Work experience is more than just a couple of lines on your CV and some extra money (if it is a paid internship rather than unpaid or volunteering). Work experience develops your skills, helps you understand what kind of work you want for your career, and gives you plenty to talk about later at interviews for permanent positions.
Here are a few things to think about before you start, and as you go on.
What skills do you plan to acquire?
- Technical tools and techniques and experience: researching information, sifting facts and data, creating and running models and simulations, programming language and experience.
- General business skills: organising your work, prioritising tasks, working with others, participating in meetings and workshops, reporting your work, presenting your ideas.
If the tasks you are given will not help you to develop your identified skills, having a clearly defined list will help you to negotiate different or extra tasks
Are there Clear Objectives, Reviews and Measures?
These are how you know what you are expected to deliver, in what timescale, and to what standard. There is an acronym for objectives: They should be SMART:- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.
You should be discussing your progress regularly, this will allow you to check you are on the right lines. If you are getting things done faster than expected you can flag up that you need more work to be allocated. If you don’t discuss progress regularly you may find you make mistakes or the requirements have changed without you knowing. You might get through work more quickly than expected because you are better than the last work experience person they had, or they might have underestimated how long something would take for a person who hasn’t got lots of other projects on the go. Alternatively they might have given you something fairly easy to do and are waiting to see how quickly you get through it, so not letting people know you are nearly finished could give a poor opinion of your skills. Make sure that you flag up you need more work before you run out completely as it takes time and effort to scope tasks for people who are inexperienced.
What support is available to you?
Will you get any training or coaching? If so is it formal classroom courses, self-help ‘how to’ guides, online tutorials or are you just expected to ask your colleagues around the office? If your boss is out a lot or based elsewhere will there be people you can ask if you get stuck or confused about what you should be doing or how you should be tackling your work?
Will you get the chance to work with experts, people who are really good at what they do? If you won’t be working with people like that are they elsewhere in the organisation and could you book some time to talk with them or get them to give a lecture to you and other interns and new employees?
Will you be given opportunities to make an oral presentation, write reports or papers? If these aren’t offered don’t be shy, ask for them. Always, ask questions, seek feedback and look for ways to improve your work and your skills.
Getting a graduate offer
Do you enjoy the work and the organisation? If so then make sure your supervisor and any other relevant managers know you are interested in working for them after you graduate. Do they have graduate positions? How do you register your interest/apply? Do they sponsor research students if you want to continue your studies? Will they give you a reference if you don’t want to come back to them or they don’t have any graduate vacancies?
Image Credits: Featured image by Christina@wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
Workplace image by YouXVentures on Unsplash
