Which is more important- experience, skills, or networking?

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I'm currently volunteering with a non-profit to gain experience in my intended career field. I was thinking about adding another volunteer job for another 1-2 days each week to diversify my skill set. My mother seems to emphasize networking more than experience and skills, but to me, networking is extremely tough and getting to know someone just for the sake of landing a job is a crapshoot.

So should I focus on work experience, or networking?

Networking without experience or skills will eventually expose you as a fake and a fraud in your trade.

A fine balance of all 3 is the perfect scenario. If networking isn't your thing, though, don't expect to be rewarded simply for one or the other. Its a common mistake that gets you left behind. Instead, find a job with people you feel you can connect with better and the networking will fall into place naturally.

The main value of experience is in the extent to which it contributes to improved skills.

I've known more than a few people with 25+ years of experience in their field, ranging from house painters to engineers, that possess at best mediocre skills.

That said, both skills and networking are important, though I might view skills as a prerequisite to successful networking.

Experience and Skills are equally important.
Though Networking should also be taken quite seriously too.

You need all 3.

Skills are obviously needed for the job
Experience enables you to use your skills to their best effect
Networking helps you let employers know about your skills.

If any of the three is missing, you'll have a hard time getting a job, but for keeping one, skills are the main thing.

so, if you want/need to improve on one of these three in a short timeframe; go for skills

Of the three NETWORKING is the most important. Without it, your experience and skills will never find opportunity.

Not that the other two are less important, but networking comes first because it opens doors.

Of the other two, I'd say EXPERIENCE is the second most important because from experience, you learn SKILLS. You can easily learn a skill but lack the experience to be "proficient" in that skill.

I have the skill of knowing how to do most common electrical work. I do not have the experience to boast myself as qualified to be hired out to do electrical work compared to someone with professional training, certifications and having actually done the work for a few months for pay.

Focus on experience, full-out.

You don't need networking right now, because you aren't in a career yet.

I started out as an apprentice before I went to college. That experience helped sky-rocket my career. With experience, your networking will then be your resume, like mine was.

Also, the very best experience you can get is by temping in your field and related fields. Don't discount related fields, or what those related field might be. Volunteering is a very excellent way to start, especially before you even begin a career. This stuff looks fantastic on a resume, and can provide you with a lot of crucial experience and understanding that other people graduating from college completely lack. It gives you real-world experience.

Continue to volunteer. Top people in college volunteer in arts organizations and medical fields to gain that crucial on-the-job experience.

However, if you can get any temporary jobs of any type or kind working for any company or organization within your field, that will also look smashingly awesome. But continue to volunteer as well if you want to sink that in (and you enjoy it).

If you do go into that career, look at temp agencies. Especially those head-hunters; they tend to work with more professional and executive types. Pick three head-hunters, if you can, to keep you in work. If you learn fast on the job and you have the skills, they're all the networking you'll ever need for getting jobs. If you perform for those agencies and smaller firms, if you go in to a job they send you to and you impress that company, if you can travel a bit or commute farther ... wow! ... they love you. I made $9/hr first temp job. I got fired. Four months later I made $10/second temp job. Months later, $12 temp job for a year. Company took me on permanent for $14/hr, got laid off after another year there. Next temp job, $18/hr for 3 weeks. Next temp job, $25/hr ...

Talk about experience. Plus, I was young, so I didn't need health insurance and wanted the money, instead. You get paid more as a temp, and you gain massive experience. You also work for a lot of different companies, and if you do well, they offer to hire you full-time. You get your choice of jobs and employers.

I did all of these things, and they really, really, really work. Use what you have, and rely less on what you know you're not going to be successful at.

But, volunteering really works. Plus, that's just awesome networking, too. If you do real, real well volunteering; I bet the director and such might know people in that field.

Experience when you're young is being god-like; no-one else has it.

Post or PM me if you'd like about what field you want to enter. I may have some goodie advice.

Not sure, but I consider skills the most important thing since with skills you can do things and find out new ways to do things (experience).

I DID apply to several temp agencies, but either they never contacted me again, or they only sent me jobs that want at least 2 years of experience.

What should I do now?

I think its easier getting referred based on your skills/ability, rather than being referred based on ... "nothing" other than mutual acquaintance.

If some of the people at your volunteering event also work at the places that you aspire to work for, then that's really icing on the cake.

As for your rank-ordering question: work experience/ skills are more important. If you lack these, your networking won't do you any good. But if you already have a decent amount of work experience or skills, you should focus on networking - there are diminishing returns.

Just out of curiousity - and only if you are comfortable to answer - what is the job-experience skill that you are developing at your current non-profit; and what is the skillset you hope to acquire at the second volunteering opportunity?

This organization is 100% volunteer-run. The other interns I'm with are in college or recently graduated, and the guy in charge is a plumber as a day job.

I'm doing social media with this group, and am thinking about joining another organization for editing written material. (I'm also trying to become a freelance editor.)

The sad truth is that networking is far more important to get a job and succeed in a job than skills or experience.

There's a couple studies out there that have shown this to be true.

Of course, this is under the assumption your skills are at least up to the standards the job requires and you have at least some experience in the field or something related to it... but not that you have incredible skills/education or incredible experience for the job.

I think you need to do all 3 simultaneously -- and OP's well situated to do so in his volunteer capacity.

With respect to the question of whether skills or networking is more important in finding a job... well, it depends on so many factors.

Ideally, an employer wants an employee who has the skills they need + ability to get on well with clients/colleagues. But in my experience, having tons of the former often makes employers put up with a dearth of the latter.

The most important thing is dumb luck, by far. "Networking" is worthless (I know this from experience). It only works if a) you've already been in your field for a while, or b) you had the connections to begin with. Short of that, it's nothing more than grovelling to random people in hopes they'll get you a job. Cold e-mailing can work in the right circumstances, however.

Exactly. For the most part, folks land jobs when their CV solves a problem for the employer whose desk it lands on. That's partially dumb luck. But the more CVs you send, the more employers desks they land on, the more the odds are that you'll get "lucky".

Networking is the most important, unfortunately. A lot of people get by with mediocre skills or worse because they are good at networking.

Skills are obviously important, and experience proves those skills. If you have great skills AND do good networking, that's how one can end up at the top. Someone with mediocre skills and great networking might end up in the middle. People who do no networking won't get anywhere.

I don't think networking is as hard as it sounds IF you are in a situation where you actually get to interact with people. Be kind, do excellent work, be honest. Impress people with the quality of your knowledge and work ethic. This is the foundation of networking. The other part of it requires a bit of "advertising" oneself. I personally find this hard and awkward.

But, as I've been helping my students with auditions, I have come to see this part in a different light. I tell them to make sure to demonstrate ALL they can do. They are not "showing off" when they do this - they are allowing the adjudicator to make a well-informed decision. To hold back information is unfair to the person making a decision. So, likewise, not telling others who might need your skills about what you can do is, in essence, leaving them in the dark. If you let others know what you can do, even if they decide not to use you, at least they are not making that decision out of ignorance.

You never know where the value of networking will come from. It can take a long time, too, depending on how much effort you put into it and how many people you interact with. I am considering applying for a position that I am afraid will drive me nuts just for the potential of networking. I don't have enough interaction with people right now to do fast networking, so any opportunity to do more is valuable.