How to Get Work Experience
Work experience is now a key factor that many job interviews can hinge upon and it is a lack of good work experience that can hinder your potential employment possibilities. Now everyone tends to do some sort of work experience before they leave school, but this is usually unrelated to your future career and is really just an insight into the general world of work. However employers, who are hiring university graduates, like to see some initiative by their employees in arranging some RELEVANT work experience before they leave university and apply for work.
Relevant work experience means that if you want to be an Investment Banker you should do work experience in the field of Investment Banking.
The problem everyone faces in trying to find work experience is how to arrange it. It can seem like that people who take on work experience staff nowadays seem to be non-existence, but this could not be more wrong. Work experience is not paid employment and is usually done by overly-enthusiastic people with an interest in the industry. Therefore for an employer, it is free labour that will work hard and may want to come and work for your company on a full-time basis later in their life. It’s a win win situation for them.
The first way to arrange work experience is through friends, relatives and anyone else who you can contact who may be willing to let you spend a period of time shadowing them. But if you’re interested in the field of Marine Biology or other specialist fields, you may not know anyone who works in this industry. This is where your university can help you out.
Make Your Work Experience Relevant to Your Subject
Every University will have a careers office and a number of careers officers who will be able to help you out. Each University will also have the contact details of most of their ex-students and will be able to give you their details to allow you to contact them and arrange some work experience.
Not only will they have a plethora of names of ex-students but they will also have reams and reams of contacts at other universities that could be in your country or abroad who may allow you to go and spend some time working there. As if all of that was not enough, they will additionally have relationships with different companies who may be willing to take you on as temporary staff or for work experience.
As you can see, the possibilities for work experience are limitless, but you mustn’t think that this will all fall into your lap. If you do not ask, you will not get.