Advice and Tips on Work Experience

Advice and Tips on Work Experience

Whatever your degree subject or career interest it is possible to find a work experience to give you the experience you want and employers are looking for. Many students leave university having had some form of work experience - so don't get left behind!

Why do Work Experience? You can give yourself a competitive edge and add value to your degree by having work experience on your CV. Employers are placing ever increasing emphasis on work experience and on the skills and insight into the work place it develops. It is, therefore, crucial to reflect on your work experience to enable you to make the most of what you have achieved and learnt, especially in terms of key transferable skills, such as communication and team working skills, to illustrate your CV, application forms and in the interview situation. While the greatest number of opportunities for structured placements are available to penultimate year students, with the peak recruitment period between November and February, there are opportunities for gaining work experience throughout your time at university.

Benefits of Work Experience

• it can help you gain the necessary experience often required for entry to future careers, such as journalism, environmental work or social work.
• it can give you the opportunity to put your theoretical knowledge into practice
• it lets you research and try out potential future career areas to confirm or reject your ideas
• you could be better off financially
• it can build a network of contacts - could help in the future or with your dissertation or class projects
• it increases your awareness of workplace culture

What Sort of Work Experience is Available?

• voluntary opportunities in this country and overseas. Every large city in the UK has a Volunteer Exchange which helps put volunteers in touch with organisations looking for assistance. The possibilities are huge from conservation fundraising in Dundee to health education in Africa.
• local opportunities, such as the STEP Classic programme which offers an eight to twelve week paid placement with a local small or medium sized company carrying out a 'real' project.
• national programmes offering structured and paid Summer placements or internships in a large number of occupational areas and with a wide variety of companies. These are very competitive and require early application - some before Christmas. For many employers these placements are an extended interview for full time employment on graduation.
• overseas opportunities - everything from Camp Counsellors in America to grape picking in France, to teaching English in China to working in the European Union. Linguistic skills can be a factor. Always allow plenty of time to organise overseas activities and consider carefully what you hope to achieve.
• vacation courses - many employers, such as Unilever and Shell, offer short insight courses during the Summer, Christmas and Easter breaks. These courses are usually competitive.
• workshadowing - make the most of any opportunity you can create to shadow a professional working in a career area of interest to increase your understanding and build up a useful network of contacts.
• casual or part time work during Semester or the holidays. Many students often dismiss these experiences, but if reflected on they can often be a rich source of evidence of key skills. For instance, working in a pub can demonstrate customer service/communication skills/time management/team work/negotiation and resilience - all key skills sought by many employers.
• as part of a university degree programme - anything up to a year out of your studies gaining work experience.
• speculative approaches. It is often a good idea to approach prospective providers of employment directly on the phone or by letter and CV, to try and create your own possibilities. Not all vacancies are advertised. Use the employer directories available in the JobShop/Placement Base for useful sources of contacts and addresses.

Helpful Resources:

• The Careers Service website has constantly updated information on all work experience openings - paid and unpaid, in this country and overseas, short and longer term.
• Click on 'Placement Base' on the Careers Service website.
• In the JobShop/Placement Base, in addition to company brochures giving details of organisations' Summer placement programmes, you will find folders full of information on volunteering and vacation work options here and worldwide. We also hold a large number of useful reference books, such as 'Summer Jobs Abroad', 'Workabout Australia', 'International Directory of Voluntary Work' and guides to teaching English Abroad, to name but a few. There are also some useful free publications such as 'Prospects Work Experience' and ''Target jobs Work Experience'.

Useful Organisations and Web Sites:

• IST Plus - Opportunities in Thailand, China, US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada
• BUNAC - mainly US, also Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa
• Camp America - USA
• The European Union has Traineeship opportunities in the European Parliament; Council and European Commission
• Raleigh International - Voluntary Opportunities worldwide
• Voluntary Services Overseas - work in developing countries
• STEP - paid projects in the UK with local companies
• IAESTE - international work experience for technical students
• Prospects Work Experience Information - click on 'Jobs' and then 'Work Experience' http://www.prospects.ac.uk/work_experience.htm
• Volunteer Centre Dundee, 10 Constitution Road, Dundee - telephone 01382 305705
• Volunteers Centres in Scotland
• The AV Gap Year Guide

This is only a taster of what is available. Start your search early, use the resources in the Careers Service and remember there is always a Careers Adviser available to offer information and advice on any aspect of gaining work experience.

Updated: Summer 2011