Doing paid or unpaid work experience while you are at university is a great way to increase your awareness of the range of potential jobs that you can enter after finishing your degree. It demonstrates that you have taken initiative in exploring your career options, and in expanding your current skill and knowledge base.

It also provides you with practical skills and knowledge, to complement the theoretical component of your degree. It may also lead to a permanent paid position, or provide you with some useful contacts in the relevant area of work. Lastly, it looks impressive on your resume, and can provide you with useful examples of your past experiences which allows you to provide examples to employers which demonstrate that you have developed the generic skills that they require, and how you have demonstrated these skills.

Visit UNSW Careers and Employment website www.careers.unsw.edu.au for excellent information and workshop sessions covering a range of career management and job-finding strategies.

These include:

• Job listings and job search strategies
  
• Resume and cover letter preparation
  
• Professional presentation
  
• Interview preparation and skills
  
• Assessing your own skills
  

And lots more!!

Before searching for work experience, it is useful to consider several questions:

1. What do I hope to gain from working in this area?

Perhaps you are unsure as to which area of psychology in which you would eventually like to specialise. Working in a particular area can provide you with some insight into your strengths and weaknesses, areas for development, and likes and dislikes. If you are planning to pursue postgraduate study, doing some work experience can help you make a decision about which Masters course that you would like to enroll in.

2. What value can I add to the workplace?

You may be surprised by the amount that you have actually learned so far during your psychology degree! Often you only become aware of the skills and knowledge that you have acquired when you put them into practice. So, maintain a sense of self-confidence in your abilities, when considering different avenues of work experience.

3. What skills and knowledge do I want to use and develop?

Write a list of the competencies that you wish to utilise. This can help you select work experience that is suitable for using and developing these skills.

For example,

• Research and statistical skills

It would be useful to try to find some experience within various research settings, which may involve research design and data analysis.

• Psychological assessment skills

You may be able to get some experience in psychological test administration and scoring. This also provides you with useful skills in developing rapport with clients.

• Counselling and communication skills

It may be difficult to get “practical” work experience in the counselling area, due to ethical reasons and the need for registration requirements. However, Honours level students are often able to enroll in phone counselling services that may provide training courses for the volunteer.

4. How can I monitor my skill development?

Throughout your work experience, keep a logbook of the activities that you are involved in, and record which skills you are exercising while performing these activities. This allows you to keep track of specific examples of how you have developed your competencies. You can then refer to this when updating your resume, or when answering questions in a job interview at a later stage.

It is also important to try to critically evaluate your own performance, and ask for constructive feedback and suggestions for areas of improvement and strategies for improvement, in order to target areas for further skill development.

5. What other ways can I gain information about a particular job?

If work experience in a particular area is not feasible, then you may wish to contact someone who works in a job that you are interested in, and talk to them about job duties, skill and knowledge requirements, necessary qualifications etc. A staff member in the Psychology department may be able to recommend a graduate who is working in an area in which you are interested.

• Visit UNSW Careers and Employment website uwww.careers.unsw.edu.au for an example of Informational Interviews