Getting work experience
Discover how to gain work experience to explore your career ideas and impress future employers.
A degree on its own is not a golden ticket to success! Gaining work experience before you graduate will help you stand out from the crowd, especially in a competitive job market. Work experience is a great way to develop important skills and explore your career options and graduate employers prefer graduates who have experience of the world of work. Work experience can take many forms and include many different types of roles, so it’s important you find opportunities that work for you, your career goals and your lifestyle.
We recognise that finding work experience can feel overwhelming if you don’t know where to start, so we’ve got you covered with advice on how to look for work experience and how Student Futures can support you to source opportunities.
Benefits of work experience
There are many reasons why you should do work experience whilst at university. Work experience can help you to:
- Explore career ideas – first-hand experience of a particular job or sector will help you find out if it’s right for you or not. Sometimes work experience can highlight that a job isn’t right for you, and this can be just as valuable in the long run as finding your dream job!
- Gain relevant experience to support your career goals – if you are passionate about a specific job or sector then gaining relevant experience will help you demonstrate this to employers and help make you more competitive when you apply for jobs in the future
- Impress employers – all the statistics show that employers want graduate applicants to have gained some form of work experience during their studies and are far less likely to interview someone without it. Gaining real world experience will help you to develop your professionalism and commercial awareness and give you plenty of relevant examples to share at interview
- Develop personally and professionally – being in a new environment and working with new people can be challenging. Work experience you complete at university might be the first time you have ever worked in a professional environment or had responsibility for delivering work. It can be a scary prospect at first, but is guaranteed to help you develop important skills you need for your future career (like time management, communication and teamwork), as well as confidence that you can in fact thrive in new environments!
- Transition into work after you graduate – getting some exposure to working life during your degree will make the transition from university into the world of work afterwards much easier! Although all workplaces are different, you will gain a good understanding of what work is like and how it’s different to university, for example in having more of a routine and working with colleagues and managers in more hierarchical structures
Remember that any work experience you choose to undertake will never be a waste of your time and will always hold value to your future career! Best case scenario you solidify your career goals or gain vital experience to make you more competitive in your chosen field; worst case scenario you identify a role or sector that perhaps isn’t right for you, but which still adds experience to your CV, develops your skills and expands your network.
Types of work experience
Any experience you have of working in an organisation counts as work experience – from volunteering, to part-time work, to internships and year-long placements. There are so many ways to gain valuable work experience whilst at university:
The Work Experience team in Student Futures sources lots of work experience opportunities for students. Opportunities exist in many sectors and with a wide range of employers and are designed to be flexible alongside your studies. Find out more about the different schemes we offer to decide which type of experience is right for you.
If you lack confidence about securing work experience or employment, you may be eligible for Career Confident, a scheme within Student Futures that can arrange work experience and tailored employability support for students and recent graduates.
Students and recent graduates can find out more about both teams through their Student Futures Account. Graduates will need to register as a graduate via their Student Futures Account.
Internships are competitive periods of work experience that typically take place over the summer and are commonly paid. It's useful to have gained previous work experience to help you stand out when you apply for an internship.
You can find out more about internships on the Prospects website.
Volunteering is a great way to gain experience in a certain field or sector, whilst also doing something incredibly valuable for an important cause. Volunteers are typically not paid but there is usually greater flexibility over the commitment required. Volunteering can also be a great first work experience opportunity as it doesn't usually require you to have previous experience.
You can find out more about volunteering on the Prospects website.
Shadowing is a useful way to understand more about a particular organisation, sector or type of work. You don't typically gain hands-on experience; it's more about getting an insight and gaining a better understanding. Like volunteering, it can be a great first work experience opportunity as it often doesn't require any previous experience, usually just evidence that you are interested in that organisation, sector or job.
You can find out more about work shadowing on the Prospects website.
Don't forget that a part-time job alongside your studies or over the summer is a form of work experience where you have developed important transferable skills and gained commercial awareness. Read our advice on part-time jobs.
It is sometimes possible to undertake a placement year or module as part of your course, which will give you insight into a particular organisation or type of work that is relevant to your subject. Your experience on a placement year or module is typically assessed and counts towards your degree. Students can opt to undertake a placement year or module when they first apply for their course but it is sometimes possible to undertake these once you have started your degree.
Speak to your personal tutor and school office for more information about your options.
On-campus internships are paid summer internships within university departments for current Cardiff University students. There are different types of on-campus internships that students can undertake, including internships in research, learning and teaching, innovation and impact and professional services.
Current students can find out more about on-campus internships on the student intranet.
How to find work experience
Support offered by Student Futures
Student Futures can help students and graduates find work experience. The Work Experience team in Student Futures work with a wide range of organisations and industries to bring in opportunities just for you that are advertised in your Student Futures Account. Find out more about how the team can help you find work experience on the student intranet.
If you lack confidence about securing work experience or employment, you may be eligible for Career Confident, a scheme within Student Futures that can arrange work experience for students and recent graduates.
Look for advertised internships online
Internships, especially over the summer, are advertised online on popular websites such as Milkround, RateMyPlacement and Gradcracker. Internships are competitive so be sure to apply early - start looking early on in the academic year and use our advice on CVs, applications and interviews to help you.
Use Prospects job profiles to explore opportunities relevant to your career goals
The job profiles on the Prospects website have very useful advice on how to gain work experience relevant to specific jobs, including signposting to websites specific to this field. This is a great way to explore opportunities which will support your career goals and is a great resource if you know what you want to do after you graduate or are exploring a few different options.
Apply speculatively
You can generate your own work experience opportunity by applying speculatively. A speculative application is when you send a CV (usually alongside a cover letter) to an employer asking if you can undertake work experience with them, even though they aren't currently advertising. Being proactive can really impress employers, especially if your cover letter is tailored to their organisation. A speculative approach is unlikely to work at larger organisations, particularly where their roles are highly competitive and they have a formal, recruitment process, but can be a good way to gain entry into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
When applying speculatively, it's important to:
- Identify a list of organisations you want to contact
- Be very specific about why you are sending your CV and cover letter - remember the employer is not advertising so has no idea why you are getting in touch or what you are asking for
- Be open and flexible - the employer might not be able to offer you an internship for example, but could offer a period of work shadowing or give you helpful advice for the future
Prospects also has useful advice on how to ask employers for work experience.
Speak to your network, friends and family
If you have people within your existing network, including friends and family, who work in jobs or sectors that interest you, don't be afraid to ask them if they can help you find work experience! They might be able to offer you work experience themselves or put you in touch with others in their network who could help. Remember to keep an open mind - even if you don't get work experience opportunities through your existing network, you might be offered a mentor or receive invaluable career advice!