How to get work experience if you are still a student
Miscellaneous / / July 17, 2023
Internships, competitions and your own projects - you can hone your skills in practice in parallel with your studies at the university.
How to gain the necessary experience
1. Get an internship
Often students combine their studies with the work of a waiter, salesman or sales manager. This option allows you to earn extra money, but if after receiving a diploma you want to work in your specialty, it is better to immediately look for vacancies in this area. Sometimes companies are ready to take on newcomers without experience, because they want to “grow” an employee for themselves. It can be easier to instill specific approaches to work in a novice than to remake an already established professional.
Some companies offer internships that involve learning under the supervision of an experienced employee. She can last from 1 to 6 months. For this period with you must conclude fixed-term employment contract. Specify how long you need to be at the workplace. Often the company agrees to part-time and flexible hours. But there are exceptions. If an internship requires full-time employment, it can be difficult to combine it with studies.
In addition, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the internship program - it should indicate what you will be taught and which employee is responsible for this. It is important that your responsibilities match your professional goals. If you have to print documents and bring coffee at work, the internship is unlikely to be of any use.
2. Participate in contests
Sometimes companies hold competitions and hackathons to find talented young professionals and invite them to work. Not only programmers, but also designers, managers, analysts and representatives of other professions can participate in them. For several days, teams work on the same task: for example, they can write a program for accounting finance, come up with an application to develop eco-habits or look for a solution that will make mining easier oil.
By the way, competitions also help to train soft skills, for example, teamwork. After all, often several people work on the same task. Even if your idea does not win, participation can be noted in the resume.
3. Start your project
You can turn your hobby into a source of income. Even if after university you want to get a job in your specialty, and your hobby is not connected with it, experience in entrepreneurship will show you as a responsible and hardworking person. And you can implement a project that correlates with the future profession. Let's say an English teacher can open online courses for children, and a programmer can develop applications and websites. Your business will allow you to train the skills of team management, delegation, time planning. You can also meet other entrepreneurs who will support you with advice.
Work on your project Can and at the university. Starting September 1, 100 Russian universities will launch the "Teaching by Service" course. The educational program will include hours during which students will be able to create community projects in their specialty and defend them as a diploma. The technique has already been tested in various areas - from social and psychological work and engineering to IT and medicine.
4. Use dating
Relatives or friends often become the first clients of novice specialists. For example, you can design a logo for your uncle's company or teach math to a neighbor's kid. Feel free to write in social networks that you are looking for a part-time job.
You can attend professional conferences or the same hackathons and communicate there with people from your field. It is possible that one of the new acquaintances will work in a company where interns are required and will recommend you.
What to do before meeting with the employer
If you are looking for an internship, you need to prepare. Companies can consider dozens of candidates at the same time, so a raw resume or lack of initiative in an interview will do you a disservice.
1. Work on your resume
Indicate in it your education, courses and trainings that correspond to the desired position. Let's say if you want to work as a lawyer, note that you took a specialized English language program and can translate documents with legal terms. But a course in carpentry or cutting and sewing is not required.
Do not forget to add your contacts: phone number, email and instant messengers or social networks. It is better to replace funny nicknames in accounts with a real first and last name, so that it would be easier for HRs to identify you. Be concise: Ideally, a resume should fit on one page.
2. Get ready to take the test
Typically, this is a small task, similar to those that you have to deal with at work. This will help you get to know the area where you want to work, and understand what the employer expects from you. And yet, even if they don’t invite you to work, you can put the completed task in your portfolio. To understand what you have to deal with, try to find reviews from existing employees: in such stories you can find descriptions of interviews and test tasks.
Feel free to ask for feedback. Companies rarely write what was wrong in the test, preferring to simply refuse the candidate. But if you ask directly, there is a chance to get a more detailed answer and understand what skills need to be improved.
You should refuse if the task will take several days to complete or it is related to the company's real product. The purpose of the test is to demonstrate your skills, but you should not do work for employees for free.
3. Practice interviewing
If you have a friend who works in a specialty of interest, ask him what questions are most often asked at an interview. Think about your answers ahead of time. For example, a recruiter will likely ask you to describe yourself, point out your strengths and weaknesses, and explain why you want to work for this company. Before the meeting, study the activities of the enterprise and highlight what you liked. Let's say you can mark that you have used a company's product or subscribed to its social media accounts.
In some areas, you will have to pass a technical interview - this approach is often practiced by IT companies. To prepare, use special services where you can solve coding tasks and even watch recordings of real interviews.
4. Determine your desired salary
Not all employers are ready to hire a person without real experience, and therefore they are unlikely to immediately offer a lot of money. But this does not mean that you should immediately refuse such vacancies. Think about what the company will give you, in addition to money: there may be a chance to learn from professionals with many years of experience. Also, study the vacancies and estimate the average salaries in the market for candidates without experience. If asked to independently estimate the cost of their work, it will be easier to name the exact amount.