No One Will Hire You with 0 Experience, So Here's What You Do...

One question and comment I get asked all the time: “All of these internships and jobs require experience and I don’t have any. How am I supposed to get an internship when all the internships require a previous internship?”

It’s a fair question, but it’s solvable. Here’s what I did and what is the cheat code for that: build a side project and position it like a job. It’s 100% legal. It’s 100% honest. And it’s how smart students build experience out of nothing.

💡 What counts as a “side project?”

• A newsletter you started (yes, like this one)

• A spreadsheet tool you built to help students choose courses

• A mock marketing plan you made for your favorite brand or a local restaurant/store

• Built and shared a $40/week student meal prep guide used by 200+ classmates

• Developed a budget tracker for a student club still used by treasurers today

• Designed and pitched a social media plan for a local gym to grow engagement

If you built it, launched it, led it, or finished it—it counts. That’s experience.

🔧 How to Position It Like a Job

On your resume, don’t label it “Side Project.”
Instead, give it a name, a role, and results. Like this:

CampusFit Tracker (Creator)
Jan 2024 – Present
 • Designed a Google Sheets-based fitness tracker used by 50+ students to build routines and track goals
• Created a simple referral program and shared on campus fitness group chats
• Built an email list of 80+ students for monthly health tips and habit reminders

Boom. Now you’re a founder of something real. And you show serious initative.

🧠 Why This Works So Well

Most employers don’t care that you didn’t get paid for it.
They care that you:
✅ Took initiative
✅ Built something useful
✅ Can communicate what you did
✅ Didn’t wait to be told what to do

🏁 How to Start Today

1. Pick a job you want to apply for. (e.g., Marketing Intern)

2. Google 3–5 real tasks someone in that role would do.

3. Build a tiny project around those things.

   • Marketing? Run a campaign for your club or a local business.

   • Product? Redesign an app you use.

   • Ops? Create a system to fix something annoying on campus.

   • Sales? Help someone sell something.

4. Document what you did. Put it on your resume. Talk about it in interviews.

Pro Tip: A student who built something > a student who “wants to learn.” Every time.

So if you don’t have experience? Make some.

No gatekeepers. Just action.
You’re not faking anything—you’re proving you’re already doing the job.