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Unpaid Work Placements

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:19 pm
by zenabi
To get my foot in the door, I am thinking of getting experience by doing some unpaid work for design companies.

To anyone that has done this, what is the best way to approach companies and what work can I expect from it? Will I be involved with a full project, or just a part of it? Will I contribute a lot, or will I be mainly work-shadowing?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

To the forum admins: If this thread belongs in another forum please feel free to move it.

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:52 pm
by kettle_drum
What area of the UK are you in?

Re: Unpaid Work Placements

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:41 pm
by patrikG
zenabi wrote:To get my foot in the door, I am thinking of getting experience by doing some unpaid work for design companies.

To anyone that has done this, what is the best way to approach companies and what work can I expect from it?
Very difficult to say, as each company is different - you're experiences will depend very much on what you want to get out of them. My piece of advice for this is really: be very clear what it actually is you want to learn, before you start and try to find it. Do you have any specific skills you would like to learn? Any particular preferences?

If that's the case, chances are that you are at least ok, possibly quite good or better at them already. If that's the case, you probably are enthusiastic about learning more and becoming more skillful. That in itself is something very valuable - especially if you're trying to get your foot in the door.
Will I be involved with a full project, or just a part of it? Will I contribute a lot, or will I be mainly work-shadowing?
I don't know your skills nor your skill-level - if I was in your shoes I wouldn't expect to be involved in a full project unless you get very lucky. Learn by proxy - I've learned so much and so many skills from the people
I've worked with. Small project are not that different from big projects if done properly and you could learn even more when helping with a small project compared to being a cog in the wheel of a big project.

Maybe start with helping out, do some volunteer work (have a look at the volunteer forum - good place to get experience) so you can claim to have experience in this that and the other.

If you want to go professional (and paid), and you lived in London, for example, there'd be plenty of stuff to do. Get yourself signed up on http://www.jobserve.com to get a feel for the industry. Don't let the bloodsucking agencies talk you into a job you're ambiguous about - be very clear about what you want, why you want it and how. If you can't get it, make some compromises until you do. Remember: job-agents are like head-hunters, they get paid for the kill (i.e. successful job-allocation). They will try everything, including lying, to get one of their candidates that job. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are rare.

Good luck.

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:02 pm
by feyd
Moved to The Enterprise.