Written by Chris Rea, Editorial Team, Graduate Prospects.
Good work experience can make a great deal of difference to your employment prospects once you’ve graduated, so it’s important to think carefully about what you want to do. If you don’t know what sort of work experience to get, don’t worry - you’re not alone. Because work experience has become so important, there is more pressure than ever before on students to make an appropriate decision. In fact, making a decision about work experience can require just as much thought as making a decision about a graduate job. This is all well and good if you have a clear idea about where your career will lead you. But if you haven't, what should you do? The most important thing is not to panic. You should take time out to think about yourself, your ambitions and expectations before you dive in and start applying for placements. Simple exercises can help. Think about the things you like, what you’re good at, what you’d really like to do. Talk about it. Your careers service is the obvious place to start. Careers advisers are used to hearing students say ‘I don’t know what I want to do’ and are trained to help you find out. Talk to people who have done work placements or who have permanent jobs in the areas you’re interested in. Talk to your tutors, who will have a good idea by now of what your strengths and weaknesses are. There are also reasonably scientific means for finding out what your next step should be. Prospects Planner is a guidance system that enables you to match your skills, qualities, experiences and attributes to types of career. Prospects Planner saves your answers in four different profiles - general skills, people skills, motivations and interests. Each profile has different factors, which you rate on what role they would play in your perfect job. All the career areas listed show the extent to which the different factors feature in each type of job. When your session is over, Prospects Planner compares your factor responses with the ratings for each job and shows you the types of jobs that match best. It’s important to be confident about your choice and not be deterred by people’s negative comments, however impractical or unsuitable they think your ambitions are. Have the courage of your convictions. If you have a long-held desire to be a journalist, an actor or a forestry commission worker, explore placement opportunities that will enable you to acquire experiences and gain insights into these areas. There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind. People do it all the time and what you think you want to do at 20 won’t necessarily be what you are doing, or want to do, at 25, 30 or 35. Don’t worry about making the wrong choice, either. Even if your placement doesn’t open the door to your ideal career, it will provide you with a wealth of practical experiences that will translate into what you do with the rest of your university life and beyond. Once you know what you want to do, you’re half way there but remember (and this may sound obvious but unfortunately it’s true) - the only person who can truly motivate you, is you. Further information:
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