A period of work experience (such as a work placement or internship) can radically improve your employability. Getting a good degree is still important, but work experience allows you to develop additional skills and qualities that will impress recruiters.

• Why is work experience important?
  developing soft skills, learning about work, choosing a career
• Types of work experience
  internships, temporary work, voluntary work, work-shadowing
• Finding work experience opportunities
  search GET for work-experience, placements and internships
• Applying for placements and internships
  application forms, CVs, covering letters

Why is work experience important?

Getting a good degree is, on its own, not enough any more. With increasing numbers of students going to university, graduates with good degrees are easy to find.

However, according to a survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), graduate employers are still having problems filling vacancies. ‘The largest factor [is] a lack of applicants with the right skills,’ says Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the AGR.

’Employers are likely to be looking for graduates who can demonstrate softer skills such as teamworking, cultural awareness, leadership and communication skills, as well as academic achievement.’

If you’ve chosen your career path already, work experience will demonstrate your commitment, and is particularly important for careers such as teaching, investment banking, medicine and law. If you haven’t decided what you want to do, it’s a good way to try out different industries and develop your transferable skills at the same time.

• Find out about skills and work experience.
• Read about the benefits of work experience.

Types of work experience

From structured summer internships to temporary work in an office, there are many valid forms of work experience:

• placements and internships – formal, structured programmes which often act as a ‘foot in the door’
• casual work experience – informal, found by speculative applications or through contacts
• temporary work – a chance to earn money and gain experience at the same time
• voluntary work – another great way to boost your skills base, particularly if you’re pursuing a related career
• work shadowing – unpaid but can be the only option in some of the more competitive career areas.

Finding work-experience opportunities

You can find details of work-experience opportunities at your university careers service. You can also search for work experience placements and internships on this website.

For some industries it may be necessary to make speculative applications for casual work experience. Make sure you target your covering letter to each organisation you apply to for a greater chance of success.

Throughout your work experience keep a record of everything you do and assess which skills you’ve developed, referring back to your skills audit and filling in the gaps as much as possible. If you do this, you’ll find putting together a well-rounded, winning CV much easier.

Applying for placements and internships

Employers can be just as rigorous in their search for the right intern or placement student as they are with their graduate recruitment schemes. Your CV will probably be quite empty – after all, you’re counting on work experience to improve it – but it’s all good practice for when you start applying for permanent jobs.

Employers aren’t particularly concerned with academic skills at this stage in your education. After all, applicants for work-experience opportunities tend to be high-calibre undergraduates. They look mainly at your aptitude and personality, and want to see evidence of:

• enthusiasm
• maturity
• determination
• interpersonal skills (such as teamwork).

Find out more

• Casual work experience
• CV writing guide
• Placements and internships
• Volunteering in the UK
• Work experience abroad