the medical coding industry is thriving however when you look at the loads and loads of job listings they all tend to have one thing in common and that's what they're looking for a certain years of experience now this is not in any way exclusive to the medical coding industry you see this a lot on job postings even for ones that have four year or higher degree requirements if you're looking for that first job or changing industries it can be hard when employers are looking for more seasoned professionals but don't let that stop you from showing off all of the skill sets that have been successful for you in some of your previous positions or experiences so in today's video i'm going to show you some of those amazing tactics that you can use during your job hunt hey everyone i'm victoria i'm a medical coder auditor educator and content creator and on my channel i provide tips tricks and tutorials to help you be successful in a medical coding career and today we are talking about how to tackle when you are looking for that first medical coding job and you don't have experience yet there's a lot of things you can do to compensate for those years of experience but of course the best thing would be some preventative medicine and that includes getting into the right training program that would offer you something like an internship where you have that experience so if you want to become a certified medical biller encoder in six months or less without going into student loan debt you definitely want to take my masterclass which is linked below in the description in this free masterclass i share all of my best industry insights that i've gathered over the past decade plus things like how to get the right training for medical billing and coding how to save you time and money how to get a discounted training program how to get a free laptop with your program and more this masterclass gives you the roadmap on how you can become a job ready medical coder in as little as six months it just takes away all of that guesswork it details everything so register for it today link is in the description now back to finding that first job when you don't have coding experience you still have a lot to offer and it is time to take back control highlight the skill sets that you have that are transferable to any industry and definitely that would apply to the medical coding industry it can be hard when you're out of work or changing careers but highlight those transferable skills really look at your previous experience in your education in your volunteerism in your previous jobs and highlight those skill sets more so than the years of experience this can prove how valuable you are as an employee and it can help even give you some confidence when you're going in for an interview for example even if you previously worked in retail you have skill sets like customer service like maintaining company policies and managing health and safety standards so even if your prior experience is not in health care there are likely some appropriate skill sets that you can transfer over even things like maintaining productivity and also emphasize those soft skills because those can transfer no matter what industry you're going back and forth from and those are things like if you are very detail oriented if you have good time management communication skills organizational skills problem-solving skills creativity being flexible being a good team player or even just having leadership skills you don't need job experience to have these very desirable soft skills that are incredibly valuable to employers think about your character your personality and what you can put on your resume that can reflect that and make you a good candidate for a position now the next tip is one you've probably heard a million times and that it's not necessarily what you know it's who you know so you have to build your network so the best way to get a job is to network within your industry because then you not only get the benefit of developing with other professionals but you may be able to find a job so attend your local chapter meetings whether they are in person or even virtual you can do this you can type into the chat to connect with other people and there's a very good trick that you can use and that is when you are engaging with someone else ask them where they work because chances are good that after they say oh well i work here the next thing out of their mouth is going to be well where do you work and that's where you can segue into that conversation of oh well actually i just finished my training and passed my cpc i currently don't have a position by any chance do you know of any openings at where you're working or where maybe some of the people you know are working so that way you're not coming off as i need a job i need a job i need a job you're actually building that network having those conversations talking to the other professionals and sometimes it takes a little courage sometimes or maybe a lot depending on your personality type but it will be worth it and it gives you that confidence boost that practice discussing industry-specific topics with others in the field now the next level up from this would obviously be to volunteer at your local chapter the aapc for example has positions that you can fill even as a non-certified member they do require certifications for positions like the president of the chapter but there are always volunteer options available volunteering gets you networking with speakers with other members other industry professionals and you can put things on your resume then that say i helped coordinate educational activities for x amount of certified members within my chapter so definitely go to your local chapter meetings they are great not just for the continuing education units that you need to maintain your certification but for those networking opportunities as well now the next one it's not going to be glamorous and it's not going to be ideal but it is a way that a lot of us have gotten into coding positions and that's from starting at the bottom and working your way up and before i get further i just want to say please keep in mind that i do not set the industry standards i am just trying to communicate the lay of the land out here so you can say whatever you want in the comments saying oh this is ridiculous but if they get too negative i'm sorry they just get deleted but i is a perfect example started out in charge entry i didn't go from finishing my training to going right into even a billing position or a coding position i worked in the revenue cycle but i basically did billing related data entry so finding an entry level or even an internship type of situation where you can get some experience that will help you build up and you don't have to stay there for forever a lot of these organizations will let you transfer in a matter of months the key though is you have to be very very careful when you're interviewing a lot of organizations don't want to invest time in someone in an entry level position that they know is going to move on very quickly so don't during the interview say oh well i just want to get this position as a stepping stone so that i can get into the coding position you have to be kind of careful about the way that you word that not that you want to hide it or be disingenuous just don't necessarily speak directly to the fact that oh well i just want to get in this position so i can move in six months and go into the coding department some companies are very very big on building from within others are just like i don't want to waste the time training you for you to leave in three months so that is something you might have to kind of feel out during the interview so look for some of those positions like payment posting like prior authorizations like scheduling anything in the revenue cycle to get you some experience working with medical bills working with medical codes so that you can say that you've been working with them in some aspect on a daily basis i do have some suggestions on alternative jobs for medical coders that can help you build up that coding experience they're looking for those coding skills but aren't necessarily maybe a quote-unquote coding job you can find out more about that with this link here i'll also link that in the description below so some of these positions may not pay as much as coding but they will give you that extraordinarily valuable experience that you can put on your resume or even use as experience to remove an apprentice or an associate status now if you can't afford to take such a pay cut or do an unpaid internship your other option would be to find something maybe part-time that you could do in the evenings or the weekends to supplement what you're already doing i've worked two jobs in the past where i was teaching medical coding in the evenings as a second position to gain more experience so while it might be very tough you have to keep that long-term goal in mind of you need to get that experience it might just be that critical thing that you need to push you forward and as one of my subscribers said sometimes the juice is worth the squeeze now the next thing you can try is being your own boss for some careers there are opportunities out there in which you can do like kind of side projects or in our industry like gig work you can sign up for websites like upwork or fiverr where you can post that you are able to do some medical coding projects you can also if you're interested in tutoring go on tutors.com or wisen.com and get some experience training others who are maybe preparing for a certification that you've already passed coming up with your own projects even things like maybe developing medical coding practice sheets shows a lot of initiative and a lot of creativity and that can be very impressive to your potential employers it definitely shows a lot of passion in what you do and i want you to listen very closely stay tuned to this channel because there are some things possibly in the works and i can't talk about them right now that i think will definitely help in the medical coding job be your own boss sort of spectrum there are some huge changes coming in the pipeline that are definitely going to be better serving medical coders so please please please make sure that you are subscribed to this channel and that you hit that notification bell so you don't miss out when i can make those announcements now another option is to get more training and i don't just mean certifications if you watched my video that i recently did on job listings when we looked at some of the active job listings that were out there a lot of them listed microsoft excel as a skill set that they were really looking for so maybe if an employer is looking at your resume and you don't meet the years of experience but you are checking all of the boxes on their preferred qualifications that you have those soft skills you have microsoft excel you've maybe managed people in the past then they might go you know what even maybe though this candidate doesn't have the years of experience they look like someone that maybe we can bring in test their coding skills and see if they would be a good candidate and these are great things that you can find right here on youtube you can find all kinds of training on microsoft excel from beginners to even the more advanced things like pivot tables and formulas you can even find lots of training on some of these cheap websites sometimes even community colleges offer some introductory courses for free so not just keeping up necessarily on industry trends through the different magazines and webinars but maintaining those business skills as well things like time management or crucial conversations leadership skills you could even take maybe one of those disney leadership courses or even a dave ramsey course that they have out there however if you do want to cast that wider net as far as jobs that you might qualify for you could consider additional certifications so if you have your cpc you can get your cpb or your crc by the way i have a crc course uh so if you're interested in that contempocoding.com or if you're certified in the aapc you could also consider getting a certification in ahima you know that doesn't necessarily guarantee again that you're going to get a job but it casts that wider net there are more jobs that will open up as an opportunity to you and the next tip is just send in the application don't get discouraged about your lack of experience highlight all of those other things and get that courage and send in your application you might be surprised and they don't wind up getting a lot of qualified candidates and because you highlighted a lot of additional skills that you have or training that you have you might become the ideal candidate create a schedule and dedicate a certain amount of set hours each day or on certain days of the week that you're going to send out job applications even just having a couple of interviews can really help you hone your skills and know what to expect i do have some interview videos as well you can check those out right there and if you have those interviews and you're not hired reach out to the employers and see if they will give you some feedback send them a friendly email and ask them what could have been improved on in either your application or your interview that would make you an ideal candidate if there are maybe future openings because that also expresses interest in working specifically with that company although if it's just a resume boost you need i would highly recommend project resume.net because they do resumes specifically for medical coders and they know what needs to go into a resume to make it sparkle and shine it can be hard finding a job in any industry and that's true for medical coding as well but don't give up try applying for lots of jobs and highlight those transferable skills and if you want more help sign up for my masterclass linked below it will give you everything you need to know on how to train find and land your dream medical coding job i will see you guys in the next video and until then just keep on coding on