How to get the most out of work experience



	Home \| Help for Jobsite \| Introduce a friend \| Add to Favourites \| Login \| To Recruiter Home	Country Industry Job Sites

Back to Jobseeker Resources Section Index

How to get the most out of work experience

	How to get the most out of work experience Work experience can be gained in any number of ways, for example through: placements, part-time jobs, sandwich courses, voluntary work, internships, job shadowing or gap work. It allows you to gain experience and skills in a particular field or industry with a view to working in that industry in the long term. It can help you to make a decision as to whether this is something you really want to get into.

Once you have decided what field you want to gain new skills in, you can then identify specific companies to approach. You then need to follow a similar process as that of finding any other job; e.g. job boards, local companies, recruitment agencies, careers services, networking and exhibitions. So, once you have secured some work experience, how do you get the most out of it?

Goals Firstly, set goals for your placement so you are clear what you want to get out of it. This will make it easy to assess how well the work experience has gone at the end.

Ask for a Mentor When you get there, ask for a mentor or supervisor, if you have not already got one. They will give you feedback and share their knowledge with you, which will be very helpful. This mentor can help you to achieve your pre-defined goals. Feedback is very important so you know what you have been doing correctly or in fact wrongly. Ask them what they think about your application/CV, interview techniques, work skills and personal skills if you manage to get a chance.

Keep a Diary Keep a diary whilst you are on your work experience. Record exactly what you do daily, what skills you have used and learnt or need to learn, demonstrate the progress you make and reflect on the learning that has taken place. This will all be useful to come back to at a later date.

Put in as much as you can What you get out of your experience depends on what you put in so try to contribute ideas. If you do not understand something, ask. If you are not enjoying a certain aspect or experiencing problems, you should express these to your supervisor. If you feel they are not giving you any work, then explain you would like to try some different things - not only do you look keen and interested but you will end up learning more.

Be Proactive Be proactive and ask lots of questions. Ask others what they do in a day, how they got their job, what promotion prospects there are and what they like and dislike about their role. Try to find out as much as possible about the different roles people have as well as the industry in general.

Vary your work Ask if you can visit different departments or areas of the business to try and broaden your knowledge and get the most of out of the time you have there.

Reference As your supervisor if you can use them as a reference as this becomes very useful when applying to full-time jobs at a later stage.

Build Network If you can, start to build up a list of contacts whilst you are there. Many industries rely on building a network so do not be afraid to ask for their business cards or contact details. It is a good idea to start early.

If you take note of the above factors whilst you are conducting your work experience, it will help you to get the most out of it. Try to gain as much information as possible and help yourself to learn new skills and abilities. Just remember that what you put in is what you get out, so aim to give maximum effort, interest and energy.