The Best Entry-Level Jobs: How to Get Into Your Dream Industry

The world is your oyster.

As a job seeker looking to start your career, opportunity is around every corner and you have a wealth of options in front of you.

But which opportunity will lead to the most success? How can you make sure you’re starting your career off on the right note?

If you’re looking for your first job out of school and want to start your career with a position that will put you on a path to success, these entry-level jobs are perfect for you.

Administrative Assistant

From simple tasks like answering phones to more complex tasks like scheduling meetings, event planning, or accounting responsibilities, admin assistants are key office team members for businesses across industries. In fact, they help the entire office stay organized, meaning they get important experience in several departments and roles.

Considering their responsibilities, working as an administrative assistant is a well-rounded role that exposes you to several different disciplines of business. If you’re not sure which aspect of business interests you the most, working as an administrative assistant is a sure way to find out as you’ll often help out with accounting, human resources, sales, or operations. Plus, you’ll get to exercise several different administrative assistant skills like time management, organization, and attention to detail, further developing your skill set.

Medical Assembly

The medical device manufacturing industry is a booming space, especially in markets like Minnesota. And as a job seeker looking for a new opportunity, breaking into the industry could be the perfect career move.

To break into the medical device manufacturing industry, medical assembly is a great first job to have. What does a medical assembler do? They’re an important part of the manufacturing process, putting together life-changing medical devices, ensuring device quality, and documenting the history of each device with accuracy. The best part? Working as a medical assembler will give you a front-row view into the industry that you can take with you throughout your career.

Read: 8 Medical Technology Companies Growing Job Opportunities

Call Center Agent

People skills are a necessary skill to have for any position in today’s job market as you’ll need to work well with others and interact with customers. One sure-fire way to develop and hone those skills is by working as a call center agent.

Call center agents, typically field calls from concerned customers or make calls to potential prospects. As such, agents spend the majority of their time interacting and communicating with others, meaning agents are constantly improving their verbal communication and people skills.

In fact, it’s such an enriching entry-level position with potential opportunity that many of today’s CEOs launched their careers in a call center. One such example is Paul Rivera, CEO of Kalibrr. He claims working as a call center agent is the best job you can have after finishing school and credits the position with helping him become a great leader.

Read: 6 Common Questions Job Seekers Have About Working in a Call Center

Sales Representative

Working in sales is a good entry point into a variety of businesses and industries. As a sales representative, you’re responsible for selling the companies products or services to customers. A good sales rep needs to be skilled at finding out what customers want or what their pain points are and how the company can help solve their problems.

Life as a sales representative will teach you how to negotiate, develop strong customer relationships, and grow revenue — all of which are important skills that can help progress your career. Especially if you aspire to be a director or VP of sales someday, working as a sales representative is a requirement. In addition, many of today’s CEOs got their start as a sales representative, including big names like Warren Buffett, Marc Cuban, and Howard Schultz. This goes to show that salespeople go on to make great leaders and have successful careers.

Marketing Associate

Similar to working as a sales representative, most companies on your target list will have a marketing department. As such, the marketing associate position is a top entry-level job that will help you get into your ideal employer.

In most businesses, marketing associates help bring in new business by maintaining the company’s web presence, executing email marketing campaigns, managing the company’s social media, and other top marketing tactics.

Because marketing associates help build brand awareness and produce qualified leads for the sales team to pursue, this gives them insight into the sales pipeline and the tactics that keep the pipeline filled to the brim — knowledge that you can take with you into new opportunities.

Financial Analyst

If you want to break into the finance industry, it’s critical that you gain relevant experience. Better yet, working at a bank, lending institution, or insurance agency are some of the best places to gain that relevant finance experience. There are several types of entry-level jobs at those businesses that could be a good fit, but working as a financial analyst will expose you to several areas of finance that will help you further on in your career.

As a financial analyst, you’ll help your clients (whether a business or individual) make investment decisions by analyzing stock, bond, and other investment performance. To perform that analysis, you’ll typically gather data, create financial models, and manage spreadsheets. Given those responsibilities, this job will help you grow your math, technology, and critical thinking skills — which you’ll need if you want a career in the finance industry.

Read: 10 Traits & Skills Recruiters Are Looking for in Finance Professionals

Human Resources Coordinator

Sales might not be the best entry-level job for you, and that’s okay. There are plenty of other entry-level positions that can help you break into your ideal industry or company. For example, if you find more enjoyment from interacting with your peers over customers, you might find that being a human resources coordinator is more up your alley.

Human resources coordinators help the company improve their employee relationships through addressing employee concerns, organizing the company’s benefits package and policies, assisting in the hiring process, and more. With a more internal-facing job function, working in human resources can give you a great look at how successful businesses operate, which is helpful knowledge to have for any career.

Start Off on the Right Foot

As you can see in the list above, there are plenty of entry-level jobs out there that can help you launch your career. From sales and marketing to medical assembly, there’s an entry-level job out there that is perfect for your interests and skills. To make sure you’re applying for the right job openings, do your research on the role to ensure that your skills are relevant and that the job will help you reach your career goals.

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