Work Experience

Work Experience Alternatives

As important as work experience is, sometimes it can be tricky to find a placement. You may need to look at work experience alternatives in order to explore industries and careers that you’re interested in. Here are some work experience alternatives you might like to check out.

Top 5 work experience alternatives

If you can’t find any work experience through school or other channels, there are a few other options that could provide you with either some experience or at the very least a better understanding of some of the jobs and careers out there.

Virtual Work Experience

Virtual work experience could provide you with:

An opportunity to gain more understanding about what specific businesses do
The chance to find out about different careers that might interest you
Access to companies that you might not normally be allowed into
Better comprehension of business processes and etiquette, as well as your rights and responsibilities
Knowledge of the essential skills you’ll need
The chance to boost your resume with transferable skills, experiences and engagement

A virtual experience could entail anything from a tour or interactive webinar experience, to completing set tasks and receiving personalised feedback.

You could start by reading our Virtual Work Experience post.

Virtual Workplace Tours

Taking virtual workplace tours could give you an idea of what it really looks like to work in an industry that you’re interested in.

SkillsRoad 360 have put together some interviews with people employed in the following industries:

Creative Industries
Construction
Hospitality
Manufacturing
Healthcare

Take a virtual tour of the Australian Defence Academy (ADFA) or Royal Australian Naval College’s Navy’s New Entry Officers Course (NEOC).

WorkForce Windsor-Essex are a Canadian company who’ve created a few videos about companies representing the following industries:

Industrial
Carpentry
Electrical designers, engineers and technicians
Hospitality
Auto Manufacturing
Vegetable Growers

Check out this Toyota Automotive Workshop Virtual Tour in Queenstown, NZ. Or take a peek inside Parliament House in another Virtual Tour.

Listen to Podcasts

There are plenty of valuable audio experiences to be had too. You could download them and listen to them whenever you have a little bit of time to spare.

Here are a few we’ve found in a quick search:

Major General Susan Coyle CSC, DSM currently working in the Middle East as Commander of Joint Task Force 633 talks about her military career as well as her current mission. There are also plenty of other interviews with Veterans in the Life on the Line
How I built this series investigates the stories behind some of the most well-known companies.
Listening to Career Cloud could help you get tips about the qualities that employers are looking for, hidden job markets, personal brands and even a “how I got my job” segment.
If you’re interested in a career in tech or entrepreneurship, you could pick up some tips in the Rocket Ship FM.
Listen to interviews with people doing interesting and inspiring work in the “How did you get into that?” series.
Aviation Careers, a podcast for anyone interested in the variety of careers in the aviation industry.
Find out about the people who worked to get their dream job and how they got there in Dream Job Ready.
Thirty Minute Mentors lets you hear from some of the most successful people in America.
Learn about what being an engineer is like in Engineering Heroes.

Read about different careers

There are plenty of articles and interviews with people in all kinds of fields, all you need to find them are a few googling skills.

Here’s a few examples to get you started:

You could also take a look at our Job Spotlights too.

A Day in the Life Videos

Watch snapshots of a typical day in different careers, or interviews with people in the job about what they do and how they started their careers.

It’s never too late to get work experience

If you’re in high school and you’re stressing out that you haven’t yet had any work experience, there is plenty of time left.

In the mean time you can have a look at all the options we’ve listed, maybe narrow down your career choices and start looking again in the future.

You could also look at doing workshops, short courses and micro-credential courses that could teach you news skills, illustrate your willingness to learn and add volume to your resume.

Ideas for Work Experience

goIT Girls – Work Experience Program

TCS’ goIT Girls is a week-long work experience program aimed at female students in Years 10 and 11. At TCS, we are empowering Australian students with the skills they need to be ready for the workplace of the future.