Work experience offers enormous benefits to you in your career planning and job seeking. It sometimes has a poor image – it’s associated with school, it’s boring, or it’s exploitation. We will show you in this chapter that it need be none of these. You can choose and manage your work experience to suit your needs, and make it work for you.
Firstly, we need to be clear what we mean by work experience, and how it differs from work and employment.
Work – a purposeful activity that could be done as a paid job.
Examples from your everyday life include fixing a computer, delivering or collecting something for a friend, decorating a room, braiding someone’s hair, giving some sports coaching. Reasons you might do this: to save money, because you enjoy it, are good at it, because friends will return the favour with something they can do, because you want to get more practice. Employment is simply work you get paid to do. So how does work experience fit in?
Work experience – work that you do in order to develop your skills and knowledge. It is usually unpaid but, in some circumstances, such as sandwich placements and some internships, work experience is paid.
In the rest of this chapter, we will look at different kinds of work experience, how to access them and how you can benefit from them, and we’ll show you how to get the best out of your work experience.
Five kinds of work experience
What you choose to do will depend on a number of factors, including how much time you have, what you want to achieve, and whether you really need to get work experience as an entry requirement for a graduate job or course. Later in the chapter we will look at the overall benefits of work experience, but first we need to be clear about the different kinds of opportunities covered in our definition. There are five main categories, each with its own particular benefit, or impact. We will illustrate some of these with real-life stories from graduates.
Volunteering
Volunteering is, by definition, something you offer to do without being paid. You might think it’s about working for a charity, or fundraising for a good cause, but it also includes spending a couple of weeks in a law firm or a primary school in order to learn more about what goes on while making yourself useful. It could be one day a week, a block of time, or just a one-day event like beach cleaning or marshalling for a charity bike ride. A particular benefit is that employers see you as motivated because you are choosing to use your spare time constructively.
‘In my second year I had to choose between studying abroad or having a work placement. I went abroad but realised at the start of my third year that I had missed out. I joined the local tourist board as a volunteer for two days a week, and learned many valuable skills which helped me to apply my studies to real-life situations. Towards the end of my third year a full-time job in the tourist board came up – I got it!’
Caroline, BA (Hons) Marketing and Tourismbrilliant
How to get in
Some organisations are highly dependent on volunteers and may recruit on your campus with posters and display stands, but other opportunities are less visible. Follow our suggestions to find a really good volunteering opportunity.
Do
find the student volunteering organisers in your university. They help to ‘match’ volunteers to opportunities – you tell them what you would like to do and how much time you have, and they will make you an offer. You may need a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check, which they will help you with. Be aware that having a criminal record may not rule you out entirely but it may restrict the opportunities open to you;
contact the volunteer bureau in your nearest town or city if you have already graduated – they will do the same job of matching you to what’s available;
make a direct approach by letter or email if you have an organisation in mind that isn’t on the university’s list of opportunities. This works especially when you want to spend a short block of time observing and learning – but make sure that you offer to do some work too. You need not be specific, just show willing! Help them by saying why you want to spend time there and what you hope to gain;
ask people you know. We discuss networking in Chapter 1 ‘Accessing job opportunities’. Friends and relatives are useful as a way in, but remember firstly, that you will be in a work role in the organisation, not as a niece, godson or next-door neighbour; and secondly, that they may have stuck their neck out to get you in – so don’t let them down.
Don’t
let people down. Many organisations rely on volunteers, so if you have made a regular commitment, keep to it. If there’s a day when you really can’t make it, for a good reason, let them know.
Work placement as part of your course
Some courses include a work-based or employability module that can either be compulsory or optional. The extent to which you can choose what you do varies according to the university and the subject – but if you have the chance, it’s well worth taking. Assessment may be based on the tasks you have carried out for the employer; or it may be about your own learning during the placement. This means what you have learned about yourself – your skills, interests and capabilities – as well as what you have learned about the organisation. The personal insights you get from this process of reflection will help with your career planning, and the particular benefit of a work placement is that it might lead to a job.
‘As part of my Animal Behaviour and Welfare course I did a six-week placement with a charity that trains dogs to assist people with disabilities so that they are able to live more independently. The placement gave me the skills and experience to improve my chances with future job applications, as well as reconfirming that this was the area I wanted to pursue. A year later, the charity contacted me to offer me a temporary post for maternity cover. Four months after that I was offered a permanent post as the charity was expanding.’
Anna, BSc Animal Behaviour and Welfarebrilliant
How to get in
Some universities have a department or team whose job it is to find placements for all students. This works well because relationships are built up between the university and employers over time and approaches are centrally coordinated. If this is the case at your university, make sure that you provide all the information you are asked for, within the deadlines set. This way you are more likely to get the kind of placement you want.
Other universities expect you to find your own placement. This offers you greater flexibility to tailor the placement more closely to your preferences, but it does also mean that you’ll need to be proactive. Here’s what to do.
think about the kind of experience you want, based on your career plans, your interests, and the gaps you would like to fill. Do think about talking this over with a tutor or a careers adviser;
identify the organisations that are likely to fit the bill – ask your careers service, your tutors and your contacts. For possible leads, get inspiration from job advertisements and business directories, both in print and online;
write a good letter of application, setting out what you want and why, e.g. ‘a four-week work placement to apply the learning from my course in a commercial setting‘, (don’t say ‘because I have to do this for my course’) and what you can offer while you are there. Check for spelling and punctuation and include your contact details. If you don’t hear within say a fortnight, follow up with a polite phone call;
start looking in plenty of time – six months ahead, more for a one-year placement.
Don’t
settle for an easy option – your old school, your Saturday job, your uncle’s firm – unless it really fits in with your career plan and adds value to your CV.
Work shadowing
This is usually a short spell, from one day up to a week, where you find out more about a job by accompanying someone who does that job in their daily work. The great thing is that you could spend time with anyone in an organisation, from a new graduate trainee to the chief executive. You’re not expected to do their job, so you can really concentrate on observing, listening and learning about what they do, to build up your knowledge of a particular kind of work. It’s low cost and relatively low effort for organisations, so it can be easier to set up than a longer placement or voluntary opportunity. The gain to you is that it opens up contacts and adds to your networking.
How to get in
Some universities offer work shadowing placements so check this out first. Otherwise, just look back at the dos and don’ts for getting your own work placement. The same principles apply, but this time you will be asking for the chance to shadow for a day, or a week, as a way to enhance your experience and knowledge. Also, remember that, for some roles in the public eye, you can observe informally, as Thomas’s story illustrates.
‘So that I could see what a career as a barrister is like, I contacted various chambers to arrange mini-pupillages, the name given to a few days shadowing barristers in court and in meetings with clients. Not only did this give me an insight into a career at the Bar, but it meant I met barristers at various chambers. In my days off at university or in the holidays, I often went to court and sat in the public gallery observing cases, giving me more opportunity to see barristers in action and sometimes speaking to those I had spent time with on mini-pupillage.’
Thomas, LLB, LLM and Bar Professional Training course
The next two categories are a little different as they may involve payment, but are still work experience according to our definition.
Sandwich and vacation placements during your degree
These placements are either the whole of the penultimate year of your degree, or they fit into a vacation – usually, but not always, summer. They may not be assessed as part of your course. However, a course that is designed to include a sandwich year will require you to carry out the placement in order to pass your degree. Some vocational degrees like Engineering will expect you to undertake relevant vacation placements.
Travel and international trade and commerce have led to a rise in the number of courses with a ‘year out’, though some of these offer a year of study abroad rather than work experience. Here, we are using the term sandwich course to refer to four-year degree courses, which include a one-year placement in industry, typically in science, business or vocational programmes, such as quantity surveying or dietetics. There are particular benefits – a substantial, one-year placement can make a real difference to your job prospects because you have evidence to demonstrate what you can do. A vacation placement adds to your experience and demonstrates that you are purposeful in choosing how to spend your time off.
What is the difference between a vacation placement and a vacation job?
The difference is in the intention – the employer is offering you some work that will help you towards your degree, and may signal this with a clear ‘vacation placement’ label; and you are choosing to do it for the same reason.
How to get in
If your placement is a course requirement, there should be some help at the university, even if it’s just the contact details of last year’s placements. Otherwise, use websites such as Graduate Prospects, get help from your careers service and try personal contacts. Your part-time job in retail just might have something in management or buying if that’s your interest.
Be prepared – more is expected of you at the application stage than for the shorter work placements in term-time, which we looked at earlier in the chapter. You may have to go through a full selection process, including application form and interview, so look at Chapters 11 and 12 ‘Making applications: getting past the first post’ and ‘Succeeding in selection’ for pointers. On the plus side, a recent survey of one hundred top employers revealed that they expect one in three graduate jobs to be filled by applicants who have already worked for the organisation, on a placement or during the vacation. So the effort could pay off.
Internship after graduation
An internship usually refers to a period of planned work experience for graduates. The term is sometimes also used for vacation placements between your penultimate and final year. It was introduced partly to offer something useful to graduates feeling the effects of the recession on their jobsearch; job prospects have now improved, but internships have become established as part of the employment landscape.
Some internships are paid, others are not. Whether you’re entitled to payment will depend on what you actually do for the organisation – not what your role is called. If you are performing as a worker, you must be paid at least the national minimum wage. If you are taken on as a volunteer, you’re unlikely to receive payment. Even if your internship is unpaid, however, it’s worth asking whether the organisation could cover your expenses, such as daily travel costs.
The particular benefit is that some employers use an internship as an extension of the selection process, so you can demonstrate your suitability for the job in the workplace.
How to get in
Internships are advertised on websites such as Graduate Prospects and Graduate Talent Pool.
‘I came to realise that the people who get the graduate jobs are the people who had gained work experience during their time at university . . . I decided to take out a loan to support a political internship . . . Ultimately, it’s all well and good having knowledge of a subject, but a practical ability to perform in a working environment is completely different. My eight-month internship involved working for three days a week in every imaginable part of political campaigning. What an eye opener! . . . after the election, I wrote to a dozen or so newly elected MPs explaining what I had been doing. Three days later I had an interview and was offered a job as a parliamentary assistant.’
Kevin, BSc (Hons) Politics
How you can benefit
Whichever kind of work experience you choose there are great gains to be had – and not only because you will be more attractive to an employer, though clearly this is important.
Personal confidence and transferable skills
Just being engaged in a purposeful activity that has clear outputs and helps other people out, either directly or indirectly, can give you a sense of achievement and a confidence boost. If you pick up some skills for employment, even better. The student in the following example volunteered within her university in a variety of roles, not obviously connected to her graduate job as an innovations researcher. Notice all the gains she made.
‘One of the voluntary roles I took on was as a student ambassador. I introduced new and potential students to the campus and showed them what was available to them on campus and the services open to them. Having been a new student previously myself, I knew how they felt and the need to help them settle in as soon as possible.
I also worked as a volunteer one day a week in a university department. This gave me a chance to experience an office environment and to see the university services from the other side of the counter. I undertook lots of different tasks, including general admin tasks and statistical analysis as well as helping out at different events put on by the department. It was a very team-oriented department, which taught me so much about the need to work as a team.’
Jo, BSc (Hons) Mathematics
In this one example, you will have noticed how Jo developed her experience of:
- communication skills;
- administration;
- statistical analysis;
- event management;
- working in a team.
Sometimes you just have to look beyond the surface to find the opportunities for learning. Think about working as a volunteer in a charity shop – a popular choice for people who want to help others. Firstly, there are job-related skills to learn, such as sorting stock, pricing up articles for sale, display, handling money and customer service. Then there are the transferable or ‘soft’ skills of working in a team, acting responsibly by turning up when you say you will, and interacting with all kinds of people. So what starts out as doing a good deed also becomes a great chance to learn.
Improving your job prospects
You might have noticed Kevin, in one of our case studies, saying that the people he knew who got graduate jobs were the ones who got work experience at university. It might sound obvious, but why does it work so well?
It works because it enables you to do all of the following.
Try things out
Firstly, you can try things out so that, by the time you are applying for a graduate job, you are much clearer about what you want and why, and you can say so in your application form and interview. Deciding that you don’t want to pursue something is just as valuable as confirming that you do, and you might discover a kind of work, or an interest, that you didn’t even know about.
Get experience
This isn’t as obvious as it sounds. For some professional training courses it’s essential to have relevant work experience before you can be considered. Examples are teaching, clinical psychology, physiotherapy; and for jobs and courses where it’s not a requirement, it certainly helps to demonstrate your commitment and knowledge.
Collect and record evidence for your applications
We talk about the need for evidence in Chapter 11 ‘Making applications: getting past the first post’, and work experience is one of your best opportunities. It’s hard remembering in your final year the detail of that great work placement you did in your second year, so keep some kind of record of what you did, what you learned and what you achieved for each piece of work experience you have. It will make a real difference to your CV. Kevin, our brilliant example for internships, was able to replace his long list of part-time bar and retail jobs with a section headed ‘Political work experience’ and a much shorter ‘Summary of other work experience’. His CV became targeted and relevant for the kind of job he wanted.
Enhance your jobsearch
Every work experience opportunity you take will give you some contacts, who may be helpful when you are looking for work. Even if they don’t have a job to offer, they might know someone who does, or be willing to look at your CV.
Depending on how long you’ve been there and what you have done, work experience employers might be great for writing a reference for you. This is useful as most application forms ask for an academic and an employer reference. Remember to ask them first.
Give yourself structure and focus
This is particularly useful when you have graduated and you are still looking for your graduate job. Even if you are working, using days off or holidays to pursue your career goal with relevant work experience helps to remind you that your goal is still there. Thomas was our brilliant example for work shadowing, and this is how he is using work experience to keep in touch with his career aim of becoming a barrister.
‘Since qualifying I have continued to apply for pupillage. In order to enhance my chances I have continued to complete a number of mini-pupillages at different chambers to broaden my experience and also make myself known to chambers before applying to them.
In order to gain more practical experience, I became a volunteer at an advice bureau. I conduct one-to-one interviews with clients weekly on a variety of different subjects. This has given me experience of dealing with different types of people as well as exploring a client’s problem through questioning before advising them on the different options available.’
Thomas, LLB, LLM and Bar Professional Training course
How to make it work
If you have worked through this chapter you will now know about the different kinds of work experience, how to access them, and why work experience can be a real benefit in your career planning and jobsearch.
In this final section we tell you what to do, and what to avoid, to get the best from your work experience.
Do
take control – be clear what you want and what you can offer and negotiate with the employer so that you both gain;
reflect and review – think carefully about what you are learning and record it somewhere, so that you can refer to your experience in job applications;
be aware that there are limits on hosting work experience in some job sectors, due to factors such as confidentiality and child protection – it may be easier if you use your university volunteering scheme or local volunteer bureau to set up your placement in sectors involving children, vulnerable adults, health services or offenders;
notice and absorb the discipline and protocols of the workplace – what to wear, how people are addressed, how the phone is answered.
Don’t
give up – if you think that you are not getting any benefit, talk to the person in charge of your programme to see if some adjustments can be made. If it’s a placement that forms part of your course, get the advice of your tutor;
assume there’s no value in a work experience opportunity without really thinking about it and giving it your best shot.
- There are five different kinds of work experience, each with a particular benefit.
- There are also benefits that apply whichever kind you do.
- Work experience can help you to develop and learn about yourself as a person, and it can help with getting a brilliant graduate job.
- You can make it work for you – take control, be clear about what you want and what you can offer.
What to do next
- Think about how work experience could help you with your career plan.
- Consider what you want to (a) learn and (b) achieve?
- Use our ‘How to get in’ tips to get the work experience you want.