Work Experience and Career Decidedness

1. Work Experience and Career Decidedness Gill Frigerio & Russell George

2. Work experience and career transitions 14 16 18 21 ??

3. Perspectives on career decision making • ‘Folk theory’ of rational process and one decision • Influences policy and people (learners, parents, colleagues) • Leads to focus on PLANNING • Reality – prolonged transitions, series of immediate decisions, adaption to change, making most of opportunities

4. Work Experience and possible selves (Ibarra, 2003) • Post-decision • Demonstrates commitment • Learning specific skills • Build networks • During decisions • Learn about workplace behaviours and career self management • Learn generic skills • Explore possibilities ‘plan and implement’ ‘test and explore’

5. Work Experience and Career in Schools • Early pressure to find placements that fit with career direction • 2 weeks in Year 10 = big build up and expectations • Only narrow options considered

6. Work Experience and Career in HE • Competitive processes – need to demonstrate employer benefits, especially for paid placements • Low SME awareness, but proactivity required to secure an opportunity • Unpaid placements and student motivation

7. Contrasting employer views As you'd expect, I think work experience is a very good idea. It gives people a real insight into the work they could be doing, i.e. marketing work often requires a lot of detailed analysis and project management skills rather than flitting around Clerkenwellfrom one pitch to another. People are less likely to make career mistakes However, with my EY hat on, before we give a student an internship we want to be pretty sure they are focused on a graduate career with us. Whilst with us, students have at least two career conversations and have an assigned counselor. Over 90% of our Summer interns get a job offer from us so we want to be sure we direct our investment to the students who are most likely to join us. The selection process is exactly the same as for a graduate position.But we do run insight days for those who are less sure and are finding out more about professional services. We make these available to sixth formers, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Stephen Isherwood, Ernst & Young

8. The biggest benefit that anyone can get from work experience is understanding more deeply the idea of contribution and how they can add value to a particular organisation or sector. As it becomes clearer to them how they can benefit an employer, it also helps them clarify their own strengths and how and where they want to use  their talent. The risk with many work experience opportunities is that is structured and held as the idea of the work experience provider giving something to the person; which can then constrain or limit the possibility of the person to  make a contribution. We use two quick structural devices to ensure positive experience which fosters the idea of contribution. • Give people a project  - a piece of work with a start and end date (however big or small) • Give the project to more than one person (this develops the idea of shared responsibility and getting things done through team working) Darius Norrell, The Spring Project

9. Implications • Critical moment of realignment of career and WRL • Cultivate ongoing learning and open mindedness • Work experience as part of career decision making • Identify what’s in it for employers – longer term ROI? • Promote work experience by activities not organisation? • Shorter more frequent placements? • Build exploration into placements?

10. Continue the conversation Gill Frigerio – G.frigerio@warwick.ac.uk www.warwick.ac.uk/careerstudies On Twitter @GillFrigerioor @secondaryceiag http://secondaryceiag.wordpress.com/ Ibarra, H. (2003) Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing your Career, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press