Worried about your Work Experience?

Sooner or later, we’ll all be thrust into the corporate rat race. To prepare ourselves, most of us will have to apply for work experience. ‘What do I do?’, you may be asking yourself, but fret not. This article will share some advice and tips that will hopefully make your search for work experience a little easier.

First of all, I would recommend you talk to Miss Viggers. She is the library of Alexandria in terms of work experience, so do not hesitate to ask for advice. But if you don’t have time to meet with Miss Viggers, you’re in luck, because here are the things to know.

Our top tips are:

• Start applying for placements AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

• Talk to your family and friends!

• Apply everywhere, even if it’s not what you want to do in the future.

When you get to Year 12, the overlords will tell you pretty much immediately that you need to find work ex. Apply sharpish, as all the school kids from Nottingham are applying simultaneously! Some businesses take only a few people, so make sure you’re one of them. Do NOT start sending out emails or asking people for advice only a week or so before your placement is supposed to start. 

As we all know, nepotism makes the world go round. Please talk to your parents, older siblings or family friends. Emailing a business yourself can work, but very rarely, so make the most of your loved ones. Brayan (12B) got a sweet gig at ITP Aero Hucknall because he asked his parents to step in. Yours truly got an amazing placement at MHR academy because I asked my dad if he could help me. Joe (12P) got into Edmond Shipway because he had a relation there. I cannot stress enough how helpful your family can be. Even if your contact works as a chef, you can shadow different roles in that business which appeal to you more.

Drawing from personal experience, I would say to do any work experience offered to you, even if it sounds completely different than you would like to do. I am a major humanities nerd, and the work experience I did was in a business that focused on software, payroll and HR. That sounded horrific and like something I would never want to do. But I actually had a lot of fun, so I’m really glad that I did it despite my concerns. The moral of the story is, just apply wherever your parents tell you to. 

• Written by Zofia Kedziora