looking for internships and work experience
TRANSCRIPT
Looking for Internships and Work experience
What will we cover?
• What is it?• Why do it?• The schemes• Doing it yourself• Making contact• How can we help?
Different types of work experience
• Internships / vacation schemes: vacations, several weeks, performing real work, usually for penultimate year students
• Insight: shorter opportunities for first-year students• Placements: usually a year long• Work shadowing: several days, no substantive work• Volunteering: unpaid, can be ongoing part-time, usually for a not-
for-profit organisation
Why should you do it?
• Investigate possible career path
• Establish contacts
• Relevant work experience on your CV
• Gain up to date work reference
• Get a realistic view of what is involved
• Develop skills
• Apply skills and knowledge
• Get a job!
The Employers’ View
“Internships are a fantastic way for individuals to gain an understanding of how an organisation works and get experience within a sector” Youth Charity
“Today’s interns are tomorrow’s arts sector workforce…we recognise that internships are a valuable learning and development opportunity for those aspiring to a career in the arts sector” Director, Tate
Should I be paid?
• YES (but there are some exemptions for voluntary workers in charitable and not for profit organisations)
• We have detailed guidelines on our website about unpaid internships, the law and our position:
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/gettingexperience/unpaidinternships
• Health & Safety
The schemes
• Different sectors, different schemes• Large corporations’ structured internships• Deadlines often Jan/ March time• Often for penultimate year students, some for 1st years• Some sectors may not offer structured schemes
How to find opportunities
General websites• www.ratemyplacement.co.uk• www.prospects.ac.uk/workexperience• www.targetjobs.co.uk• www.topinternships.com
Our jobs database:• www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs/
Our Getting Experience section:• www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/gettingexperience
Some examples
• HR Summer Internship – BP• Summer Internship Programme – Wellcome Trust• Engineering/HR/IT/Marketing/Procurement/Supply
Chain/Finance Internships – GSK • Programmer Internship – BossAlien • Numerous internships - EY/Deloitte/PwC/KPMGss
Sector Specific Information- check out our Sector Guides
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careerchoices/researchingcareers
Examples of specialist resources
www.gradcracker.com/ - Engineering www.w4mp.org/ - Politics, charities & policyundesadspd.org/Youth/UNOpportunities/Internships.aspx - UN Internships
www.lawcareers.net - Legal vacation schemeswww.bbc.co.uk/careers/work-experience www.pathfindersrecruitment.com - Marketing, advertising ,PRhttp://www.idealist.org/ - worldwide not-for-profits
Arranging your own Internship
• Set your aims• Research• Think about what you could offer• Check out the NCWE guidelines www.work-experience.org
Creative Approaches- finding contacts
• Social contacts• Academics• Previous work experience• Sussex Alumni Careers Network• LinkedIn – look at Alumni Tool• Names in journals, magazines, reports, the press• Yellow Pages (www.yell.com )• Specialist directories and lists of companies
