How To Gain Work Experience For Jobs in Digital Marketing

Originally published on Relish Growth.

This post will share how to gain work experience for jobs in Digital Marketing.

The other day, I wrote a post on How To Start A Career In Digital Marketing With No Experience, and I just wanted to share additional tips. I saw a TikTok the other day, and some people are still clueless about how to gain work experience for jobs.

Especially when companies won’t hire you without experience. I can’t speak for any other industry, but I can speak for the Digital Marketing industry because I’ve been in it for almost a decade.

As I mentioned earlier, the Digital Marketing industry is not a field that requires training and expertise like traditional jobs. It is an industry that requires you to be self-taught as much as possible because of its ever-changing nature.

This is why it is not the best idea to get a degree in Digital Marketing, except if you want to. The industry changes by the day. Obviously, one of the cons of the industry is the constant change. But the most important pro is the low barrier to entry which means just about anyone can get in if they can work hard.

Now, if you want a career in Digital Marketing, here’s how you can gain work experience for jobs.

These are a few of my tried and trusted tips that I’ve used to get work experience and build my portfolio over the years.

Create Personal Projects.

Create your own jobs if no one will take a chance with you. I honestly can’t overemphasize the importance of creating personal projects because they have helped me land jobs over the years.

If you want to get a job as a TikTok manager, create a couple of TikTok accounts, grow them as much as possible, and translate this experience into your CV. Trust me, it is better than having nothing at all. Do that for every aspect of Digital Marketing you want to specialize in.

Volunteer or Offer to do Pro-Bono work.

I’ve done this a few times, which helped me later. If there’s a brand you want to work with and they’re currently not hiring, offer to do some pro-bono work for them. It is the oldest rule in the book. Nobody says no to free work.

Dedicate a few hours of your time per week to work for free without necessarily expecting anything in return. Or if you work in a big corporation and there’s an opportunity to join other departments – whilst still maintaining your job – to build relevant experience, take it!

This is what I did to get recruitment experience for about nine months. Now that experience sits perfectly in my CV. No one needs to know that it was pro-bono work; just get the experience.

Offer affordable Freelance services.

For several reasons, not many people are in a position to do pro-bono work. And that is completely fine. You’ve won if you can package your skills as a service and offer them at affordable prices to small to medium-sized business owners.

This is also one of the ways I was able to gain work experience at 22. Running your business allows you to work with clients across various industries. It’s like having multiple jobs for a short period. Nothing else tops that kind of experience, especially if you’re a newbie.

So, look into how to package your skills as a service and get to work. If you’re unsure where to start, start with freelancing sites like upwork.com or fiverr.com.

Look for Paid/Unpaid (Remote) Internships.

It’s one thing for you to pitch yourself to a company to offer your services. It is another thing for a company to make provisions for you to learn for a period of time. The latter comes with many more perks; if you’re lucky, you’ll get paid while learning and being trained.

So, always be on the lookout for internships regardless of whether or not they’re paid or unpaid. You’ll get to a point where you’ll pass that internship level. But for now, take them all with open arms and get as much experience as possible.

Take Entry-level jobs that provide Training.

Sometimes you might be lucky and find jobs that provide free training before you start. Take them! Don’t shun them just because they’re entry-level jobs.

Everyone had to start from the bottom at some point. Take them, get the work experience and keep it moving. You never have to start from that level again, except if you change fields or switch careers.

In Conclusion,

I hope this post on how to gain work experience for jobs in Digital Marketing has given you a sense of direction, especially if you were clueless before now.