You’ve heard it over and over:
“Just get experience.”
“Any job is better than no job.”
“Put something on your resume.”

But here’s what no one tells you: experience by itself doesn’t launch your career.
What matters is how you position that experience and what it unlocks next.

Experience Is Everywhere. Leverage Is Rare.

Thousands of students work internships, campus jobs, or research assistant roles every year. Many graduate with similar bullet points on their resumes.

But not everyone turns that experience into a full-time job, a second interview, or a warm referral.

Why? Because experience doesn’t speak for itself. You have to make it speak for you.

That’s leverage.

Leverage = What Your Experience Does for You Next

It’s not just about what you did. It’s about what that experience allows you to do now. It’s about how clearly you can connect your past to the company’s future.

Here’s what it looks like when you turn experience into leverage:

• You frame your campus leadership role as evidence of your ability to manage projects under pressure
• You talk about your part-time job not just as “customer service,” but as frontline problem-solving that built your communication skills
• You explain how your internship taught you not just the tools, but the business context behind the tools and how that prepared you to contribute on Day 1

Too many students list what they did.
Few explain why it matters.
Almost no one uses it to differentiate themselves.

Don’t Just List Experience. Extract Value.

Here’s how students miss the mark:

• They treat experience like a checklist, not a story
• They describe tasks, not outcomes
• They miss the chance to show how their work connects to larger goals
• They don’t tailor their experience to match the job they want

If you say “I worked on social media content,” you sound like everyone else.
If you say, “I helped increase student engagement by 40% by testing new content formats,” you stand out.
That’s leverage — not just activity, but impact.

Leverage Also Means Relationships

Some of the most valuable things you take from an internship or job aren’t on your resume.

• A manager who can write you a real recommendation
• A coworker who moves to another company and refers you later
• A mentor who helps you understand where to go next

These connections are assets. They compound.
But only if you maintain them and use them strategically.

PrepU Helps You Turn Experience Into Momentum

Many students finish college with solid experience but no offers.
Not because they didn’t work hard, but because they never learned how to position what they did.

At PrepU, we help you:

• Reframe your experience into a powerful narrative that connects to your career goals
• Use past roles to open doors through personalized outreach
• Turn short-term jobs into long-term leverage through follow-up and referrals
• Prepare for interviews with examples that go beyond surface-level answers
• Build a network from your experience, not just a resume

We don’t just ask what you’ve done. We ask, “What can this do for you next?”

The Goal Isn’t to Get Busy. It’s to Get Hired.

You don’t need five internships.
You need one well-leveraged opportunity, communicated clearly, positioned strategically, and connected to the right people.

Experience isn’t the end. It’s the engine.
And PrepU helps you use it to move forward.

‍