Work Experience

What is work experience?

Work experience is actually when you're working for a lower wage than you would normally expect from that position. You're doing this work experience though in order to get the experience you need, in the industry you need, to move up the ladder.

Why would I do work experience?

Quite often, the reason that you need to do work experience is you may have gone to job interviews and had the interviewer say, "Well come back to me in two or three years time once you have work experience in our industry." It's very frustrating: you come straight out of a school or university, you need to find some kind of experience. This is the gap that work experience fills.

What will be expected of me on work experience?

Once you're placed into a work experience program, you'll be expected to learn all aspects of the particular role that you're aspiring to have. So it could be everything from opening the post, through to general mapping duties, to frontline support. It could be customer support; it could be many, many different things. But all you'll be expected to do is to work as normal people work.

Can I get paid for doing work experience?

Work experience is, indeed, subsidized by the government through various initiatives; but it's also invested in privately. So certain companies will actually provide this facility for you. You can be expected to be paid, so don't sell yourself too short.