Finding work experience, placements and

internships

Session will cover:

• What do you mean by work experience

• Why should you do it?

• How to set up your own work experience & finding contacts

• Formal work experience schemes & internships

• Volunteering

• How Careers & Employability can help

What do you mean by work experience?

Work experience is essentially any form of experience that you

undertake to increase your understanding of work and could be:

- Sandwich/ industrial placements

- Work-based project

- Work placements

- Internship/ Summer Internships

- Voluntary work

- Work shadowing/ work tasters

- Vacation schemes/ vacation placements

Definitions

• Sandwich placements- assessed paid experience often 1 year, as part of

student course

• Work based project- specific piece of assessed work for a course based on

some experience with an employer

• Work placement- short period of work experience, paid or unpaid, and is

part of course of study and an agreed period of time eg. social work/

teaching

• Internship- placement within an organisation sometimes over the summer

period (increasingly being used by large companies )

• Vacation schemes/ vacation placements- usually take place over

summer or Easter vacations (and sometimes Christmas) and are similar to

internships (eg. law firms)

• Voluntary work- any type of work undertaken for no payment in your spare

time (usually longer term)

• Work Shadowing/ work tasters- observing a member of staff working in an

organisation & so gains an understanding of what the job entails

Why should I do it? The Benefits

• Confirming your career choices (or confirming that you have made the

wrong choice!).

• Establishing a network of contacts to be used in the future, maybe for

further work-experience opportunities or to help with finding a job after

graduation.

• Having some relevant work experience on your CV – adds prestige

• Gaining an up to date work reference

• Seeing work from the inside and gaining a realistic view of what is

involved.

• Developing more flexible communication skills and self-confidence.

• A chance to apply some of the knowledge or skills you have gained so

far to the real working world.

• Some organisations increasingly view placements as part of their

recruitment processes- impress and you could land a job!

Summer Internships

- Internships work differently in different sectors and in different

companies

- Large corporations in areas of business, finance, retail,

pharmaceuticals, law, engineering & IT will often have structured

schemes

- Deadlines often Jan/ March time

- Mostly aimed at penultimate year students but there are some for 1st

years (HSBC 1st year summer internship, RBS Easter Insight, Ernst &

Young 1st year programmes)

- Other sectors such as International Development, media, public

services, environment may not offer structured schemes and you may

need to try volunteering or speculative approaches

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/gettingexperience/summerinternships

How to find opportunities

If you have a career area in mind, investigate if there are advertised opportunities

in that area. Many companies offer formal schemes.

General websites include:

- www.topinternships.com – dedicated site

- www.prospects.ac.uk/workexperience

- www.inspiringinterns.com/ - agency based in London

- www.targetjobs.co.uk – searchable database of summer internships

- www.ratemyplacement.co.uk- 1-4 month internship

Our jobs database:

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs/search (search under vacation)

If you know the specific area that you are interested in, try some of the sector

specific links from our website. Look in:

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careerchoices/researchingcareers

Other examples of resources out there!

www.gradcracker.com/ - Engineering website

www.step.org.uk/step_classic.aspx - Paid project based summer

work experience in science & engineering

www.w4mp.org/ - internships in politics

www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/internships.htm - Internships at the

UN

www.lawcareers.net- legal vacation schemes

www.bbc.co.uk/jobs - continuous rolling programme of work

experience placements

http://uk.oneworld.net/section/partners- excellent resource for

searching 1500 global organisations (development)

Arranging your own Work Experience

Before you start:

- Set your aims and objectives and be clear about what you want

to achieve from the placement

- Research the occupation and organisation before you begin

approaching them

- Think about what you could offer them (skills, specific pieces of

work)

- Check out the National Council of Work Experience guidelines

www.work-experience.org

- Look at the Prospects Quality Work Experience definitions:

www.prospects.ac.uk/workexperience (about work experience)

Creative Approaches- finding contacts

• Friends, family, friends of friends .... Don’t be afraid to ask around. If you have

any contacts, use them!

• Academics, your personal tutor, lecturers etc

• Contacts from past work experience, vacation work etc.

• Vacancies advertised in newspapers at Careers & Employability. If you have

seen a company that interests you use the contact details from the vacancy

advert.

• You can search for employers by name and type on our employer database:

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs/researchingemployers

• Names in journals, magazines, reports, the press.

• The phone book and Yellow Pages (www.yell.com )

• Specialist directories and lists of companies

• Linked in – growing in importance

Making Contact- How?

Letter/email

• Allows you to have control over the information you give the employer.

• Gives the employer time to think about whether they can offer you experience.

• You can send them your CV with a cover letter outlining why you are

interested in gaining experience in their organisation.

• Easy for employers to ignore an email so it is always a good idea to follow it

up with a telephone call.

 

Phone call

• An initial phone call has immediacy but can put you (and the employer) on the

spot.

• If you do ring it’s important to think about what you want to say first.

• Stay calm and collected to ensure you articulate your message with clarity.

Tips for Creative Approaches

• Know exactly what you're asking for

• The reasons why you want it- be clear

• Why you've contacted this particular person

• Show enthusiasm and some understanding of the career area

you are exploring and also the organisation

• Have a good, relevant CV ready to send

• Use Sussex Plus!

If you need further help, come and see us for a short interview

or drop-in session between 10-4 weekdays- we can give

feedback on CV/ Covering letter!

A selection of resources

Research the career area first:

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careerchoices/researchingcareers

www.prospects.ac.uk - look at explore types of jobs/career sectors

General links:

www.prospects.ac.uk/workexperience - fantastic site

www.work-experience.org – National Council for Work Experience

http://graduatetalentpool.direct.gov.uk/ - Graduate Talent Pool

Volunteering:

www.sussexstudent.com/volunteering - Project V

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/gettingexperience/volunteering/findingopportunities - lots

of useful links to UK and overseas volunteering opportunities

What is Sussex Plus?

• You have the opportunity to complete an 1-page initial webfolio, and a

3-page full webfolio. Write briefly about the skills you have developed

through your studies, work, and personal life

• This is great practice for applying for jobs

• You will get a Sussex Plus certificate for your full webfolio

• Send your webfolio to employers & stand out from the crowd!

• For examples, see www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexplus

How do I get to Sussex Plus?

•Go to www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexplus

•Register using your ITS name and password

•Log in. You will see ‘An asset has been shared with you.’

•Click on this. The 2nd item is ‘your initial webfolio.’

•Send us a copy to us in Careers for feedback

•For help & advice: sussexplus@sussex.ac.uk

Careers and Employability Support• Careers and Employability Centre information centre• Short interviews with a careers adviser• Review your CV/ application form/ letters• Events - GradFair/ LawFair/ employer presentations• Web based information and resources – look in research section of our website for further information about making contacts• Use Sussex Plus!

www.sussex.ac.uk/careers