What if you could call on 100 former graduates to give you career advice?
Well now you can! I’ve written a book that interviews 100 graduates 10 years on from university about their career paths and advice for a younger generation.
In my book ‘1000 Years of Career Advice’, the interviewees offer lots of different pieces of career advice. One that kept coming up again and again was:
‘the more work placements you do the better, as you can compare roles and companies and find out what you like/don’t like’
For this blog post I’m going to take a cross section of the interviewees and talk about why they think doing work placements is so important:
Impact of Work Experience #1: Katie (31), Business Analyst
Katie did work experience for a small health/tech start-up. This helped her realise that she didn’t like working for small companies.
She then went to work for a big financial company and loves it. She has worked in three very different roles since joining and loves being a ‘generalist’.
Impact of Work Experience #2: Natalie (32), TV Producer
Natalie is a very successful TV producer. She did a Fine Art degree at university but spent quite a lot of her 20’s trying to figure out what she wanted to do.
Her biggest regret is that she didn’t do any work placements. She feels they would have helped her realise what she loved doing sooner, saving her lots of time.
Below is an interview with a student who has just recently finished her work placements:
Impact of Work Experience #3: Paul (33), Managing Director
Paul is a multi-millionaire. He thinks work placements are the best thing you can do at the age of 18-21.
Anything that gets you out of your comfort zone, he encourages doing.
Impact of Work Experience #4: Shane (31), Mechanical Engineer
Shane did an undergraduate and postgraduate degree in mechanical engineering.
He now regrets not doing some work placements on a site to give him exposure to other types of engineering i.e. civil, structural
For more insight into the benefits of work experience, check out my post on the 15 Benefits of Work Experience
Impact of Work Experience #5: Niall (33), Software Engineer
Niall switched careers from a civil engineer to a software engineer at the age of 25. He had spent 7 years studying and working in engineering.
He did this by going back to university and doing a postgraduate in software engineering.
That postgrad had 4 months work experience which helped him get his first job.
He thinks that if he didn’t have that work experience it would have been very tough for him trying to switch.
Impact of Work Experience #6: Nasir (29), Surgeon
Nasir did a student exchange programme with a university in Holland.
While there, he got to see robots perform surgery in the urology department.
From that day on, he knew he wanted to be a urology surgeon. He loves it now.
If it hadn’t been for that work placement, he may still be unsure as to what type of medicine he wants to specialise in.
Ever wonder what jobs make the most money? check out my post on what graduate jobs make the most money
Impact of Work Experience #7: Sarah (32), Programme Manager, Taj (32), Project Manager
Sarah and Taj didn’t do any work placements. However, they work for big multinational firms now and talk glowingly about the work experience students in their firms.
They see such a massive improvement in the work placements students’ skills and confidence levels from only working for a few months.
Impact of Work Experience #8: Kirstine (32), Resource Manager
Kirstine did some work experience doing in-house recruitment (recruiting for the open vacancies within one company), and really liked it, she has never looked back since.
She is really glad she started off in an in-house role. Lots of her friends started jobs as external recruitment consultants and quit because they didn’t like it.
Impact of Work Experience #9: Aisling (31), Solicitor
Aisling always thought she would become a Teacher. She did a general arts degree in university, and then decided to become a Solicitor.
However, she didn’t do one day of work experience in a law office until she started working as a 25year old.
She is now a successful solicitor now in a New York. However, she doesn’t really like her career and thinks she should have become a Teacher.
If she’d have done some work placements maybe she would have taken a very different path?
Impact of Work Experience #10: Ronan (36), Solicitor
Ronan did several work placements in a solicitors office. He knew from day one what was involved in a law career.
He advises getting as much work experience as possible as ‘studying law is very different from working in law’
Impact of Work Experience #11: Kevin (33), Engineering Team Lead, Colin (33), Process Team Lead
Kevin and Colin are both very successful team leaders in big pharma manufacturing plants. They both have several work placement students working for them. They think they are fantastic.
They have both commented how employable they will be with good degrees, and work placements with big pharma companies.
Some of them have already been offered and secured roles with these firms after they graduate.
Impact of Work Experience #12: John (31), Early Years Language Teacher
John started a journalism course but realised it wasn’t for him.
He then did a speech therapy degree. He had done some work experience in that area and realised it was something he really enjoyed.
If he had done some journalism work placements he could have saved himself some time and effort.
Impact of Work Experience #13: Laura (33), Marketing Manager
Laura is a very successful Marketing Manager who manages promotions for big well-known brands.
She would be only too willing if a young person asked to shadow some of her team for a day, or ask for a week’s work experience.
Impact of Work Experience #14: Gareth (33), Senior Advertising Account Director
Gareth got a work placement at a well-known consumer goods company. His boss said to him if he got all his work done for the week that he could then get involved in the more interesting stuff.
He used to get all his work done by Tuesday. Then he’d hang out with the PR girls, and the TV advert producers.
That summer he learned so much about the industry it got his career off to the best possible start. He is now a very successful guy.
Impact of Work Experience #15: Asaf (31), Finance Manager
Asaf really liked and was good at marketing in his degree. He did one week’s work experience in a marketing department and hated it. He now works in Finance.
That one week in the marketing department saved him lots of time and effort. If he’d take a permanent marketing job he’d have to stay a lot longer than a week.
Impact of Work Experience #16: David (33), HR Business Partner
David had an undergraduate and postgraduate in HR but could not get a job as it was at the height of the recession in 2008.
He offered to work for free for one month for a big insurance company, which they let him do.
He then offered to work for a second and third month for free where he worked really hard to impress.
In the third month, a maternity cover role came up, which they gave to him. He has never looked back since, if it wasn’t for that work experience he has no idea what he’d have done.
The above is only a cross section of the interviewees imploring young people to get some work placements. Everyone I’ve interviewed for the book with the benefit of hindsight thinks work experience is invaluable.
It doesn’t have to be a very corporate internship programme for 3 months. It can be helping out at a start-up/charity for a few weeks. Whatever it is, it will really stand to you in your career.
Don’t just listen to me, listen to 100 people who used to be in your shoes.
