Making work experience work for you: what employers say

Posted on 8 February 2024 • Career planning

It can be difficult navigating the world of work experience – whether you’re at the beginning of your career journey or looking to change direction. We asked a few employers from small and large organisations what they had to say about it. We hope it’ll inspire you to look at our work experience page, a good place to start figuring out the work experience you need and how to get it.

The benefits of work experience

“Work experience was a great way for me to kind of test those waters to see if I actually wanted a career in marketing and fortunately, I really enjoyed it,”

says Ben from Freshbat.

Initially interning at the OU, Ben landed his Freshbat internship through networking and then securing his permanent position as Marketing Manager. He now employs his own interns from the OU.

“We’ve had quite a lot of OU students who have done placements with us only just because they’ve simply approached us directly”

adds Craig of The Welsh Centre for International Affairs. Source your own internship advises how to approach employers to consider you for an internship.

Networking

“I cannot stress enough the importance of networking… it’s absolutely going to stand you in good stead,” says Nicola from e-Placement Scotland.

If you’re not sure how to build contacts, our Networking page helps you make your first steps.

Learning and applying transferable skills

Nicola advises student to:

”Make sure you’re building that personal portfolio. It should be a CV that’s relevant to the role that you’re applying for, and that goes for your cover letter and everything else as well. Break your experience down into smaller tasks and identify what the key areas of the task were. It will then be easier to recognise what the skill is that you’ve learned from that task.”

Ben follows on from this, saying:

“If you’ve already got work experience that has given you transferrable skills, why not ask for a reference? It also gives you the employer’s perspective. Then you can break down their feedback from an industry perspective as well”.

Take a look at CV writing and use our CV tools powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Flexibility and work experience in action

The OU is known for its flexible approach to learning, so many students are wondering if similarly flexible work experience is available. Ben speaks of his own experience:

“Employers are usually supportive with things like flexible working, especially knowing you’re currently doing a degree. They can help you make your next steps”.

Craig assures that

“a good placement organisation will be concerned about providing really good quality support and mentoring capacity.”

Read Abiola and Marianne’s stories to see how they made work experience work for them.

Needing experience to get experience

Applying for a role that requires experience when the reason you’re applying is to get experience can be a vicious cycle. Though it varies by role, some opportunities can be competitive, so Nicola says upskilling is the key.

“Upskill yourself … that’s still experience. It might not be work experience, but it’s still adding skills and strengths to what you can offer back to an employer”.

See employability skills to assess the skills you already have and work out how to develop the skills you need.

Craig gives his perspective:

“What I want to know and what most of my colleagues want to know is: Are you going to get stuff done? Are you going to be reliable and dependable? Do you grasp why the work is being done?”

Careers and Employability Services are here to help you get your foot in the door from your first module to three years after qualifying.

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