Charityworks 2024

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Lack of clarity for international students: I know applicants on graduate visas who made it to the final stages, only to find out—far too late—that they wouldn’t be accommodated if their visa was still being processed. For international master’s students whose courses run into the summer and who cannot apply until marks are processed, this essentially makes CharityWorks a dead-end option, but they fail to communicate this upfront.

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Failing to meet their own targets: By December, they still hadn’t placed the promised 120 successful candidates. Their solution? Extend the matching window indefinitely, presenting it as an "opportunity" rather than an indication that they’re struggling to deliver on their core purpose—placing grads into roles. If they can’t even meet their commitments to the main pool, what hope is there for waitlisted applicants?

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Expression of Interest roles are a joke: These roles are often in undesirable/non-city locations, with bizarre or extraneous requirements (e.g., needing a car or speaking Romanian).

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Extra stages: Even if you land a position, you must go through yet another screening process with the employer, who can reject you outright—despite CharityWorks' entire selection process supposedly acting as a "foot in the door." This might make sense retrospectively, but it is overall a lot more work than just going through a standard job application. It is also not clear from the outset.

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Unprofessional communication: In a group with other waitlisters, I certainly wasn’t the only one who found the process frustrating and demoralising. One person was even offered a placement but received zero communication from the employer until their supposed start date. While this isn’t CharityWorks’ direct responsibility, they failed to respond to repeated emails, leaving the candidate completely in the dark.