Here’s the Not-So-Secret Way to Gain an Edge in Your Career

It’s tough being in school. Whether you’re in high school or college, you’re surrounded by peers, classmates, and upperclassmen who are all studying hard to get a job and somehow make it in the real world. It’s a vicious environment of competition — whether directly or indirectly — where everyone is battling it out for higher grades (or a passing one) and piling your CV with extracurricular activities.

But beyond the straight A’s and teacher recommendations, what else can you do to gain an edge? What other ways are there of pumping your CV up? If we had to simplify the answer in one word, that word would be: experience.

It’s a weighty word, that one. Some employers don’t really look at grades as an indicator of whether you will be a good fit or not for their company. What’s more important to them are the experiences you gained in high school and college that you’ll be able to utilize on the job.

But it’s not simply a matter of getting multiple experiences in different fields that will be a telling factor in how you succeed. It’s the kind of experiences you fill your life with that matter. More importantly, it’s the people you experience it with. You want to be able to get experiences from and with experts to be able to gain even just a smidge of the tacit knowledge they possess.