So...
Had two weeks doing work experience for two top leading companies in very different roles; Client Executive at a world wide Insurance Brokers, HR consultants, Marketers, PR Executive and Business Developers at Dickinson Dees. Interestingly, the style of work experience differed by a large degree.
What are the different styles of work experience?
I shall discuss two types as these are the two I experienced: experiencing the work that A does for B, the theoretical understanding of the role and "a week in the life of...", to watch the role in action.
The former I would imagine most would think work experience would involve; sit down with each of the departments and each would set a small, relevant task to do within a time frame, to gain a taste of the work they are involved in. Most of the tasks I was given as seen in my previous posts was research, e.g. "how the scrapping of the default retirement age would affect Dickinson Dees". I would then sit with each department and have their role discussed and ask any questions. This form of work experience is more theoretical and gives an insight into the style of work they do.
The second, the "week in the life of..." was with Marsh. I would imagine this is how they would treat their trainees, therefore not the work experience style as above, but a flavour of the work one would be given. I got an insight intohow the Client Executive organises their week and handles their clients. I enjoyed this as I was able to watch their projects being worked on and what their plans were with the projects in the near future. In conclusion, I got to see their job in action, so a more practical method of work experience.
Two very different and interesting styles. If you are interested in looking into work experience, I would certainly recommend it and I have hopefully shed some light into some of the possible varying types available. Depending on the work style and the company, you may want to query into the style they have planned for you, or would plan for you. Best of luck and I hope you enjoy your work experience!
H
Showing posts with label work experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work experience. Show all posts
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Work Experience with Dickinson Dees Law Firm
Surprisingly...
My work experience wasn't in Law, it was actually in Human Resources, Marketing and Public Relations.
Monday-Tuesday in Human Resources
Spent the first half hour of the morning meeting and greeting people and then... straight off to work. These people don't beat about the bush, they are hard-working and very committed and they wanted to prove this by making me hit the ground running. A little bit scary at first, but with a task of researching the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age, I fell into an old routine of good ol' research from my Philosophy days. Always a good start if you are set a task in something which you majored in. They have brought out the best in me on the Monday morning - I dare say the University struggled with that!
Spent most of the two days researching and asking general questions of how the employees got into HR and they all seemed very passionate about their work. Tuesday afternoon was slightly different, I got the chance to view a mock application form for their graduate programme and mark it accordingly. Had a great laugh over some of the mistakes and answers, thought to ask whether this app form was the worst/funniest they had seen... They said no! I have to admit, I would like to see some of the wackiest application forms made as some that I have seen online have made me giggle.
Overall HR was enlightening and it was great to meet everyone there. I will definitely keep in touch with them. Human Resources has a great buzz to it and it looks to always keep you on your toes. While the work-load looked as though it was always piling in, there seemed to be a calm and controlled air about the office, which is very attractive - nothing worse than watching people's head roll and lose their temper!
Anyone interested in HR, I would definitely recommend some work experience in the sector to give you an edge when applying and understand the sector in the detail it deserves. In conclusion a great experience and fantastic sector. Thank you to all at Dickinson Dees HR department.
H
My work experience wasn't in Law, it was actually in Human Resources, Marketing and Public Relations.
Monday-Tuesday in Human Resources
Spent the first half hour of the morning meeting and greeting people and then... straight off to work. These people don't beat about the bush, they are hard-working and very committed and they wanted to prove this by making me hit the ground running. A little bit scary at first, but with a task of researching the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age, I fell into an old routine of good ol' research from my Philosophy days. Always a good start if you are set a task in something which you majored in. They have brought out the best in me on the Monday morning - I dare say the University struggled with that!
Spent most of the two days researching and asking general questions of how the employees got into HR and they all seemed very passionate about their work. Tuesday afternoon was slightly different, I got the chance to view a mock application form for their graduate programme and mark it accordingly. Had a great laugh over some of the mistakes and answers, thought to ask whether this app form was the worst/funniest they had seen... They said no! I have to admit, I would like to see some of the wackiest application forms made as some that I have seen online have made me giggle.
Overall HR was enlightening and it was great to meet everyone there. I will definitely keep in touch with them. Human Resources has a great buzz to it and it looks to always keep you on your toes. While the work-load looked as though it was always piling in, there seemed to be a calm and controlled air about the office, which is very attractive - nothing worse than watching people's head roll and lose their temper!
Anyone interested in HR, I would definitely recommend some work experience in the sector to give you an edge when applying and understand the sector in the detail it deserves. In conclusion a great experience and fantastic sector. Thank you to all at Dickinson Dees HR department.
H
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Conclude my week of work experience.
I realized that it really wasn't feasible to write about each of my days as most of the information I looked at was confidential. So a basic summary of what I did and my conclusion.
This being my second draft, as I realized writing a break down of what I did every day would be tedious. So in short: Monday and Wednesday I was out with clients and/or insurers. Tuesday and Thursday I was in the office either attending meetings and/or learning about other roles within the company. Friday was a short day with a client adviser.
From my week I learned that brokering involves many varied and specialised roles. I was shadowing a client executive which deals with the relationship between the client and the insurer, so very people and presentation based. Over the week, this particular role became apparent to me that this is the role I think I would be most suited for. There was a specialised client executive role for professionals and finiancials, but I was told that specialising too early could hinder me having transferable skills. These two I found the most interesting and will be reviewing at a later date.
What I suppose I can discuss in a bit more detail is that I was very pleased with the overall experience, I never felt like a loose end and everyone was very polite and easy to get along with. I never felt forced into conversation and things seemed to flow very naturally. I believe this is very important as I want to work within a company where the other employees are people I get along with and share similar personality attributes(not necessarily interests as that was very varied). A particular job can sound great, but I expect it's the people you work with which makes it more of an enjoyable experience and more likely to be something you look forward to coming into work for. In conclusion the company, the roles and the people all made a great impression on me. I am very much looking forward to spending more time with Marsh in Leeds.
My second week of work experience is coming up, this time at Dickinson Dees in Newcastle in HR. I have had a fantastic week with Marsh so I am hoping a renowned and successful company like Dickinson Dees can match Marsh in their hospitality and roles. Will keep you up to date.
I would like to thank Marsh for their hospitality and giving up their time for me.
H
This being my second draft, as I realized writing a break down of what I did every day would be tedious. So in short: Monday and Wednesday I was out with clients and/or insurers. Tuesday and Thursday I was in the office either attending meetings and/or learning about other roles within the company. Friday was a short day with a client adviser.
From my week I learned that brokering involves many varied and specialised roles. I was shadowing a client executive which deals with the relationship between the client and the insurer, so very people and presentation based. Over the week, this particular role became apparent to me that this is the role I think I would be most suited for. There was a specialised client executive role for professionals and finiancials, but I was told that specialising too early could hinder me having transferable skills. These two I found the most interesting and will be reviewing at a later date.
What I suppose I can discuss in a bit more detail is that I was very pleased with the overall experience, I never felt like a loose end and everyone was very polite and easy to get along with. I never felt forced into conversation and things seemed to flow very naturally. I believe this is very important as I want to work within a company where the other employees are people I get along with and share similar personality attributes(not necessarily interests as that was very varied). A particular job can sound great, but I expect it's the people you work with which makes it more of an enjoyable experience and more likely to be something you look forward to coming into work for. In conclusion the company, the roles and the people all made a great impression on me. I am very much looking forward to spending more time with Marsh in Leeds.
My second week of work experience is coming up, this time at Dickinson Dees in Newcastle in HR. I have had a fantastic week with Marsh so I am hoping a renowned and successful company like Dickinson Dees can match Marsh in their hospitality and roles. Will keep you up to date.
I would like to thank Marsh for their hospitality and giving up their time for me.
H
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Time to shine!
Tomorrow I start my first day with a company which I am very excited to be spending time with. I am very unsure of my target job so I think having tasters will benefit me greatly and it will also give them a taste of who I am too. I have learned I can't say too much in my blogs so I shall not say the name of the company in fear of getting into some kind of trouble (funny democracy we are in?). I shall be blogging the basics of my day for the next fives and my adventures with this particular company. It shall be brief because I know of the need for confidentiality.
The week after I start another week of work experience with a different company in a different part of the country and if I am able to, I shall blog briefly about that also. This particular one is in a completely different sector: HR and I have chosen it because I have seen that there are a lot of job vacancies in HR. Hopefully with a week of work experience behind me, it will show interest and I shall shine a bit more on my CV.
So yes I have been very busy setting these up. I am also planning some more work experience with another company in a totally different sector altogether! This one might be harder to get, but we shall see.
Overall, I think that these two weeks will shed some light into what I want to do, or what I want to stay away from. I think work experience is great and I hope it will really pay off as I have such little formal work experience behind me. In this current climate, I need anything even somethings which are slightly unusual, to stand out in the mountains of CV's recruiters receive for jobs.
I have to be an entrepreneur about this and look for the gaps which other competitors aren't looking at. I think most graduates who are not in work need to chase up new strategies to find and win the job they deserve.
H
The week after I start another week of work experience with a different company in a different part of the country and if I am able to, I shall blog briefly about that also. This particular one is in a completely different sector: HR and I have chosen it because I have seen that there are a lot of job vacancies in HR. Hopefully with a week of work experience behind me, it will show interest and I shall shine a bit more on my CV.
So yes I have been very busy setting these up. I am also planning some more work experience with another company in a totally different sector altogether! This one might be harder to get, but we shall see.
Overall, I think that these two weeks will shed some light into what I want to do, or what I want to stay away from. I think work experience is great and I hope it will really pay off as I have such little formal work experience behind me. In this current climate, I need anything even somethings which are slightly unusual, to stand out in the mountains of CV's recruiters receive for jobs.
I have to be an entrepreneur about this and look for the gaps which other competitors aren't looking at. I think most graduates who are not in work need to chase up new strategies to find and win the job they deserve.
H
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