How to Gain Experience for Your First Health and Safety Job

A job in the health and safety field offers you the opportunity to not only achieve financial independence but also do something that is truly meaningful in the process. After all, it’s a well-paying field that directly saves lives and aids the infirm during their darkest moments.

However, landing a job like that can be a little complicated. Even if you complete your education and get all of the necessary certifications, you’ll only be on par with the average applicant. To make it worse, because of how important health and safety jobs are, companies want to see that you have experience before hiring you.

Those two things make it very hard to stand out, and they make it seem almost impossible to land your first job. In many ways, it becomes a twisted cycle of you trying to get experience but needing the experience to do so.

Luckily, there is a way you can make yourself stand out and get some experience under your belt before you start targeting the health and safety job you really want.

Let’s take a look.

1: Interning

This one is not exactly ideal, but it can function as a stepping stone on your way to success. Rather than seeking a job directly, you can seek out existing health and safety professionals in search of interns. This is a lot like being an assistant who is typically paid in experience, and we won’t lie, it’s not the most fruitful.

However, for young health and safety would-bes willing to make the most of it and absorb as much information as possible in a hands-on environment, an internship can be the ticket to a fulfilling career a year or two down the road. Just get ready to eat a lot of instant ramen while you try to make ends meet, and keep your eye on the target.

2: Low-Level Positions

The health and safety field is a lot vaster than you might think. While certain positions at the top of the field are probably what you went to school for, and likely to be the most rewarding both financially and emotionally, they’re not the only positions out there.

By taking advantage of lower-level jobs such as backend work, assistant work, and various other options that don’t require you to have years of experience before even stepping through the door, you can build your resume and stand out among the competition when it comes time to apply for what you really want.

 

3: A Health and Safety Jobs Board

Of course, finding either of the opportunities we mentioned above can be pretty difficult. It’s not like finding a job in customer service where companies put ads everywhere and are open to random applications.

Luckily, there is a tool that can help; an online health and safety jobs board.

A jobs board is a directory where health and safety companies tend to post their job openings and internship opportunities, and it can make your hunt for experience-boosting opportunities a breeze. Not only that, but you can then return to the jobs board after you’ve picked up some low-level jobs to apply directly for the job you really want.