How to get work experience
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Work placements can do wonders for your CV. Find out how 16 year old Matthew landed a position at a digital media agency.
The opportunity
Back in April, I was invited to do some website testing at a digital media agency in Central London. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was my ticket to a work experience placement.
Hidden opportunities are everywhere in your day-to-day life, and you need to be alert! Volunteering for anything and everything is a great way to find these opportunities. Take your eye off the ball for one second, and you can miss something life-changing.
It just so happened that by volunteering for the testing, I ended up talking to one of the members of staff about what it was like to work there, and everything sounded really interesting.
Asking the question
Then came the most important part; a little bit of confidence. It’s often said that those who don’t ask don’t get, so I plucked up the courage and asked if there was any possibility of doing a work placement there. I’d quite like to work in the media when I’m older, so I thought it would be a good stepping stone, and would look great on my CV.
Luckily, my gamble paid off. I was expecting to be politely declined, but they seemed really interested in having me as a work experience candidate.
I can now safely say that asking for a placement was the best thing I had ever done. I hardly had to do anything after that. They invited me to come down for three weeks (I was only expecting a few days!) and two days later, I was on the train to London. No one could believe that I’d organised such a fantastic placement on my own, 250 miles from where I live.
New duties
While I was there, I got to take part in website usability testing and website reviews. It was really interesting to see what happens behind the scenes. Everything the average person sees on a website looks clear and simple, but there’s so much more going on than you’d expect.
I’ve learnt a lot about how to design a complete web package that looks good and works well. The skills I’ve learnt will be great to use in future jobs, and I’ve also met a lot of cool people and gained contacts that I can use in the future.
Getting far
In my opinion, the best way to get a placement is to aim much higher than the expectations you have of yourself, and then take risks. By asking, you show that you are confident, daring, willing and able to hold your own. These are all desirable characteristics. You’ll probably get much further than you expect.
Top five tips
- Show initiative - find somewhere that’s relevant to your interests.
- Be confident - ask for a placement, even if you expect them to say no. You never know what might happen
- Be helpful - when you get there, offer to do extra duties and help out wherever you can. You can easily learn new skills and meet new people.
- Work hard - show your employer that they made the right choice by offering you a placement.
- Take notes - record anything you learn and try to review it every day.
