Good and bad work experience 'experiences'

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Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
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Location
Warwickshire
Hello all

I've got an 18 year old from the local grammar school for work experience tomorrow and whilst I've got some tasks lined up, I'm keen to make it a positive experience for the student in question. With that in mind, I was interested to hear members' thoughts on what made their own work experience particularly bad or particularly good.

It's in finance for an insurance company, so pretty dry stuff at work experience level, hence I'm also after tips on how to avoid making the experience mundane and exposing them to typical tasks yet not having to hold their hand entirely (got my own stuff to do too!). Will be excel-centric.

What was your work experience like? What did you like / dislike?
 
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I'd suggest making sure they are aware of the bigger picture. In other words, while you may just have them doing stuff in excel, explain where this fits in to what the company does, and how the work they will be doing will make a difference. There's nothing worse than feeling like you're doing a job that is only there to give you something to do.
 
Being of a similar age I can help.

Do not tell him to make a cup of tea, well maybe one but not lots.

If he is getting bored of staying indoors on the computer maybe you could send him to the local post office (if there is one nearby) to send some letters, gives the work a bit more variation.

Don't give too much filing work, Try and put them with the harder working employees.

Give them a decent amount of time for lunch.
 
My work experience was with my granddad, so i helped him clean on monday, cleaned his drive on tuesday and had the rest of the week off... Was awesome.

With my experience not being helpful, i'd say just keep him busy, a few friends of mine were just ignored / left alone all day, it's work experience, doesn't have to be the funnest thing ever, but don't leave him in a corner all day would be my suggestion.
 
i have got my july fully booked with different work experience kids, like i do every year, its a nightmare. there is never anything for them to do, and when i do find something, they never want to do it.
 
paradisiac said:
i have got my july fully booked with different work experience kids, like i do every year, its a nightmare. there is never anything for them to do, and when i do find something, they never want to do it.
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So why bother... unless your boss is making you?
 
Years ago i did mine at a chartered surveys. I did a load of measuring and tedious stuff but it was nice to be out on site nearly every day.

The stupid thing... perhaps its not allowed now. Pay the kid 5 quid a day or something...out of your own pocket if needs be to show that working actually pays...

Obviously only if they are interested dont pay them for doing naff all.
 
Joshct said:
Ah that sucks... especially if they're lazy little buggers...
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indeed. my job bores the hell out of me, so inflicting that on other people is bad enough, but trying to convince someone that doesn't want to be there to do something is impossible. i try and palm them off on the manager but he has none of it, then moans i have nothing for them to do.
 
flibbage0 said:
Give them a decent amount of time for lunch.
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On one day of my week of work experience I ended up having 3 hours for lunch, then one of them finally clicked and said to the guy who was supervising me 'Don't you think he should have something to do'. :p I then got to watch him put HDDs into a server. ¬_¬
 
I also put down catering for my work experience as I wanted to a chef at the time ( alas was not to be ). I ended up working in a bakery and being treated like a slave, While the rest of the staff dossed around. I was so tired at the end of the day that I came home and went straight to bed! Work experience is just a bunch of corporate **** , and companies only do it so they can get free slave labour.
 
God, I loved work experience. Working in a lab was amazing and the guys there were trying to get me off my nut on various substances. Playing with mercury and water fights with syringes = great fun too.
 
We've had a couple of work experience people in lately and one of the things we tried to do was let them follow the process of something from start to finish and meet some of the different teams and people involved in producing the end product so they can get an idea of where they fit into the wheel full of cogs.

It didn't take long to give them the overview / set the scene and introduce them and then I think they felt their fairly routine part of it was contributing to something larger. As a result of taking them round a few other teams they also got the opportunity to go to a different one for the day. Naturally its easier in a bigger company but I still think its worth giving a context.

All the ones we have had have been fine but they are usually relatives of people who are there, so I guess they'd get their arse kicked if they just lazed around.
 
I just finished my university placement year last week, granted it's quite a bit different to the types of placements you do at 18.

What made my year so enjoyable was down to my boss and the team I worked in seeing me as an employee rather than 'someone there to make tea'..

If at all possible, perhaps give him/her something you would actually be doing yourself - maybe even structure a mini project for them to work on over the duration of the placement?

Make them feel like they're valued :)
 
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It's okay to give them menial work for a bit, making tea, hoovering, cleaning or whatever but it was nice to have a lot of variety in what we did and we were given quite a lot of freedom which was nice, for example I did my work experience at a music shop and we got to re-arrange the whole front display with the keys to all of the locked display cabinets. It was great.
 
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