7 Mistakes to Avoid During Your Work Experience

This blog post is all about things not to do during your work experience.

It feels like yesterday that I was trying to find my way around the streets of Belfast and nervously rang the bell to the PR agency I would be interning at for a week during my AS year.

That was five years ago now. And I’ve come such a long way from being that shy, ‘What the hell am I doing here?!’ girl who had no idea what on earth PR even was.

From interning at a lot of other places since, there are a lot of things I would change about the way I carried out my work experience back then.

So I thought I’d write about some things I would try and avoid doing when on work experience. And some things to make sure that you do, do.

1. Don’t Forget to Research the Company You’re Interning At

It’s not only embarrassing to not have a clue what the company does or what brands they work with, it’s ignorant.

The people that have hired you for the week will expect you to know a thing or two about the company you’ve come to work for. Otherwise you’ll seem unprepared and just uninterested.

2. Don’t be Late

This one I shouldn’t have to list, but it’s probably one of the most important.

I don’t know what it is but I seem to have this genuine fear of being late, especially when it comes to things like work experience or internships.

I usually turn up half an hour early for things like this just in case there’s delays on the trains, bad traffic, I can’t find the office or a freak accident.

None of these things ever happen but it’s always better to be early than late, right? Even if you are there an hour before sunrise.

Being early shows respect to the people you’re working for.

It also helps with your nerves as once you have found the office and signed in, you can calm down as you have time before you meet the manager/owner.

Maybe you get there so early, you can grab a Starbucks before you head to the office. Win win, am I right?

3. Don’t be Unprepared

Before you start your work experience, email beforehand asking if you need to bring a laptop with you or if one will be provided.

Bring a notebook and a few pens.

This may seem like a minor thing, but when you get there and need to take notes and realise you haven’t brought a pen with you – you’re going to look pretty stupid.

4. Don’t be Underdressed

Especially on the first day.

If you’re unsure about the dress-code of the office, it’s always safer to turn up dressed professionally, rather than too casual. It’s always better to feel overdressed than underdressed, trust me.

If you’re working in a fashion/beauty PR office, maybe ditch the heels for the first day.

You might be running over town or on your feet for a lot of the day, so heels wouldn’t be very practical.

Get a sense of the dress code on the first day and take the rest of the week from there.

You might have this vision of everyone running around in Chanel clothing and Louboutins but trust me, it’s more Stan Smiths and jeans than designer heels. But don’t take my word for it.

This is only from the experience I’ve had. If you’re interning at Vogue, things may be different there.

Your first day is also your first impression, so it’s always good to look smart.

5. Don’t be Afraid to Speak

I was terrified during my first work experience at a PR agency.

I was 15 and had never seen the inside of an office before. My mum worked in a hotel and to this day I’ve never actually seen the building that my dad works in, never mind being inside his office. He could be unemployed for all I know and spend every day playing golf.

I had nowhere near the confidence I have now. I couldn’t go up to a stranger and initiate a full blown conversation.

Any task I was assigned, I did it. Quietly.

I would then email the girl who looked after the interns when she was sat at the other side of the same room and ask if there was anything else I could help with.

She was sat a stone’s throw away from me but I felt uncomfortable breaking the silence of the room. Afraid my voice would crack and I would then die of embarrassment.

Don’t be afraid to ask if you can help with anything. Even if it is via email.

The worst thing you can do is sit there doing nothing. Your work experience is your time to learn and experience everything you can about a certain industry so that you have a good understanding for your future career path.

If you do sit there on your phone, or doing nothing at all, the manager will assume you don’t want to be there and you will seem like a waste of their time and your time.

Make the most of your five days. They’ll be over before you know it.

6. Don’t Forget to Say Thank You

These people have opened up their office to you for five days, let you see how they work and the secrets that happen inside those four walls.

Let them know you appreciate the insight and their time that they have given you.

You can do this by bringing in sweets on your last day (this always seems to be a winner), a thank you card or a thank you email once you have left.

You can even pop a ‘PS. Would it be possible to get a short reference for my last five days?’ I would recommend doing this if you’ve made a good impression and the team liked you.

Hopefully the sweets will help with this one.

7. Don’t Forget to Enjoy It

Hopefully the industry you’re interning with is in a field that you are interested in. Otherwise, what’s the point of you being there?

If it’s something you’re passionate about and intrigued by, ask questions. Make the most of working with people in this industry.

Ask questions, ask about how they got to their position, what they love about it and what they don’t like about it.

You want to get as much of an insight as possible so it’s always good to hear the negative parts of the job as well as the good parts, to see if it would really suit you.

Try not to think of your 5 day work experience as a 5 day prison sentence.

Those five days will fly past and you don’t want to regret sitting in a corner and getting nothing out of it. Don’t let the week be a waste of time for you and the employer.

Be productive, help out with as much as you can and you might just realise you’ve found your dream job.

Oh and make sure you connect with people on LinkedIn afterwards. It’s always good to have them as a contact for the future.

Work Experience is Everything

I’ve always spoke of how important work experience and internships are to your future career.

Not only does it look good on your CV, it allows you to get a better understanding of what you want to do in the future. Don’t think of the work experience as another stint to add to your list.

Choose companies that interest you, within industries that you think you want to work in. I was always good at math at school and thought accountancy would be a reasonable career choice.

Working with numbers, good opportunities for jobs, stable income and I also have family members that are accountants. It seemed like the right choice for me.

That’s until I spent two days gaining work experience in an accountancy firm. And made a swift U-turn on that career path.

Sitting in an office 9-5, working with numbers for the rest of my life, I soon realised, would be my worst nightmare. Hugely relieved I switched those Accountancy course options to Public Relations.

So there you go. You might think that a certain job is perfect for you. But until you actually try it out and see what it’s really like, you’ll never really know.

There are a few posts on my blog detailing work experiences and interning opportunities I’ve had.

You can find them below:

• One week interning at Influential PR, Liverpool
• Six months as Internal Communications Assistant at MDIS, Liverpool
• Four weeks interning at Bold Management, Liverpool
• One week interning at London Fashion Agency, London

And of course, I’ve been detailing my entire placement year in monthly roundups. You can find these here: London Placement Year