Work Experience - Is it all about making tea

WhatNowForUs?

Hi There,

I'll be going on work experience soon through the college. Is work experience all about making tea for the permanent staff of the company or is it a case that if you put in the effort you will reap the rewards and they will give you an opportunity to get a real insight of the company and its workings.

When I went on work experience through college it was for 3 months, most of the companies kept the students on for a further 3 months (the summer). The place I went to did their best to ensure I was kept busy, there is an element of you can't hit the ground running though so the first few weeks can have dead times.

You could go somewhere that's fierce busy and they could genuinely need someone to actually work and perfrom a role for them

looksee

It entirely depends on the company. You might be shadowing someone, you might be photocopying, you might be making tea (though tbh that is so fraught with the possibility of getting it wrong its doubtful ). If you are given a job and do it intelligently and efficiently you could find yourself being given other jobs, so to that extent, yes it is what you make it. But if the company/staff are too busy or lacking in interest to give you something to do then all you can do is keep out of the way and try and observe and figure out what is going on.

Some areas, like childcare, hairdressing, multimedia have loads of scope for you to actually do something, others might not be so easy to fit you in. Whatever you are or are not asked to do, make your reports intelligently. If you just fill in 'did nothing, just watched' you will not get as good marks as if you say what you saw when you were watching, and what conclusions you reached.

Edit: of course it does depend on what level you are working at too, to some extent. My comments would be relevant to FETAC.