WHERE SHOULD I GO TO COMPLETE MY YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE?

Does your high school career's advisor keep on harassing you to apply for work experience in year 10? For many of us, work experience is usually compulsory. More often than not, we are also clueless about where we should go and which companies we should ask. Whether you get a fun job or not sometimes depends on luck, but there are some places that are likely to be more enjoyable than others.

Pick somewhere that is related to your future career or what you enjoy doing

This may be good for you to get a taste of what you may want to do in the future (or what you enjoy in your spare time if you don't have much of a clue of what you want to do yet). This one week can allow you to see how a company runs and you may even be able to get your hands dirty on some fun jobs if you're lucky. In my opinion though, it probably would be much more enjoyable for you to pick somewhere that you consider to be your dream job, rather than a safe job you think you'll probably end up in. This is you opportunity to also experience a job you may feel would be hard for you to attain in the future. Go to the zoo, go to some space museum, anywhere you dream of!

Pick a firm with an actual work experience program rather than one without a plan at all

This is probably the biggest advice I can give you. Even though It may not always turn out this way, private firms that have no robust program usually have little value of what to do with work experience students; it is very likely you'll just end up doing faxing and filing, and end up being bored the whole time. It is all good if you want to work in a bank doing investments in the future, but if you're unlucky and just end up filing things the whole time (like me) you won't really learn much at all. Thus, have a search on Google and find places that actually have a structured program (there are a tonne of them!) that will allow you to truly have an enriching experience.

Don't worry, be happy :)

Lastly, don't worry too much. This definitely doesn't have to be part of your defined career path. This is just a week for you to see the workplace of your dreams. Thus, try to pick somewhere where you think you will actually enjoy your time.

Jack Zheng | N° 36