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How to Gain Work Experience as a Student
Some university courses include work placements within their classes. Other students are faced with the conundrum of finding their own work experience or taking the easy route of more nights at the student union and more cold pizza. We want you to know that finding student work experience is not so difficult – and it has lots of career benefits too!
The Best Ways to Get Student Work Experience
1. Language Jobs
There are so many cool and exciting language jobs that will help you teach abroad. Teaching can be a beneficial experience for all types of students because it develops critical soft skills that recruiters now value as much as hard skills. Even if you don't want to discover a new culture, you could always become an online teacher instead.
2. Use Trusted Sites
When we look for a full-time job, there are so many sites to choose from. But when we consider looking for work experience, we usually miss these sites out thinking that they do not offer work placements and experience. The very best international job search sites advertise work placements and using these sites will prepare you for when you come to job hunting after graduation.
3. Speak with University Staff
If you didn’t already know, most university staff are not tenured and do not have fixed contracts for long periods. They work with funding from an agglomeration of bodies. Many professors and lecturers use this funding to pay research assistants to be a part of exciting projects. Not only will this get you work experience, but it could lead to full-time research positions and a PhD scholarship.
4. Talk with Local Businesses
If you live in a student-centric city, there is likely to be many student jobs to be had. Most of these will be hospitality roles such as catering, waiting tables or bartending. Nevertheless, they can still help you broaden working horizons and improve skills. Cities with high student populations are likely to have more jobs on offer, simply because every year a large portion of students graduate and leave the city to go back home or to their new careers.
The Benefits of Work Experience
Work experience may not be the most appealing things to students, especially if they are not being remunerated for their efforts. However, work experience pays you back in the future because it will help you to:
· Get invited to interviews
· Get jobs
· Develop new hard and soft skills
· Make you a more interesting person
The only time you should not be looking for work experience as a student is if it could put your university success in jeopardy. Although being able to do both would be nice, your degree can also help obtain the above benefits. If this is a problem, consider doing your student work experience during the summer holidays instead.
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