At 23, I was wrapping up my college career and searching for sales jobs in the media industry. America was coming out of the Great Recession and advertising sales jobs were tough to come by. I had an interview that did not have a job opening on the other side, but the contact I had developed a relationship with still thought it would be worthwhile to come in to talk. We ended the conversation with the interviewer kindly telling me, "I love ya, but you don't have the experience to where you could come in and perform right away." It has taken 7 years in my career to understand what he meant. So to those interviewing and especially those preparing to be interviewed, take a look at my new Smoke Detector blog on the fruits of experience. For our younger cohorts, read how can you overcome and get experience faster.