listing and be like, I need somebody I need to hire, and And then they have to go through that whole process. But if you go there and you say, hey. I like what you're doing. I would love to learn the skill. I don't have this skill of this exact thing that you're doing, but I have all these other skills, and here's how I can help you in that. If you could teach me how to do what you're doing For this wage, usually smaller than market value, you would say, I will stick on for a while, Right. Because that's what they're concerned about. They're concerned about you leaving if they're gonna train you. So and be like, yep. I'll stay on, and they'll be like, sure. Sounds good. Instead of having to go to Craigslist and write an ad and go to Facebook and write an ad or Indeed or whatever and say, I'm looking for this. And then now they get Flood of 200 applications. They gotta sift through it all, then they gotta schedule interviews, and then they gotta figure it all out. They don't have time for that.

Hannah Maruyama [00:12:52]:

Make a plan. Go to them.

Ryan Maruyama [00:12:53]:

Exactly. That is one of the best ways to do it.

Hannah Maruyama [00:12:56]:

So and, yeah, as Ryan said, there's no one competing with you because you created it out of thin air. Now for on the job training, you are gonna look the same way you're gonna look for apprenticeships, which is like jobs. You're just gonna search by job title or by industry. You can also think about careers that have paid opportunities with them. A good example that Ryan can speak to is firefighting.

Ryan Maruyama [00:13:18]:

Yeah. For me, firefighting, I went to a program that actually hired me, and they did on the job training. So I was literally getting paid for 8 months To learn how to do my job. And then 4 months after my recruit training program was over, I spent another 4 months in the field Actually doing the job. So for a year, I got paid to basically train, and they understood that I was new. They understood that I was just Joe Schmoe off the street, and then I didn't know how to be a fireman. I didn't know how to run into burning buildings, or I didn't know how to do DPR. I never did any of those things before, but they were okay with that. So you just have to find different career paths or different jobs that have this paid training aspect to it. Once again, it's a really good way To just lower the risk and actually get paid while you're learning.

Hannah Maruyama [00:14:16]:

Number 3 is signing up for a course or a boot camp that specifically has an experience element to it. This can be a really good learning option because you'll get structured experience while you are actually learning. The problem with these and for anyone that's tried to teach themselves how to code or anything like that will know that a lot of times These programs, because they are programs, are structured to be the same. So they may have you solving the same problem. They may have you solving the same problem as everyone else. They may have you solving a problem that's really boring, uninteresting, and unvaluable. And if they pick the wrong problem to have you solve, to show your skills, that will be unattractive to companies.

Ryan Maruyama [00:14:55]:

To illustrate that, you might go to a coding boot camp. Right? And this coding boot camp, the project that they have you create is they have you create A Twitter clone. And then you go and you create a Twitter clone. And then everybody else that ever came through that program also created a Twitter clone. One, it doesn't differentiate you, and it's not incredibly valuable considering that depending on what the nature of the work that you wanna get. If you want to work on threads, creating a Twitter clone makes a lot of sense. But if you wanna go and do Neuralink. Yeah. Maybe creating a Twitter clone makes no sense at all. These programs, these courses, and these boot camps that have these experience elements built into it, they can be very good. It really just depends. So that's gonna have to be part of your vetting process when you are thinking about going to one of these courses or boot camps, Thinking about how valuable really is this experience that they are giving me or that they're providing.

Hannah Maruyama [00:16:00]:

If you're looking at several of these options now and you're trying to consider which one to pick, make sure you ask. Ask them. If they say, we do real life experiences. We build real projects. Ask them what the projects are, and then see if they're applicable to your end goal far as what job you're trying to get.

Ryan Maruyama [00:16:14]:

Are they gonna be working on, like, real life problems for real life businesses? Because some programs are hooked into real life businesses, and you actually work on those things. And then some programs, they will say, okay. This is what happened one time, and then they will set up your instance or whatever to mimic that, But it's not the actual problem, but it was an actual problem. It's kind of like the Harvard case study method of learning. For the MBA program, for Harvard, They go through a business scenario for, like, American Airlines went through this decision, and here's the decision that they made. Like, validate that decision, or what would you do if you were given this amount of things and then they

Hannah Maruyama [00:16:59]:

Like a legal test almost.

Ryan Maruyama [00:17:00]:

Right. And then they talk Through what happened. I'm explaining this completely terribly, but they get a case study. They get literally, this is what happened, and they study how they made the decision why it was good or bad. It could be that similar thing for you. They could just be creating a sandbox for you to do this. And I'm talking about If you're going to, like, a coding boot camp or if you're going to, like, a Salesforce thing, they'll create a scenario for you based off of something that did happen, But it's not really real life, and then you gain your experience here, and that's what the experience is.

Hannah Maruyama [00:17:33]:

Yeah. So no right or wrong to this. You just need to know what You're looking for in a program so that you can get what you need out of it.

Ryan Maruyama [00:17:40]:

Yeah. Like you said, there's no right or wrong answer. It's just what you prefer and the best of what you make it. Because at the end of the day, when you come out of one of these programs, it's still up to you to get a job. You have to go and do it. You have to sell your experience, whatever that experience is, To your future employer. So before I move on to the less obvious ways to gain your 1st experience, we have a couple more to get through. I did wanna say if you would like to receive a short Weekly email that has different degree free jobs, degree free opportunities, and how you can get hired without a college degree. Go to degree free dot c o four session newsletter to sign up for our newsletter.

Hannah Maruyama [00:18:14]:

Getting into less obvious ways to earn experience, we should talk about contract work. I love contract work. I think this is such a good hack that a lot of people do not know about. But, essentially, Contract work is finding a job, but you are not going to be an employee of the company. This is really good because it's at will employment, meaning you can terminate yourself from this company, or they can terminate you at any point. So there's a high level of risk as opposed to a w two job, but you'll find that contract work is essentially doing the same job as somebody in a w two position. You're just paid differently. So you're going to get a wide variety of experience this way. And the real upside of contract work is people get hired quickly. The downside is they get fired quickly also, but you get hired really quick. So if you're looking to get experience in a specific field, finding contract work is, like your golden ticket.

Ryan Maruyama [00:19:10]:

Yeah. Absolutely. Finding contract work can be a real cheat code in gaining your first experience. There are a lot of companies that are trying to scale teams really, really quickly, and they need to just hire, hire, hire, hire, or higher. It can be for short contracts. So, like, a 3 month contract is not a long contract. You are going to be basically, Lee, as soon as you get in there, they're gonna be looking for another contract unless you can re up with them. But if you have 0 experience in this field or you're concerned with wanting to get more experience than doing a contract in that way can really help. Because if they're looking for A 3 month contract, let's say, it's likely that they're not gonna vet you very, very well because they're just like, we have a very Narrow scope of a project that needs to get done in this domain, and we're gonna get it done within 3 months. We need to hire somebody right now, And they hire you, and then you get it done.

Hannah Maruyama [00:20:10]:

Yeah. Contract work is really a hidden gem in this experience department. It's my favorite one on this list for sure.

Ryan Maruyama [00:20:16]:

The only Problem with contract work is that you're not an employee. Right? So for people that need all the employee benefits

Hannah Maruyama [00:20:23]:

Yeah. Not a good fit for them.

Ryan Maruyama [00:20:24]:

Right. Unless you can get Your benefits from somebody else. Say if you are a minor or you're a dependent and you can get your Insurance and your benefits from your parents or from your spouse, that's huge.

Hannah Maruyama [00:20:40]:

That's really your sweet spot, actually.

Ryan Maruyama [00:20:42]:

Crazy about This whole thing that we got into, right, degree free and helping people change their life by changing their career, helping people get work without a college degree. We have a lot of intimate conversations with people about the way that their family structures look and the way that their work looks. What's interesting about that is how many people have never talked to their spouse about Their benefits. Yes. And about consolidating their benefits. For you and me, it's a little weird That people are not having these conversations because you and I had these conversations while you and I were just engaged already. We were like, well, how are we going to deal with benefits? How are we gonna do that when we get married and things like that? And so for a lot of people, they haven't even thought about, well, My husband works a full time w two role. He has benefits. I can get my benefits through his job and through his work, And then I don't have to have benefits, and I can work a contract role.

Hannah Maruyama [00:21:41]:

Yeah. It's crazy. And especially having these conversations with people who I see they're both on both of their health insurances, and they're healthy and they don't need it. And it's not so much something they decided to do as something they just didn't decide not to do. And it's so interesting because, Usually, one of them has a skill that I see in the market could earn them quite a bit of money if one of them was a contract worker. And they would have more at their disposal, and they could just consolidate to their to their one health care plan. Anyway, it's just interesting, though. I always see that, and I wish more people knew that they might wanna look into leveraging those things.

Ryan Maruyama [00:22:13]:

Right. And look, this isn't Advice? Yeah.

Hannah Maruyama [00:22:16]:

We're not telling people how to live their lives. It's just interesting.

Ryan Maruyama [00:22:18]:

On that because your dynamic could be different the way that you structure a household. My main point is just have the conversation and be intentional about the way that you're setting your life up. A lot of the people that we talk to Have just never thought about it. Like, you just know, oh, yeah. Well, I guess he does have insurance, and then I guess I do have insurance. They said, well, why don't you just go On his plan, and then they're like, oh, well, I don't know. We just never thought about it, which is mind blowing to me. For a lot of people, the answer is that, oh, well, His family plan is more expensive because he actually get his single individual insurance for free, and then, therefore, I take care of myself and the kids. And then, like, as long you have an answer to it and you know why and you know the reason, It's all good. I think that's for those listening, having that conversation about, like, hey. Do we know who's has the benefits?

Hannah Maruyama [00:23:17]:

And why.

Ryan Maruyama [00:23:18]:

Right. Exactly. That's the way that we've structured our life when we were first becoming entrepreneurs and we were first Delving into having to be responsible for our own insurance. The way that we did that was one of us take care of the insurance and then the other one Phase out of it. That's the way that we did it. And then now we we're full time entrepreneurs. So we

Hannah Maruyama [00:23:38]:

We do pay our own health insurance.

Ryan Maruyama [00:23:39]:

Yeah. Unfortunately.

Hannah Maruyama [00:23:40]:

Not to get into it, but that is holding a lot of people back entrepreneurship, and it's really a shame.

Ryan Maruyama [00:23:45]:

Yeah. Absolutely. It's really expensive to provide for your own insurance, and it's a problem that needs to be solved. Mhmm. For sure.

Hannah Maruyama [00:23:54]:

But today, the problem we're gonna solve is how to teach you to volunteer so that you can get experience.

Ryan Maruyama [00:23:59]:

Yes. And this is the 5th and final way to gain your first Experience. Volunteering can really be a great way to do that. And I'm gonna break down A really easy 2 part framework that you can think about and then, therefore, get volunteering work. So either way that you cut it, You are doing free work. Right? That's what volunteering is. You're doing free work. So then the only question after that is, are you gonna do free work Before or after a person or organization that you're doing the free work for has agreed to work.

Hannah Maruyama [00:24:35]:

Are you just gonna take action, or are you going to wait until you get consent?

Ryan Maruyama [00:24:39]:

Exactly. K. Exactly. Exactly. So doing free work After an organization has agreed to work with you, I'm gonna start there first. That is the traditional route to go. So think you go to church and you say, I would love to volunteer to watch kids in the nursery, Something like that. I would love to volunteer to do the meal handouts on Thanksgiving. And then the organizer says, yes. That sounds good. We need more hands in whatever department. We need more people to do whatever it is that you're asked to do, and then you go and give your labor for free. So that is the traditional way of volunteering. So for this, regarding experience, It doesn't necessarily have to be for a nonprofit. Right? Even though it's volunteering, it can be for a for profit company. That's totally fine. It just needs to be a company or an organization or a person that is doing the thing that you wanna do, And, therefore, you can gain experience in that thing. So let's just say a marketing agency. You want to Work for a marketing agency eventually, and you need to get marketing experience. You could go up to a marketing agency and be like, hey. I would love to volunteer and help you do some campaigns. Do you think that you could use my help? Boom. Perfect. I mean, it's not a nonprofit, but it's And you're just gonna do free work for them.

Hannah Maruyama [00:26:16]:

Another good example would be if you wanna start building websites and you wanna be a web dev, you would just go to new Restaurants in the area around you, because restaurants always need websites, they're usually terrible, and they usually don't have any money. So just go to the restaurants and say, hey. I will build your website if you are a reference for me, and you let me use this as a example in my portfolio. Or you could just build the website and then go into the restaurant and find the owner and say, hey. I built this website for you. Will you use it? And in exchange, will you give me a reference?

Ryan Maruyama [00:26:45]:

Absolutely. And so you're jumping ahead. That is going to be the doing free work before. Right? So like I said, it's a 2 part framework for thinking about volunteer work. It is before the organization or person has agreed to work with you or after. So after is the traditional route. Hey. Can I do free work for you? Can I volunteer doing x? And then they agree, and then you do x. Before is gonna be exactly what you just said, Which is you are just going to do x, and then you are going to go to this person and say, hey. Do you want x? I already did it, and then it'll be like, yeah. Sure. I mean, like, what's the catch? And it'd be like, no catch. I just need to learn this business. Here it is for free, and you give it to them and be like, I would love to come on and continue to do this work for you for free For 30 days. Going to them with work that you've already done is the best way to prove that You are not gonna be a burden on them and that you can provide value even though you're volunteering. Because even though you're providing free work, It is gonna suck up their time and their resources to train you. You knowing that and you showing them that before is huge. Be like, look. I know that it's gonna take time for me to learn, and I know that it's gonna take time away from your day. I'm working other things to train me to do these free things for you, But here you go. I made this website. Could you use it?

Hannah Maruyama [00:28:16]:

Yeah. It's basically just instead of volunteering to do what people think they need done, You volunteer to do what you think they need done. And so it shows a dynamic thought on your part. And, also, you can choose to use your skills in order Do those things, especially skills you're trying to learn or showcase.

Ryan Maruyama [00:28:33]:

Yeah. Absolutely. And this is super useful for companies because If they like your work, they might just keep you on.

Hannah Maruyama [00:28:41]:

That happens more than people realize.

Ryan Maruyama [00:28:43]:

Especially for smaller companies, It goes back to the business owner, the person running it.

Hannah Maruyama [00:28:49]:

Too busy.

Ryan Maruyama [00:28:50]:

Incredibly busy. And they're like, I don't wanna onboard anybody. I don't wanna have to interview people.

Hannah Maruyama [00:28:56]:

Yeah. Think about what you need to tell and how you need to train somebody versus, well, this guy just did it. So, I mean, he can do it. You can see the evidence right here.

Ryan Maruyama [00:29:04]:

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And those were the 5 ways that you can gain experience right now. And like I said, it might be you that needs to gain your 1st experience. It could be your child that wants to gain their 1st experience. It doesn't matter. This will work For people that are advanced in their careers and people that are just just starting out.

Hannah Maruyama [00:29:27]:

Alright. So real quick, just to recap, our 5 ways to get experience. Number 1, get a job, get experience that way. Number 2, find apprenticeship or on the job training and gain experience that way. Number 3 is gonna be sign up for a course or a boot camp with an experience element to it. Number 4 is gonna be contract work, and number 5 is gonna be Volunteer. Do free work. That's all we got for this episode, folks. But if you wanna get more degree free tips on how to get hired, degree free friendly companies you need to know about, And more interesting degree free news, go ahead and sign up at degreefree.coforward/newsletter to get our free weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Ryan Maruyama [00:30:02]:

Yep. And that's pretty much it for this week. Until next time.