Work Experience (school)

[Ordos]

When I was in high school in the early 2000's we had a program called 'work experience'. This is where they take students to real work environments and mentors there have them do work alongside them. Iv'e heard that most schools just randomly assign children to a workplace weather they like the job or not. Like taking it out of a hat. I was very lucky though. They had everyone list four jobs they might want when they leave school and college. From the job they desire the most at number 1 to the job they desire the least at number 4. Then they assigned the students to the workplaces they have available closest to what the students aspire to. 

I listed 1. author/writer 2. teacher 3. doctor 4. toll collector

Growing up I always wanted to be a writer. Today I've written three unpublished books and work as a librarian. At the time I wrote teacher for number 2 because I realized that before getting a stable income from writing, one must have another source of income so the next best thing in my opinion was extending my knowledge to others. I wrote doctor third because I simply had to fill the blanks and doctor seemed like a respectable profession. Then number 4 was toll collector. This I did semi-jokingly. I wanted to get a reaction from my teachers when reading what I filled in. I had a passing curiosity looking at toll collectors about what their job is like. The following school year, my brother went through the program and he told me that the teacher told the class 'If you want to be a toll collector, I don't care. I will put you in a toll booth if that's what you want'.

Eventually I was assigned to work at a fashion magazine with two other classmates writing articles for 3 days. It was a dull 3 days and none of what I wrote actually made it into the magazine. My work space was a cubicle desk in an office building. Nevertheless I found it to be an interesting exercise. 

So, has anyone else had a program like this when they were in school? Did you like it or hate it? They are probably a lot more common in post-high school education.

[peterbound]

Yes, but it was more blue collar.  

[Theda Baratheon]

Ya - they did this in my School. They didn't assign jobs though, you had to ask around town if anyone would offer you work experience for a week. 

[HexMachina]

Ya - they did this in my School. They didn't assign jobs though, you had to ask around town if anyone would offer you work experience for a week. 

Edit: At my school, Unless your parents were in some kind of managerial position and could get you a week experience at their workplace, you got assigned to somewhere thd school had an arrangement with, like the Council etc. Most in my school inevitably ended up spending a week making tea/coffee, refilling printer paper and if you were really fortunate you learned to fill a vending machine. I dont think the school still does it and tbh i cant say i blame them. Colossal waste of time

[Iskaral Pust]

So I've seen two different aspects of this, less and more involved than the OP example.

In university, a 6-month, relevant, professional internship (paid or unpaid) was a requirement to graduate from my program (financial & actuarial math), and the careers office assisted with placements if needed.  The 3rd academic year finished early in March to allow for the six month placement before starting the 4th academic year.  Personally, I found my own relevant, professional internships every summer of university (and my last two summers of high school), but for some people in my class this was when they took a break from retail summer jobs to get some relevant experience.  I had a great experience -- I worked six months as a quant for a FX hedge fund, and stayed on with them part-time during my 4th year -- but the lumpen class members ended up in dull make-work positions, which did, in fairness, prove to be good preparation for their careers.  The important thing is that in all of my internships I did actual work of value; sure the first summer was just photocopying and data-entry, but then I moved on to management accounting (pre-uni), actuarial calculations and projections, actuarial model development and finally hedge fund quant model development; and all tried to persuade me to stay on permanently rather than return to uni.  They weren't just pandering to me or my school.  And I found all the jobs directly myself

Just recently, my son's private school (K-8) asked parents throughout the school to participate in a program to host some 8th graders for a day at their workplace to give them exposure to the professional world. A colleague of mine also has his son at this school so he registered us to host any 8th graders interested in investments.  We scheduled a day of meetings for them to ask people about what they do and how they got there.  The kids were so clueless about the professional world that I guess it must have been a good learning experience.

But I can't imagine hosting high school kids for anything longer than a day or two for exposure.  Who would spend their time mentoring kids who cannot do any actual work?  It sounds like a waste of time on both sides unless they have enough skills to actually contribute to a job.  I have a tough enough time finding discrete, short learning curve, projects for very accomplished university interns to do.  As I finished high school I was easily strong enough at accounting for a summer job in management accounting, but I cannot think of many non-menial jobs that could be done by a high school kid.

[deleted01]

I ended up working in a shop. Our school gave us the option to find our own placement, or to stay at school and help a teacher during that week. They provided zero help in finding a placement. Nobody wants a snotty 15 year old in their workplace. So I ended up folding jumpers for a week in a clothes shop. 

What did I learn? That I'm not cut out for retail. 

[Theda Baratheon]

I didn't get a placement lmao - I just spent a week playing sports and doing IT stuff with the rest of the people with no placements  it was a waste of time for my mates who did work experience as well as they weren't really allowed to do anything. 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

When I did work experience when I was 14,  my friend wanted to be a Nursery Teacher when she left school.  She wanted to do work experience in an office mind to try something else.  I was certain she would hate being a Nursery Teacher every day my Mum was one and during school holidays I would help her out for one day a holiday, although it was kinda fun, I was so glad It was just a day.  I pursued her to get a Nursery placement,  she did and hated it.   She then chose a different carer path, so I guess she did learn something valuable during her work experience.

I did my work experience with the Local council planning department.  I was regularly taken out to graded buildings where they would discuss the plans.   I learnt that if you provide a very nice meal and discuss the planning officers kids school latest fundraiser then your building plans are looked on much more favorably, and No absolutely Not, turns into, well lets talk about it and maybe we can reach adjust the plans a bit.     

One of the places we made several trips to was this brick gatehouse that was being restored,  one of the things I did was chart the types / colours of bricks and note some missing ones.  then I had to draw this afterwards back in the office.  this was latter published and the article sent to me a few months after I left. The drawing had my name credited to it which I found kinda cool. I also did my share of filing, photocopying and stuffing envelopes.   I learnt that if you where polite and showed an interest they would try to take you out and show you interesting stuff.  I was there for three weeks, and I felt they liked me,  on the last day I walked in on them organizing a surprise thank you card and chocolates for me,  so I snuck back out and waited 5 mins, before re-entering and making noise.   I found the experiance interesting, and mostly worthwhile.

 

 

I've also been on the other side,  we regularly get the odd work experience kid in our office,  these vary greatly.  You get those that want to be he and are engaged,  - these we make much more effort with and try to give them some projects,  we have some programming tasks we have we keep on file for them.  (nothing we need doing, but they are nice little exercises that they can research answers too, and think they are contributing to us (we lie to them and tell them we actually need this done, and is not something we created to keep them occupied), its something to challenge them.   we also take them out on our jobs as much as possible.   Then you have those that are here, because they have to be somewhere.  these kids don't want to be here, are not interested and remain board for the whole time.  - the most memorable one of those was the Goodkin fan, we barely got 2 words out of him at a time.  talking to him was painful, until one of my colleges stubbed on his reading tastes.  That provided an amusing afternoon when he was passed on to me, cos I read fantasy.

 

the thing about work experience,  you get out of it what you put in.   If you show willing and interest, then people will do their best to involve and engage you.   But if you show you don't want to be there, then well they won't want you either and you will be dumped in a corner doing menial work.

[Which Tyler]

the thing about work experience,  you get out of it what you put in.   If you show willing and interest, then people will do their best to involve and engage you.   But if you show you don't want to be there, then well they won't want you either and you will be dumped in a corner doing menial work.

Exactly this.

I had a great time doing my work experience, and I do my best to reproduce that for the work experience kids I take on each year; but ultimately, they'll only get something out of it if they put something into it. In my experience the kids (or their parents) sort it out, the school then holds a list of willing businesses for the kids to select from; and will only arrange placements for those who failed to arrange their own. If you can't be bothered to arrange your own, it's pretty inevitable you won't want to be there, won't put anything into it, and won't get anything out of it

I'm a chiropractor, so I can't have the kids treating patients, or being hands-on in any real way, but I only have them doing the more menial / admin side of things when a patient doesn't want them in the room (or to show them that there's more to the job than treating patients). Vast majority of the time they stand in the corner, watch and learn, ask questions etc - just as I did when doing work experience, both officially and off my own bat when deciding what I wanted to do at Uni. Compulsory WE was 1 week, I think I must have done about 12 over the course of a couple of years.

An interested kid will ask questions in front of patients, try to understand what I'm doing, take an interest in things I'm telling patients and try to work out why I say the shit that I do and ask more detailed questions later. A disinterested kid will stand in the corner, twiddle their thumbs, probably not bother turning up more than a couple of days and be impossible to engage (I've only had 1 kid that bad; though I've a feeling one of this year's might be like that). Guess who gets more out of the experience? Guess what I encourage the kids to do? On my half-day I always ask the kids to bring a parent or some such in with them to use as a practice patient, so that they can do some hands-on stuff; do some massage, some diagnostic tests etc, and I'll walk them through, guess which 1 kid didn't bother?

FTR patients generally love having the kids in too - as they get much more of an explanation of what's going on as well (and yes, I have to allow an extra 50% time for each appointment)

[polishgenius]

My school put lots of effort into getting us placements as far as I can tell. I mean they mostly weren't some amazing thing (I was in a fencing company office for a week) but we didn't have to find them ourselves (though we could) and they weren't just in shops. And we actually did shit, even if not that important shit. They wanted me answer the phone, ffs, which (a) I found terrifying at the time  and (b) could have made them look bad, though as it happened the phone never went off while I was in front on my own. 

[HexMachina]

I understand what some of you say about getting out what you put in, and agree to an extent, but some companies just really don't have the time of day for a 15 year old school kid in their office. Can't entirely blame them, but in that situation it doesn't matter how much you try to show enthusiasm, you aren't going to get much out of it

[Pebble thats Stubby]

I understand what some of you say about getting out what you put in, and agree to an extent, but some companies just really don't have the time of day for a 15 year old school kid in their office. Can't entirely blame them, but in that situation it doesn't matter how much you try to show enthusiasm, you aren't going to get much out of it

If a company does not have the time to host a kid for work experience then then should refuse.  I know often its the high ups in the company that say yes or enroll in the work experience programs and the kids are dumped on the ones lower down the chain, who really did not have much say.  But I feel its the companies responsibility to check that they can put the time in before they say yes, and that means talking and listening to what their employees say about it.    Companies have a responsibility here too,  I know they have busy periods and more quiet ones,  maybe they can only take kids during the quiet times when they can take the time.

 

also I believe the schools should review the placements after the work experience to check it was a positive experience  and the people looking after the kids are actually up to it.

 

 

When I did work experience we had a check up by a teacher about a week though  (we did it for 3 weeks)  a couple of kids where removed from their placements and sent to a different company because of this.

[JonSnow4President]

My high school didn't (at least not on the university track diploma plan.  The trade track diploma plan might have), but a girl I worked with at the job I had in high school/breaks in college did.  For our school district, it was essentially a study hall period at the end of the day unless you had a job, which you could get credit for if you had it for a certain percentage of days employed.  You'd just leave school earlier and go to whatever job you had.  It didn't matter if you were a cashier at a pizza place (my coworker), a sign spinner, a car washer, or a runner for a legal office.  Work was work.  

My university was a different story.  I did a degree in accounting, and then I went into a 5 year Master's program.  Although I don't believe it was technically required, our Junior spring semester was set up to give us a 10 week internship with one of the public accounting firms within our specific track (IT focused was a semester earlier, audit focused January - early March, Tax late February - May) during what is the busiest time of the year for those areas.  I went to a 50,000+ student university, and our 5 year master's program had 200+ preselected accounting students who interviewed well and were qualified enough to make it into the Master's program (156 credit hours).  Since the CPA requires 150 credit hours, those type of programs are the easiest way to target a lot of potential recruits in a cost effective manner.  So all the big firms sent people to sell students on why their firm was better for them and their careers.  My interviews were essentially "this is why EY, PWC, KPMG, etc. would fit with you," and not "why are you good with EY."  The vast majority (something like 98%) got internships, which counted for 8 hours of university credit.  The program was designed to where we took a minimester for the part of the semester we weren't working.  

For my internship at least, it was highly relevant.  While I didn't do any complicated auditing, I set up a lot of workpapers for the senior to actually analyze, did some of the more basic test of controls, met with clients, and in general owned the areas I had to work.  As a second year full time staff now, it was very low level stuff, but it was a critical foundation piece to how the firm operates and it saves a lot of the more experienced team member's time.  With my specific firm, something like 95% (and 100% of my university's interns) got permanent job offers. One of our interns was relegated to little more than making copies and fetching dinner my first full time year, but our second intern actually just took over whole sections of the audit as if he was a first year staff, and worked alongside us right until quitting time at midnight.

Within my world, it can be highly, highly relevant work experience, and beneficial to both the firm and the intern.  It also helped the school make more money to fund research or supplement other academic areas (let's just say the companies dumped a lot of money into it)

[deleted01]

If a company does not have the time to host a kid for work experience then then should refuse.  I know often its the high ups in the company that say yes or enroll in the work experience programs and the kids are dumped on the ones lower down the chain, who really did not have much say.  But I feel its the companies responsibility to check that they can put the time in before they say yes, and that means talking and listening to what their employees say about it.    Companies have a responsibility here too,  I know they have busy periods and more quiet ones,  maybe they can only take kids during the quiet times when they can take the time.

 

also I believe the schools should review the placements after the work experience to check it was a positive experience  and the people looking after the kids are actually up to it.

 

 

When I did work experience we had a check up by a teacher about a week though  (we did it for 3 weeks)  a couple of kids where removed from their placements and sent to a different company because of this.

See, during my work experience, I was made to do things that were not only dangerous, but also highly illegal. I had to clean the stock room, which involved climbing a ladder (hello health and safety!) and other things I couldn't/shouldn't have done. We filled in a questionnaire afterwards, and I said all of this, but nothing was done about it. My school was pretty shit, and they didn't give a shit. And the shop manager was a horrid woman.

What 15 year old really knows what they want to do? It's rare. So work experience is usually a colossal waste of time.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

See, during my work experience, I was made to do things that were not only dangerous, but also highly illegal. I had to clean the stock room, which involved climbing a ladder (hello health and safety!) and other things I couldn't/shouldn't have done. We filled in a questionnaire afterwards, and I said all of this, but nothing was done about it. My school was pretty shit, and they didn't give a shit. And the shop manager was a horrid woman.

What 15 year old really knows what they want to do? It's rare. So work experience is usually a colossal waste of time.

Drac,  If you had gone to my School and that had happened.  You would have been removed from that placement when the teacher visited.  - Providing you actually mentioned it to the Teacher and didn't lie and pretend everything was fantastic.   The Shop would then have been removed from future possible placements.

I don't think you need to know what you want to do to get something out of the work experience.   You get a taste of what the real world is like, you get to see how business works from the inside and what is expected of workers.  You have to talk to people you wouldn't normally mix with.   For a lot of kids this can be very valuable.   

now depending on where you end up, you get a taste of either a big company or a small one.   a small one you get to see the varied roles that a few people will have to do. with a lot of different stuff going on all in the same place.  You will learn what its like there.   with a big company then you generally get to see just one department, everyone doing similar related task.  you may even get a taste of the inter-office bureaucracy.  You may even get a taste of cubical life.   

although this won't necessary help you decide what field you want to work in,  it can help you work out what kind of business you do/don't want.   Big company / Small Company.     Office based / Non Office based.

depending on the placement they may get a feel for some of the different jobs,  they might see something that sparks an interest, then they can ask questions.  They may meet some really unhappy workers, and get told what that job is really like which may encourage them to look at something else.

When we have a work experience kid,  we do what we can to show them the whole plant, not just our office, (if you don't know I work in IT in a factory that makes car engines)   We show them the rest of the factory,  we talk to the people running the machines that make the parts,  we talk to the people that fix the machines.  We talk to the line workers who just bolt the same part to the engines all shift long.   we talk to the support staff and the other non production departments.   One thing a lot of the kids come away with, is that with no decent grades you end up with a really shit job.  This is something they kinda knew but never truly appreciated until then.    

While in our department they learn how to talk to our customers, and just how thick some of them are, and how not to show that when speaking to the customer.  The learn how our IT department and jobs really are,  that we don't do a lot of development and programming, since we are a support department.  They learn that we can't do a lot of the stuff that we want to, because we are such a big company and its not the global standard.  They learn the frustration that comes from a big company where one size fits all and one of your hands is always tied behind you back cos someone upstream just made your job so much harder for no real reason.  there is so much value they can get from work experience if both the kid shows an interest and the company have the time.

I'm sorry yours was such a disaster,  However I believe you learnt that you don't want to work in retail.  You also learnt that if you don't stand up for yourself you will probably be exploited and pressured to just get the job done, safety comes 2nd in practice despite what our official policy is, and don't let us catch you!  You should have learnt that the only person who genuinely will look out for you is Yourself. 

[Ordos]

I'm sorry, I remember now. It was four days not three days.

Interesting to read your experiences. Peb, if I may comment on the part about putting effort and enthusiasm in, I think I shirked one responsibility during my work experience. There was a landline phone on the desk I was using. The desk belonged to a person who either took a few days off so the work experience kids can use his/her desk or worked in another station while my classmates and I were there. The phone kept ringing every few hours and I refused to answer it because I assumed they would want to talk to the absent desk owner or to somebody in the office I did not know by name. My classmate and my mentor told me "You can answer that if you want you know".

[Which Tyler]

I assume you're just using bad examples here Drac.s - since when was climbing a ladder illegal? (an unsafe, rickety ladder, yes, but not "climbing a ladder") since when is cleaning a stock room highly dangerous? (toxic chemicals in an enclosed space with poor ventilation, yes, but not "clean the stock room"). To me, that sounds exactly the sort of task to set the work experience kid - alongside a regular employee who can make sure it's done safely and correctly, and can have a conversation with the kid about what non-school-work entails.

Sounds to me like you learned what junior employees on minimum wage are expected to do. Or do you think that stock rooms go uncleaned for eternity?

Of course, it also sounds like the sort of "busy work" a bad placement would give to the kid because they can't think of anything else to give them; the difference is in the way it's handled not in the activity itself.

As for your last comment, I think you may possibly have missed the point of work experience aged 15; which is not to have something to put on your CV, but to get some experience of life in a working environment - sounds to me like you did, and didn't enjoy that particular environment, and can take the lesson to try for a different type of job.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

I chose to give Drac the benefit of the any doubt about the ladder.  After all we don't know what type of Ladder was used, (Wooden / fiberglass step ladders = Good,  metal step ladders = Bad,  Lean to Ladders should be tied off at the top or someone should be footing the ladder)  We don't know the condition of the ladder, if it was within its inspection date.  We don't know if the ladder was tall enough since Drac is not a Tall person and was a child then.  We don't know if Drac had to lean out from the ladder.  or lift heavy objects, or objects above shoulder height when on the ladder, or had to use more than one hand to pick up objects.  

Thing is Drac felt it was unsafe.  Hopefully she mentioned this at the time and didn't just suck it up.  The Store Manager should then have re-assesed the risks with Drac to see if it was unsafe for her to do.  Maybe the store manager afterward would still stay it was a safe thing to do.  In that case if Drac still felt it was unsafe she still had the option of point blankly refusing - these do come with consuquences, in the real workplace you may end up being sacked.  Thats a dilemma a lot of people in the workforce have to face far too regularly. and still it provided Drac with a valuable lesson.

Now I work for a big company, so the rules are a little more different, but no-one under the age of 18 will get a working a height permit, so Drac would not have been allowed to work at more than 30 cm of the ground. So she could stand on a low level platform (not a box mind cos they are not designed for standing on)

 

However Drac also mentioned "other things that I couldnt/shouldn't do"  Since she never expanded on this I take her at her word.   

Drac felt the work she was given was unsafe and unsuitable.    and the store manager and school did not care.  At the very least they should have reviewed the situation with her.  and talked about why she felt this way.

 

But yes she did learn what a low paid worker is expected to do.  and that in itself is a very valuable lesson.

[Jo498]

We had to do this for two weeks in 10th grade (I think), so at about 15. One was supposed to find such an internship position by oneself or if one did not the school provided one. I was fairly lazy about that and too late at the public library when I asked.

So I went with a younger friend of my parents who was a civil engineer. I never had to do menial work and it was overall fairly interesting. They treated me more or less like someone starting an apprenticeship as a draughtsman and gave me little tasks to draw and also little math exercises. This was in 1987 before CAD became widespread (the leading engineers had a computer or two but did most of their stuff with pocket calculators, I think) so people were still draughting blueprints on huge boards.

Because trigonometry was only taught in the following semester in my school he had to teach me the basics of that and then I could solve little toybook examples in statics. I also received a tour of the firm but overall it was more like sligthly different school (in technical drawing and construction) than work.

[JonSnow4President]

I chose to give Drac the benefit of the any doubt about the ladder.  After all we don't know what type of Ladder was used, (Wooden / fiberglass step ladders = Good,  metal step ladders = Bad,  

Not that this is really on topic, but why are metal ladders bad?  The only ever one's I've used were light and sturdy, as opposed to a couple less than ideal wooden ladders (always heavier, they tended to be less stable, and I have a 4 inch scar on the back of my leg where one violently attacked me.)

I do agree though that if she felt unsafe, she should have said something.  It may not have been reasonable, but I know my boss at my minimum wage high school job was willing to work with me on something I didn't feel safe doing, even though others didn't have a problem doing it.  I also have to agree with Tyler that her task doesn't seem unreasonable at all.