Work Experience

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INTRODUCTION TO WORK EXPERIENCE
2009/10
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• Aim
• To introduce students to the value of work
  experience and its importance in their career
  planning.
• Learning Outcomes
• By the end of the session, students will be able
  to
• understand the importance of work experience
• identify the types of work experience available
• identify methods of finding work experience
• understand how to prepare for work experience
• analyse the benefits and learning derived from
  work experience

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Future Sessions

• 16th Oct Online applications
• 23rd Oct Update on the job market for
  economists
• 30th Oct Interview Technique

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Work Experience

• So many people have degrees these days that you
  will need to stand out from the crowd when
  applying for jobs. Employers are increasingly
  demanding that new recruits are able to add value
  straight away if you can demonstrate that you
  have already achieved a certain level of
  competence (through work experience) you will be
  far more likely to get the job you want
• (Source Philip Donnelly, Managing Director, STEP)

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Current Economic Climate

• More employers in financial sector are recruiting
  from their intern pool
• In all sectors, competition is such that work
  experience can make a difference as to whether
  you are offered an interview
• Where graduate vacancies are restricted,
  companies will often invest in internships,
  talent pools, short placements etc

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Work Experience could include

• Summer job Sandwich placement
• Internship Project
• Part-time work Work Shadowing
• Voluntary Work Overseas placement
• Open Days

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Benefits of Work Experience

• Improve your employability
• - development of personal technical skills
• - increased commercial awareness
• - can help you stand out from the crowd
• Could give you a clearer idea about your ideal
  career
• Improvements in study
• - greater self-confidence, motivation, time
  management, relevance
• Earn some cash

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What you can bring to awork experience placement

• New insights original ideas
• The ability to tackle problems tasks that
  otherwise would not get done
• An opportunity for an employer to assess the
  benefit of recruiting you as a graduate

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What the employers think

• Around 300,000 students graduate each year, so
  youll need more than academic ability to impress
  employers. Work experience offers an excellent
  opportunity to enhance your CV (Boots)
• Graduates with a good internship or relevant
  work experience behind them have already gone a
  long way towards proving their focus and
  motivation...Interns who prove themselves could
  find themselves on the fast track to the graduate
  programme
• (Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein)
• Confidence grows with experience
  (PricewaterhouseCoopers)

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What the students think

• The main benefit is my increased confidence in
  the skills I already possessed
• I felt much more confident at interview, knowing
  that Id done the work before. I was speaking
  from experience
• When they asked about teamwork, I had the
  perfect example ready - from the project teams we
  worked in over the summer.
• Probably the most challenging part was dealing
  with management and their queries about the
  justification of my project. The internship gave
  me an idea of what to expect in the future and
  also enhanced my experiences and understanding of
  businesses.

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Key Skills from Work Experience

• improving own learning and performance
• communication
• IT
• handling knowledge and application of number
• team skills
• social skills
• problem solving
• business awareness

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What are employers looking for?

• Knowledge / Technical skills
• Experience
• Personal Skills
• Preferably a Combination of all three

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Example - The Bar Job

• Interpersonal skills
• Customer care skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to take responsibility
• Team working skills
• Organisational skills
• Time management skills

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Work experience can provide good exampleswhen
answering difficult interview questions

• Please describe a time when you acted to improve
  a process or make a system work better. When
  was the situation, what did you do, and what was
  the result ? (Ford)
• Given an example of working through and
  analysing complex data to come to a solution
  (outside academic work) (ExxonMobil)
• Thinking about all your positions of
  responsibility, describe the most significant
  challenge you have faced. (Boots)
• Give details of relevant work experience with
  dates, including any periods spent abroad and
  present occupation if any.
• (GTTR, Teaching)

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Finding Work Experience

• CCD Web
• CCD Leaflets
• Employer presentations - see web site
• Skills workshops/ Careers In .. talks
• Departmental Noticeboards
• Work Experience directories - Prospects, Hobsons,
  Target
• STEP programme www.shellstep.org.uk
• SKILL offers opportunities for disabled students
• targetjobs work experience pages
• Prospects Web http//www.prospects.ac.uk
• Agencies
• Local Press
• Networking

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New online system

• To access vacancy, events and appointment
  information, you now need to register for our
  online system
• Log onto the website www.nottingham.ac.uk/careers/
  students
• Use the Quick Links to select an activity
• Youll be asked to enter a valid Nottingham
  username and password
• On your FIRST visit, you will be asked to
  complete a profile this allows us to provide a
  targeted service for you

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Applying for Work Experience

• Many large employers use the same application
  process as for permanent work
• Expect to fill in online application forms and to
  complete online tests
• Deadlines are even earlier than for graduate jobs
• Smaller employers will advertise later and will
  often require a CV
• Speculative application is useful for smaller or
  niche employers
• Use CCD workshops and presentations to prepare

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Making the most of the opportunities

• Set yourself targets before you go
• Look at the types of skills you want to develop
• For Example
• Focus on continual improvement
• Increase your self awareness
• Gain relevant skills and experiences
• Develop your teamwork skills
• Become indispensable
• Explore opportunities
• Use your contacts and develop the art of
  networking
• Boost your self-confidence
• Promote your success

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Making the most of the opportunities

• When you are there take every opportunity offered
• Develop contacts
• Improve skills
• Overcome obstacles
• Record achievement
• in Personal Evidence Database what did you do
  and what skills did you use?
• Making the link between the work youve done and
  skills youve developed is a key factor in
  getting a graduate job

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Questions to ask during Work Experience

• About the work role
• a typical week, main responsibilities, skills
  needed, pros cons of the work
• About the organisation culture
• management structure, methods of working,
  workplace values, reality of working for the
  organisation versus popular perceptions of it

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Questions to ask during Work Experience

• About getting in
• how do you get in, qualities qualifications
  sought, useful stepping stones, possible barriers
  to entry, where vacancies advertised
• About Career development
• staff retention, possible additional
  responsibilities, how the work is changing,
  opportunities for career development and tips for
  getting on

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Evaluating your experience

• Ask yourself some questions and make your work
  experience count
• What tasks did you undertake ?
• What skills did you use ?
• What did you achieve ?
• What was successful about the experience ?
• What difficulties did you face ?
• How did you tackle them ?
• What did you learn ?
• What would you do differently given another time ?

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Top Tips for successful Work Experience

• Get some clear objectives for your work
  experience
• Research opportunities
• Start early so that you dont miss deadlines
• Think about the skills you can offer a work
  experience employer
• Think about the skills you want to develop
• Keep a diary of your work experience
• Reflect on the things you have gained from you
  experience in order to add value to your CV and
  PAR/ePAR
• Making the link between the work you do and
  skills you develop is a key factor in getting a
  graduate job.