Top 5 Tips for Avoiding the Catch-22 of Work Experience

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There is nothing more excruciating than not receiving work experience because you don’t have any work experience. By all means, if you have the contacts and the resources to secure work experience, then use them to your advantage. If like I was, you’re starting with no contacts at all, then have a think about some of the top tips below, and see if you can avoid that catch-22 of work experience.

1) Volunteer

By far the easiest way to gain initial experience is by working for your University/School. This could be by applying for a role on the University newspaper or magazine, working on events days or any other work for the University that will give you the key transferable skills, and will look great on your CV.

2) Local work experience

Usually, this will be easier than trying to gain a placement at a large well-known company. Therefore, do your research and have a look at what publishing companies are local to you. For example, I found a book publisher local to my hometown. I applied there and I was accepted shortly after. This meant that I was able to complete some work experience there when I was at home during summer. Additionally, because they were a smaller local company, my placement was a bit more flexible and cost me nothing in travel. So have a look on Google and see what companies are local to you.

3) Add originality to your application

Have a think about how you can be original with your application and/or how to show off your knowledge of the company. If you’re going for an editorial role, along with your application, send off a sample article that you would like to be published by the company – something original, which will suit their target audience. An employer will like the fact that they can ‘try before they buy’ as it were.

4) Send a personal letter (if possible)

It is difficult to do this for all of the companies that you apply for, but for the ones that you’re really passionate about, and especially the ones that give you a personal name to send your application to, then send them a letter instead of an email. It is much more personal and it will set you apart from the masses that email. Make sure you attach a cover letter, gearing it towards the company and really show off your knowledge of them.

5) Don’t give up

This may sound like an obvious tip, but the point is you need to be persistent. There is no use applying to only two companies per week, where applications are fiercely competitive. Of course, you should apply to wherever you like, but at the same time, you need to send out as many applications as you can because there is no room to be meticulous.

Of course, you can also use my blog and some of my other published work to receive some more advice from me. Specifically, look at my blog page ‘Where Do I Start?’ follow my advice and I’m sure like me, you’ll gain plenty of work experience. Some of my readers have already tweeted me and sent me emails about their work experience success stories when you get yours, get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.

Good luck in securing those initial work experience placements.

Snapshot Diary - Aesthetica Magazine October 09 - September 11

My longest relationship with a company so far has been the experience that I have had with Aesthetica Magazine. For almost 2 years I was a ‘campus ambassador’ for the magazine; promoting their activities around my campus at the University of Surrey and gaining experience on-going experience in marketing.

The main tasks that I was involved in were:

• Handing out leaflets
• Posting up flyers
• Advertising via University clubs/societies
• Advertising via email
• Digital marketing
• Updating my progress table
• Composing a marketing strategy to improve the scheme

Overall, I had a good experience with Aesthetica magazine. I developed new skills in marketing, and experienced independent working from home. I was reporting to the marketing manager regularly, and I was kept up to date with all the things going on in the office.

I have only stopped being a Campus Ambassador due to the scheme being on suspension. However, once this scheme commences again, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to do some marketing for a magazine, and would like to work flexible hours during semester.

For more information visit: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/ambassadors.htm

Why am I not getting employer responses? And what should I do?

I’ve had quite a lot of people telling me that they aren’t getting the employer responses that they were initially hoping for. So, I’ve decided to make a blogpost dedicated to answering the all important questions ‘Why am I not getting employer responses? And what should I do?’

• How did you initially contact the company?

Sometimes, if you’ve felt that you’ve waited a long time for a response, then it’s good to re-evaluate what method you used to try and contact the company. For example, did you apply via a generic email address, e.g. workexperience@{companyname}.co.uk. If this is the case, then worst case scenario may be that your application hasn’t even been looked at yet.

If you’re really keen on getting a work placement with that specific company, then it may be best to send in another application via letter. Check the website for a company address, and also check to see if there is the name of an employee that you can properly address the letter to. This way, you know your application has at least been read by someone. So, after waiting a considerable amount of time with your first application, send in a second application via email/letter (the different method of contact you used initially).

• How long have you waited for a response?

It’s not unheard of to wait a considerable amount of time before receiving an application response. I’ve been in the situation before where I applied in January for a placement in June, and then I didn’t hear back from the company until May. So, I waited quite a few months before I got a response. Additionally, I have also received responses a week before the placement was meant to start, so don’t always think that because you haven’t had a quick response means that you’ve been rejected – it doesn’t.

• Do you expect that the company receives a lot of applications?

Obviously, not all applications will be successful; I have had quite a few unsuccessful applications for one reason or another. Unfortunately, you never know whether you’ll get a response and it’s unlikely that you’ll get a response if your application has been unsuccessful. Do keep in mind how desirable the company is that you have applied for. Some companies simply can’t take on all of the ‘good’ interns who apply there. Don’t be offended, and instead get your application out to as many places as possible.

• How in advance were you applying for a placement?

It’s really important to be realistic and to look at the bigger picture. You may not have received an employer response because you may have applied to late for the placement date you wanted. You’re decreasing your chances of getting a placement if you apply for work experience in summer, when you want that work experience that summer. Sometimes, you can get away with this, for instance, if you’re applying to Random House via there Facebook page as they usually post up opportunities a few weeks before the placement start date, but for most companies you would have ‘missed the boat’. Try to make sure your applications are 5-8 months in advance to when you actually want the placement, this way you’re more likely to be considered.

I know a lot of companies who are now booked up until 2012. From my knowledge a lot of companies start to look at applications again in November 2011 for the following year, so make sure you get yours in.

• Wondering what to do next?

You need to keep trying and don’t give up. Persistency will definitely pay off. Make sure you’re researching at least 2 or 3 times a week, and trying to get as many applications in as possible - making sure you pay extra attention to the placements you really want. It may also help to create a log of placements applied to. I did this and found it useful for keeping a record, this way you’ll never lose contacts you’ve made during your search – you never know when you’ll need them again.

My second Guardian article will expand on this research a little more. Once live, I’ll make sure I add the link to this blog post. Stay strong fellow interns!

Snapshot Diary - Orion Books July 2011

I undertook a placement at Orion in between my time working at OldCastle Books. This is because I was keen to get back into working life at a larger company. At Orion, I was working in the publicity department. When I think back to my Orion placement, I always think about how little I was actually doing. It makes me think of the whole intern and employer debate, about whether employers are taking on interns instead of full time employees (because obviously it’s cheaper), but this certainly wasn’t the case at Orion. I definitely wasn’t replacing anyone full time.

Although the employees were very nice and friendly, unfortunately the work flow didn’t match up to my own expectations. Perhaps, one could argue that by this time I’d already been on numerous placements, and maybe the more and more experienced I got, the less stimulating intern work was me – partly I think that’s probably true.

As always though, I will provide a small list below of what I was doing on my placement.

These are the tasks I was involved in:

• General admin duties
• Web-link checking
• Editing Documents
• Showcards
• Mail outs

Overall, this wasn’t a placement I would rate highly in terms of productivity but in general it was a nice workplace. Though, I probably should have just stayed for the 1 week as opposed to two.

CV Workshop - 'Extracurricular Activities' heading

If this is the first time you are viewing this blog series, please refer back to the first summary post called ‘CV Workshop – Top 5 Headings for your CV’.

If you have done a lot of extracurricular activities at school or university, then this heading is definitely a good optional extra for you to have on your CV. For instance, I’ve worked on the University student newspaper, which is significant experience as it is part of my journalism experience. In particular, the student newspaper is well recognised in the publishing industry, so if that’s the direction you want to go in, then the student newspaper is a great starting point. Furthermore, it’s really important to detail all your activities, even if they don’t directly relate to the work you’re applying for. This is because these activities develop many skills e.g. team work, which all relate to the work place.

As I have emphasised before, make sure that all the extracurricular activities are detailed in chronological order starting from your most recent position at the top, and work your way down. Also, as an added thought, try to make sure that you’re consistent throughout your CV in terms of layout, font and sizes etc. If you’re following this blog series, an easy way to format the extracurricular section is to do so in the same way as the education section. So, you’ll be using a template that looks a little bit like this:

{Start date} – {End date/Present} NAME OF POSITION/ROLE, LOCATION, Brief DESCRIPTION

Please do remember that the above template is just a guideline of what you could do with your extracurricular activities section. I would strongly advise doing some of your own research and having a look at CV’s that are considered strong.

The next and final CV Workshop will be for the ‘Skills’ heading.