What is a Work Experience?

How do you know if a job you are interested in is a good fit for you? You need to have a “work experience”. A “work experience” is an opportunity for a student to explore careers or try a job they are interested in. These are often done at a business in the community so you can experience the environment and job tasks for yourself.

Categories of “work experiences” are listed below:

  • Career Awareness: Career awareness activities give you the opportunity to gain an understanding of the world of work and to begin exploring jobs you might be interested in. This includes watching presentations from employers, conducting informational interviews with specific employers, and attending career fairs.

  • Career Exploration: Once you get a good idea of the types of jobs you are interested in now you can learn more about the businesses in your community that do similar work. These work experience activities give you the opportunity to get hands on experience doing different jobs. Career exploration can include observing how a job is done through a job shadow, taking a tour of a business, and participating in service-learning projects that help the community.

  • Career Preparation: Now that you have explored different types of jobs you can set a career goal. Having a career goal means you have one or two clear job types that you would like to be employed at. Career preparation activities help you gain the skills and technical knowledge needed to do your preferred job. This is done through summer work experience programs, internships and apprenticeships.

Scenario

Sage is interested in working with animals and wants to explore different jobs she can do. She contacts a local dog spa and asks for an informational interview. During that interview Sage learns about all the different tasks that are done by the staff. She then asks if she can come in and job shadow for a day. During her day at the spa Sage got a good idea about how noisy dogs can be, but Sage still wanted to give it a try. Finally, Sage offered to volunteer so she could get hands-on experience with supervising the dog play area and cleaning the grooming stations. Today, Sage is a Grooming Assistant and loves being around dogs at work.