Work Experience Placements - The Basics

Our guide to finding yourself some essential work experience.

Okay, so you may not earn any money from doing work experience but it’s a great future investment. Get your foot in the door for a career that you really want and vastly improve your chances of making it. You may want to work for a major blue chip company or a smaller business, or perhaps you want to work in television or gain experience in your chosen degree subject - shadowing someone already doing that role is a great way to gain the experience you need.

You can find work experience in the UK under your own steam by applying for the many school leaver or graduate schemes available - our key companies section is a good place to start. Or you could write a speculative letter to some of the companies in your area (see below for some handy hints). If you want to travel, you can still gain experience, either in a voluntary role or in a role that wil pay - take at look at our activities section for more details on volunteering projects.

Who'll give me work experience?

It's worth getting in touch with any company in any country or profession that you are interested in - the worst that will happen is that they'll say no!

Use our great new job sections to get in touch with companies and agencies in Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Europe and the USA

We also highly reccommend getting in touch with the following companies:

Accenture
PwC
Jaguar
Deloitte

go back