Pure Potential - Where will your talent take you?

Work Experience

• What is work experience?
• Do you need work experience?
• Temporary Internships
• Voluntary Work
• Placements
• Further Advice

• What is work experience?

  All work gives us some kind of experience. Don’t dismiss the bar work or the nights behind the counter in the video shop just because they didn’t specifically involve aspects of the career you want in the future. Here, however, we’re going to look at sector-specific work experience, which can be divided into three main categories - voluntary work, student placement schemes and informal internships.

   

• Do you need work experience?

  Work experience can help you make more informed decisions about which career you want to pursue, can teach you new skills, can help you make contacts and will also give you some extra cash when the loan is running out! Although it can sometimes seem like an unnecessary and unwelcome stage in the process of getting a job, a candidate without any work experience on his or her CV will certainly be at a disadvantage when it comes to getting hired. For this reason alone, it's definitely worth getting some work experience under your belt as soon as possible.

• Temporary Internships

  The final type of work experience is a little harder to define, and places can be much harder to get. They tend to be the norm in creative industries where there is a looser and smaller structure to the business, such as film and television production, publishing, journalism or art sales. The danger with this type of placement is that it can often be unpaid and involve a lot of photocopying/coffee-making without much real experience. Even if you don’t get that much responsibility, however, these internships can be great in terms of the contacts you make and people you meet. Generally speaking, getting this kind of internship requires a little bit of research and a great deal of persistence. Identify an individual at an outfit you respect and write to them personally asking for the chance to shadow them. Adopting an approach such as this is referred to as making a ‘speculative application’.

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• Voluntary Work

  Doing voluntary work with a registered charity or non-governmental organisation shows passion and integrity, as well as a practical mindset. The main reason for undertaking voluntary work is a desire to improve some area of people’s lives, but a subsidiary benefit is that it will always impress an employer, and in many professional areas (such as politics, medicine or law) experience through voluntary work can relate directly to the career itself. For example, doctors may be able to cite voluntary work as proof of the basic altruism which forms part of their professional code, and they may also use it to gain insight into the health challenges facing a particular sector of society, such as the homeless.

   

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• Placements / Internships

  This kind of work experience is the most readily available and accessible, and generally has a simple (though often highly competitive) application process. It consists of a fixed period of paid work within a company, during which students will often be given quite a high degree of personal responsibility. This is a well-established route into industry, law, business and financial services. Investment banks, for example, tend to run summer placements and most big law firms have an equivalent programme called a ‘vacation scheme’. Students typically do these placements for 4-12 weeks over the summer holidays before starting their final year. Application deadlines tend to be several months in advance, so don’t leave things too late.

  Details of these schemes can be found on the individual website of the company, or, if you’re not sure what kind of business experience you want, submit your CV to http://www.step.org.uk and they will help you find the right placement. This type of work experience is ideal as it is paid (usually about £160-£200 per week) and gives you a real insight into working in your chosen industry, as well as teaching you new skills. In addition, no company or firm ever forgets a talented and enthusiastic intern, and it can be a great foothold when it’s time to apply for a full-time graduate job.

  Work experience isn't restricted to these categories however, and if you ask around you'll be able to find something useful even if you're not sure what you want to do yet. For example, you could ask at your university for a placement in the marketing department or in the administrator's office; ask your old teachers if they have any useful contacts or see if any of your friends' parents can help to secure places at their companies. Whatever you do, as long as you approach your placement enthusiastically you'll learn valuable skills and employers will respect your motivation.

   

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• Tips on how to Apply

  • Do the research. Identify the field of work which you wish to enter, be sure that the company you write to offers the role that appeals to you.
  • Go on to the organisation’s website. Look for a jobs/careers section- you could apply for an advertised vacancy. Read about their culture and latest developments.
  • Be specific: always address your letters to a person rather than a ‘Dear Sir/Madam’. You are more likely to get a response. Alternatively, telephone the organisation and ask if they need any temporary help.
  • Send a CV with a cover letter or covering email. It’s important that you have a concise CV (2 pages is the maximum) and a letter no longer than 400 words. The next two pages will go into further details on what to include.
  • Inform the recipient that you will contact them with a follow-up telephone call a week later, this shows enthusiasm. Be sure to contact them and have your letter and CV in front of you when you do. Be polite, but don’t be too ready to accept the brush off.
  • Have the letter and CV checked by another person before you send it so they can look at it objectively.
  • State your availability. Give a potential start date and indicate for how long you can work.
  • In the event that your letter ends up in the hands of the wrong person, it would be a good idea to request that your letter be passed onto the appropriate individual.

  For useful help and advice on all aspects of work experience, plus a search engine to help you find current opportunities, check out the following related links.

  Related links

  • Look out for Pure Potential’s very own recruitment pages coming soon – we’re busy working on a brilliant new section of the website where you will be able to find temporary internships, voluntary work, work placements and holiday casual work for some extra cash. Watch this space! www.purepotential.org/recruitment.
  • www.work-experience.org
  • www.yini.org.uk specialises in helping students in their A-level year
  • www.doctorjob.com/workexperience has features on work experience plus a range of opportunities
  • www.need2know.co.uk/work/work_experience
  • www.step.org.uk
  • For work experience abroad try the following:
    • www.travellersworldwide.com/
    • www.projects-abroad.co.uk/

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