A lot of people when they think of work experience just think of sitting around making tea and coffee or photocopying things for people in the office where they have gone to work, but I can tell you it is nothing like that, as I found out when I went on my work experience during the two weeks before the summer holidays.

When I first arrived at my placement, Yeomen’s and Staniforth Accounting in Derby, I thought that I would not be doing much at all, just sitting around playing on a computer for a week but no, I was sent straight to work on somebody’s accounts analyzing their spending and income and so on. I really enjoyed it as it meant I was doing proper work and got a taste of what it is really like in the world of work. I did do a few boring jobs like photocopying and filing (but that is the world of work!) but on the whole it was a really good week, I was treated like a mature adult and given real jobs to do.

On my second week I went to work for a charity called Voice UK, in Derby, at first I thought I would just be making posters or filing but then they told me I was going to write an article for a national magazine. This was really good experience for me and I did a good enough job to have it printed in the magazine under my name. It showed what being a journalist was all about and that it’s not all just writing stories, you have to research and edit it, as well as so much more.

The best thing about this placement though was that I got to go down to London for the day on a train and go to a meeting in the House of Commons. I saw the prime minister and talked to lots of other important members of parliament.

Both of my placements treated me like a mature adult and I felt like a valued member of their place of business. I think that work experience is a really good idea as it shows you what life is really like when you go to work and it also shows you what the job you chose is really like. You may think that you want to be something or do a certain job, but after work experience you may find that you do not like the job you originally wanted and that you have a flair or talent in some other job or aspect of a business, you never know what could be around the corner, but work experience gives you a good idea of what you might want to, or not want to, do after you leave school.

The people at my work experience made me feel good about what I was doing and I felt really mature and respected. I tried to work really hard and I left both my placements with two great reviews of my performance, a small salary, the offer of a job as soon as I leave school and an article in a national magazine.

As you can tell, work experience is not a waste of time, if you try hard and do everything that is asked of you then only positive things can come out of it. So try hard, do what your employer asks and always remember

Sam