When a job posting asks for 1-2 years of experience in the field under "qualifications", does that mean upcoming college graduates should apply?

college counts toward education but not experience. experience is experience. i think the reason you have never seen 0–1 years of experience is that they would not bother mentioning it at all if that was all that was required. so if they say high school diploma and 1–2 years of experience, that means high school diploma and you have worked in that field for 1–2 years, also. or BA/BS and 1–2 years experience means the college degree plus 1–2 years experience. college does not count toward the experience.

You can go ahead and apply if you want. You should emphasize the internship as well as the aspects of the part time job that most closely relate to the field or to tasks you need to able to carry out.

Bear in mind that right now there are a lot of other folks looking for work, too. However, if you get an interview and feel a spark between you and the company, you could conceivably be hired. OTOH, you could also see if you could parley that connection into a further internship, thus adding to your experience.

As someone who has hired others in the past, I can tell you that personality can be a very important aspect of hiring decisions, and the company won’t get to see your personality at all if you don’t apply.

Well I have no experience their yet but I would say apply for it because what If you do get the job. Everyone can be looking for experience because everyone started somewere with none you know.

Go ahead and apply. All they can say is no.

Too many job seekers talk themselves out of applying for a job with the “experience” requirement. There are many ways of getting experience, and working as a paid employee is only one of them. You can also claim experience using many other times when you performed the duties the job asks for.

I have never seen a job posting asking for 0 experience. So if you can’t apply for jobs that ask for 1–2 years, I don’t see how you’d ever find a job, go for it!

Many organizations and agencies will allow you to substitute a year of college for a year of experience.

I was always told to apply no matter if you have all the experience or not. Employers will often say x number of years experience as a standard, but will sometimes accept fewer, especially if you’re trained in the field and have a college degree. Totally do it.

It all comes down to if you think you can do the job or not.

I have 2.5 years working experience and I apply to things that ask for 3 years what is a half a year going to prove…if you have the skills you have the skills.

By all means apply, but realize that you probably won’t be the first person interviewed. Because part time work and an internship do not meet the experience quota. You best bet is to have an excellent resume, a great cover letter, impeccable references and make sure to do your research! Know the company, know the department and whenever possible, know as much about the interviewer (professionally, not through Facebook and MySpace) that will help you in the long run. Also, a Masters degree typically does fall into the experience column.

They always make the qualifications more serious than they are, to discourage people who would nowhere near qualifying from applying. I was offered a position that “required” two years experience in the field and I had 0.