How am I supposed to be confindent with no job experience?

I want to get a job at the college bookstore but I am 24 and no job experience mostly due to concentrating on my studies and partly due to a possible social anxiety disorder. I have never done extracurricular activities or volunteered. I%26#039;ve joined 2 clubs but have never been actively involved. I only have one reference, which is my mother%26#039;s friend.


How am I supposed to be confident in a job interview?


Am I just wasting my time applying?|||Most people understand that as a student, your focus should be on your studies. Here are some tips:





Carry your resume/completed application with you when you go to the store. Go to Borders/Barnes and Noble/etc and ask for multiple copies because you%26#039;re getting them for your friends. Then you can fill out a bunch (a pain, I know) and go around and hand them out to the stores.





You can practice by going to the stores you don%26#039;t really want to work in and talking to the HR manager or manager. Be sure to dress nicely, smile, keep your application/resume neat, etc. Say you%26#039;re looking for a part time position. They%26#039;ll tell you if they%26#039;re hiring, but most places will probably accept your application and say they%26#039;ll keep it on file/will contact you.





Take the initiative and call them back during the following week. Explain you left your application and that you were just following up. If they tell you that they%26#039;re not hiring, ask them when the next time will they be hiring temporary workers? (The holiday season as well as semester/quarter starting/ending times for schools are good times to check)





Don%26#039;t think of it as a waste of your time. Any experience you get in interacting with hiring people is helpful. Managers will remember you for your initiative. If they can put a name to a face it%26#039;s more helpful.





I know it can be hard to be confident, but it%26#039;s said that job interview time is when you should toot your own horn a bit by listing your accomplishments. It%26#039;s embarrassing, I know, and can make you feel like a total fraud. However, remember, that with an interview, you are not only trying to see what you can get out of the company, the company is trying to see what you can do for THEM.





My college bookstore would have %26quot;hiring fairs%26quot; in which applicants filled out paperwork and would sit in for a 15 minutes interview. Sometimes it can be just as nerve wracking for the interviewer (they%26#039;re human too!) as it can be for the interviewee, so don%26#039;t forget that!





Good luck!|||How hard are you concentrating on your studies? If you have been studying hard you can put down your GPA as an accomplishment and any hard classes or honor classes as experience. Such as computer skills if you passed a computer course. Also ask your past or current teachers or neighbors for references all you need is about 3-4 so do not be afraid to ask. Jobs especially at college look for who is someone knowledgeable. So let your own knowledge give you confident.|||you wouldn%26#039;t be wasting your time, you may not get hired but just the experience of interviewing will help your confidence on the next try. Just go in smile, be yourself, and think of all your %26quot;good qualities%26quot; rather than beating your self up. If you study a lot you are probably very knowledgable about a wide variety of topics. You probably have a teacher that you did well in their class, ask for a letter of recomendation.. good luck. Don%26#039;t take it personal if you don%26#039;t get it, it just means you didn%26#039;t find the right place yet...you will|||A willingness to learn and show initiative will go an incredibly long way - you%26#039;d be amazed!





I did a years work in a gold mine (because the pay was quite unreal) - when I applied, I had NO experience, had never worked in the mining industry. But I showed a willingness to learn and adapt - and believe me, they LOVE that because they know what you don%26#039;t know, they can teach you! And to be honest, that can go a lot further than those they get who HAVE already had experience and get into the mental frame of %26quot;I%26#039;ve done it before, I know what I%26#039;m doing so don%26#039;t tell me how to do my job...%26quot; - which is an attitude that can grow from those with experience.





Plus, when you do get experience - keep up that willingness to learn and adapt...it%26#039;ll go a long, long way. Trust me! :-)





Good luck - go for it!! You%26#039;ve got nothing to lose!|||I am sure that you have some relevant skills, soft skills, that have come about through your studies and could be an asset. You might be efficient, organized, and pay great attention to detail, maybe.....As for having personal references, it can%26#039;t hurt to have them, so why not? They might help make up for a lack of job history. Which, your job history lacks because you have been concentrating on studies. There%26#039;s nothing too strange sounding about your whole situation that would alarm an employer, I think.|||be confident in who you are, knowing your self... and that you have the ability to acomplish any task at hand, and never ever let a job beat you!