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Work experience need help.

Hello,
I am asking for help about work experience as I would Like to know if work experience matters more at A-Level or at GCSE Year 10. Currently I have Work Experience in the food sector at a restaurant and I'm In Year 10. However my friends have work experiences at banks and solicitors and at more "professional" places than I have and this is worrying me as to whether I picked the wrong place for a one week work experience .Therefore, I would like to know how important work experience is in year 10 and if I have made a mistake , can be rectified in Year 12-13? I want to work in finance or Law when I'm older so this is why I am asking this. Many thanks and thank you for taking the time for reading this.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Qualifications only matter for education whereas work experience only matters for jobs.
Reply 2
Avatar for Juno
Juno
20
Original post by The1AndOnly1
Hello,
I am asking for help about work experience as I would Like to know if work experience matters more at A-Level or at GCSE Year 10. Currently I have Work Experience in the food sector at a restaurant and I'm In Year 10. However my friends have work experiences at banks and solicitors and at more "professional" places than I have and this is worrying me as to whether I picked the wrong place for a one week work experience .Therefore, I would like to know how important work experience is in year 10 and if I have made a mistake , can be rectified in Year 12-13? I want to work in finance or Law when I'm older so this is why I am asking this. Many thanks and thank you for taking the time for reading this.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Year 10 work experience is pointless if you want to go to uni, which it sounds like you will if you want to work in law or finance. Work experience can help with uni applications, but it has to be more recent - this will be 3 years old by the time you apply!

Even if you're wanting a job directly after gases, it's still not too important because it's only a week. That's not long enough to learn anything, especially in an environment where they would have confidential documents and can't let just anyone access them
Original post by Juno
Year 10 work experience is pointless if you want to go to uni, which it sounds like you will if you want to work in law or finance. Work experience can help with uni applications, but it has to be more recent - this will be 3 years old by the time you apply!

Even if you're wanting a job directly after gases, it's still not too important because it's only a week. That's not long enough to learn anything, especially in an environment where they would have confidential documents and can't let just anyone access them


Ok thank you. I want to get a job hopefully in Investment Banking (this requires a degree) and I thought that work experience is preferred for places such as Investment Banks? So if this is the case, If I get a "professional" work experience at Year 12 or Year 13? Will I be fine?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 4
Avatar for Juno
Juno
20
Original post by The1AndOnly1
Ok thank you. I want to get a job hopefully in Investment Banking (this requires a degree) and I thought that work experience is preferred for places such as Investment Banks? So if this is the case, If I get a "professional" work experience at Year 12 or Year 13? Will I be fine?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Work experience is necessary, but it has to be recent. So anything you get in year 10 won't be recent enough for uni applications - and at the end of your degree, it will be even less recent! So yes, you can make this all up at a later date.

For investment banking you'll need to do work experience during your degree - usually applicants do a bit each summer during the holidays. It is very competitive, so even if your friends have done work experience now they'll still need to do more later. There is a specific investment banking forum on TSR, and if you read there you'll see how much is necessary.
To be honest, employers once you have a degree will only really care about work experience you did whilst at university - eg doing a finance / law internship will improve your employment prospects. They won't care what work experience you did in Year 10 - unless you skipped year 10 to be a UN peace envoy or carry out scientific experiments on the international space station, don't even put it on your cv. Hopefully by that point you will have done far more impressive things, and putting a week's experience in Year 10, whether it is in a restaurant or in a solicitor's office, will only weaken your application as it'll detract from the more impressive things.

The only way relevant work experience may be useful is it would be something to write about in your personal statement when it comes to applying to uni. But you could just write about a relevant book you've read instead or a lecture you've been to or anything that demonstrates your love of your subject, so it isn't the end of the world. :smile:

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