Work your way into a job

Just because you've never been paid for work doesn't mean you haven't had work experience — or that you don’t have skills and experience that are valuable and relevant to working life. Work experience can be a great tactic for people looking to enter the workforce for the first time or those returning after a break from paid work. It can be a way of learning new skills or updating rusty ones, greatly benefiting your search for a paid position.

Most people have been involved in many situations where they have learnt skills that are useful to the work force. Employers are looking for people with skills and abilities that are transferable. Recognising and valuing the environments where you've gained relevant work experience is the first step to convincing potential employers that your skills and experience are relevant to the organisation.

Maybe you've worked on a stall during a garage sale or on the door at a dance party. You might have raised children, cared for an aged relative and managed a household. All these activities require and develop skills and personal qualities that transfer to the work force.

Work experience is often organised by schools and tertiary institutions to help their school leavers gain some understanding of an industry or occupation. It offers young people the chance to get hands-on experience in a formal working environment. However, work experience is also valuable for people who are looking to move into a new area of work, the long-term unemployed or for those who are re-entering the work force after a long absence.

Work experience can help shape your employment plans in a number of ways. It may:

• confirm that this is the industry for you — you can then start to look for paid employment in that field;
• confirm that this is not the industry or type of job you want to work in;
• suggest certain aspects of an industry that you would like to focus on.

Finding a placement

Students will often have work experience organised for them as part of their formal learning programme. If your institution doesn't organise work experience as part of your course of study, approach your lecturer, teacher, career guidance counsellor or other staff member who may be able to assist. Outline what kind of placement you're interested in undertaking and ask if they have industry contacts they can refer you to.

If you're not studying, all the advice in SEEK's story about networking and cold calling applies equally to seeking a work experience placement.

The ideal work experience placement is in your chosen field of endeavour (or closely related) and with a host organisation that is committed to your growth. It is difficult to find companies with strong work experience guidelines but ideally a learning programme should be established for you. This would outline:

• your supervisor or key contact;
• what departments you work in;
• who you work with;
• how long you'll be in each department;
• what tasks will be assigned;
• what the learning outcomes are.

Benefits;

Contacts
This is possibly the most valuable aspect of work experience. Meeting people who can help you is the key to success in job hunting. Even if there is no vacancy in their company, they may know of a job elsewhere. You get access to the "word-of-mouth" hidden job market.

Knowledge
Employers are more interested in what you can do than where you've been. If you can demonstrate an understanding of the industry and support that by outlining key tasks you have completed while on work experience, your chances of gaining paid employment are much higher than if you have just studied it at college.

Confidence
Confidence grows when you feel that a task is within your reach. Work experience gives you the chance to watch people doing the job, to ask questions and often the chance to try your hand at it.

Discipline
The simple act of getting out of bed each day at a certain time is a discipline that helps you generate more momentum in your life. Getting to work on time, finding appropriate clothes, scheduling appointments, time management — these are all skills that are learnt through doing.

Being able to list work experience on your resume demonstrates a number of qualities, such as:

• a genuine desire to work;
• initiative;
• work ethic;
• enthusiasm;

These are qualities that an employer may value more highly than qualifications. Never underestimate the power of work experience.

Case study

Cassandra: "I've just finished Year 11 and I'm looking for a job in retail fashion sales. I haven't got any experience in that area but I love clothes and fashion and make clothes for my friends. I know I'd be really good at it but they keep saying that unless I have experience I can't get a job".

This is a common scenario for young people leaving school with no tertiary qualifications. However, Cassandra has many advantages that she is overlooking simply because she has never been formally employed by a retail store.

Cassandra can easily enhance her prospects of getting a job by focusing on the skills she has acquired rather than the jobs she hasn't had.

Let's look at the skills that Cassandra already has. She makes and sells clothes to friends. Her resume could present these skills in the following way.

Work experience:

• Pricing and purchase of raw materials eg. fabrics, buttons, zips etc.
• Pattern and fabric selection
• Measurement and cutting
• Design and sewing of garments
• Repairs and alterations to garments
• Negotiation of price with clients
• Book-keeping, banking

She may even want to collect some letters of support from her friends who were happy with her work. This could take the form of a letter addressed "To whom it may concern", outlining how satisfied they were with the clothes and why they were pleased with Cassandra's work.

While Cassandra hasn't worked behind the counter of a fashion store, she has demonstrated a great interest in the fashion industry and a knowledge about how products are made and sold. This is often much more attractive to an employer than someone who can operate a cash register. Technical skills such as working a cash register can be taught very quickly. What can't be taught is passion, enthusiasm and an understanding of the product — that's what employers are looking for.

by Bernadette Schwerdt