Find student work experience and boost your career prospects

- 18th January 2017

10 tips to secure your student work experience

What sets you apart from other students? Obviously, following my last blog, you’ve got a kick-ass student CV that would make Bill Gates jealous. Your experiences are also what make you unique. Using some of the spare time you have to set up some work experience can give you a rewarding look at life outside campus, as well give you some exciting things to add to your brand new CV, of course.

In this blog, I will cover ten top tips that will help you find student work experience, as well as some links to organisations that will help.

So, before you pick out your best job interview outfit and start practising saying ‘how do you do’ in a professional sounding way, in your mirror, here’s some extraordinarily simple advice on finding work experience.

Know what you want

Take a bit of time to think about what you want to learn from this work experience, what you want to achieve and where you want it to take you. Think about it: would you apply for a paid job at this company? Or are you just applying to say you have experience or is this a career you want to pursue? Having this clear in your own head will help you look in the right places, as well as how you come across to the company.

Use your contacts

One of the first places to ask. Don’t discount any contact you’ve made at university. Ask your classmates, housemates and lecturers if they know someone who is looking for an intern. You’ll be surprised who your housemate’s course mate’s sister knows in the industry. Remember that LinkedIn profile that you created? Use this to reach out to companies. Is there anyone your parents know, who could be useful? Hit up the folks for an introduction!

Research the company

This goes without saying, as you need to be aware of the company’s values before you ask them if you can spend time with them. Showing that you’re interested in the company, what they do and why will be more convincing than talking about how your experience will benefit you. You can also impress the boss by dropping some company information into conversation, and it will help you not get caught out by a tricky question!

You’ll never know if you don’t ask

Even if a company you know is not advertising for work experience, you never know what will happen through the power of persuasion. Make yourself known to the company and ask anyway, if you impress them they may open a special position just for you. Call and find out who is the best person to ask for a placement. Drop them an email and then follow up.

Be professional and plan

There’s nothing worse than turning up to your first day of work experience late because you got the wrong bus! Plan your journey and try to anticipate any variables that could send your first day spinning into chaos. When you’re there, remember you’re not in a classroom! Your colleagues will expect you to act like you work there, so save the edgy, ice-breaking jokes for the pub after work.

Be an active listener

There are two types of people in the world: those who listen to understand, and those who listen to reply. You want to be the former, listen carefully to what they’re telling you, it could impress your boss and show that you’re willing to learn and want to really find out as much as possible.

Always ask!

An obvious tip, but if you’re unsure on something, always ask for help. You’re there to learn after all! If you find yourself running out of tasks, always ask for more instead of awkwardly sitting around waiting to be on kettle duty.

Be social savvy

As mentioned before, you want to make sure you don’t come across as inappropriate in the workplace. However, don’t be afraid to make friends at your short time with the company! You also need to remember to be social media savvy. Don’t vent any frustrations you have on social media, as you never know who could be reading.

Network, network, network

To make the most out of work experience, network as much as you can to get more contacts for the future. Don’t be pushy, but don’t be afraid to pick up some deets from people you talk to. You never know when the abundance of business cards you’re given could come in handy!

Ask for feedback

Having some good and bad points about yourself to work on will be extremely helpful moving forward. At the end of your experience, make sure you ask for some feedback on your work, and of course that all-important reference for your next career adventure.