The Work Experience Conundrum

Are internships now so commonplace that value should be found elsewhere on the young person’s CV?

“Make sure that you go into the offices and sit there until someone comes and sees you. Don’t move. Don’t let them move you. Go in with a box of chocolates. Any journalist worth their salt will wonder what you are doing sat there, and, of course, be intrigued thanks to their irrepressible desire for those chocolates just sat there.”

This was some of the first advice I had regarding work experience and internships. The bold ‘Don’t-Hold-Back’ approach to get you through the door and into the chairs upstairs. It is one of many methods often advised for all young graduates and students pursuing any number of given career paths: send endless emails, update your LinkedIn profile, and shamelessly tweet away at important professionals until they notice you. As long as by your early 20s, you can boast a plethora of experience in the industry, an unrivalled portfolio of work and relevant employment.

The importance of experience and internships should never be doubted. Nowadays, any job application is underlined with phrases like ‘must have relevant work experience’, or ‘must demonstrate a working knowledge of the field’, or ‘must be able to provide examples of previous employment in this area.’

The myriad of means by which this same vague and crippling statement is recycled and reused is a seemingly virtual slap in the face, even to those with previous background in their chosen area.

The High Fliers’ graduate job survey reinforces this stigma, announcing that the modern graduate stands ‘little chance’ of success without this work experience.

Yet is this prerequisite a restricting and increasingly unfair method to assess applicants? A little over two decades ago, the very idea of work experience was practically unheard of, and now it is ubiquitous on the CVs and cover letters of the recently graduated.

In the same manner that a degree has fast become no real indication of whether the candidate is suitable for employment, could the endless amounts or experience really be a similar mirage, that needs to be culled? Employers are increasingly faced with shiny internships that scream ‘dedication and determination’. Yet for all the bolstering experience provides on a CV, it is not necessarily an indication of how one would fit permanently into a team.

Overcoming this new crisis is something that should be tackled. Of course, it would mean that other valid arguments against work experience – such as the limits of working for free restricting access, and the increasingly competitive nature meaning there are fewer chances for such work – would be vindicated. But the real measure would be to realign the work experience balance, and reintroduced other focuses, prominent before the mid-90s.

Part time jobs and student employment should be regarded just as beneficial as direct involvement in a chosen area for a limited period of time. The skills and competencies gained from these activities are often a more direct indication of the long term ways a person works in a team and reacts to different situations – like the time I accidentally managed to spill a new bottle of milk over a customer for whom I was making a coffee.

Customer service, tactful dealings with difficult or awkward customers and initiative all come to the forefront in a permanent job, where one’s own direction, business skill and awareness of the area come into play, independent of the ‘experience’ umbrella. These candidates have seen first-hand how to operate a business, integrate fully into a team and deal with customer complaints or queries that leaves them better equipped to handle unusual situations in the future.

Of course, experience in your own area of interest is vital, and should remain important in the application process. But now that companies are inundated with almost comparable experiences as well as similar degrees, other practical experience needs to be reinstated as an essential recruitment tool.

Not that I will deny how far a box of chocolates can get you in breaking the ice with a prospective employer.