My work experience vs dull, uninspiring work experience!

By Bhavika jagwani, 17, Nower Hill High School

How many of you (who are reading this) are students?

Well then, I am sure that you must have heard the lecture on how ‘vital’ work experience is like a zillion times and stayed wondering ‘How on earth everyone is expecting me to get the most suitable work experience in such a small amount of time!?’

Right?

Being a student, I know exactly how dreadful it is to find such ‘perfect’ work experience, yet ending up having such dire experiences and later regretting ever agreeing to take that placement- and then repeating it again the next year…and the year after…and the year after that too…until you finally find the place you belong. As young, passionate students who tend to live in a fantasy of ‘everything will be perfect’, it is very difficult to get a placement at a place which is both professional yet fun to work in.

I found my ‘dream world’.

Finally at peace

Uptree presented itself at one of my school assemblies; offering countless opportunities and support, which finally brought a sparkle of hope in my discouraged heart as it was exactly what I had been seeking for all these years. The vibrancy not just in the ambience but the people surrounding me gave me an assuring feeling that this place is made for me.

There, I finally found my best opportunity to date. 3 days at Ustwo Adventure.

I received an email the following week after my ‘over-the-top exciting’ interview to get the work experience, which I assumed was not enough to get the place at Ustwo Adventure. Little did I know…I had been chosen!

Day 1- The adventure commences!

Liverpool Street. The place which crawls with people everywhere under the shelter of both modern and ancient buildings; amazed by such diversity of not just the people but the art that was born there.

My adventure had just begun.

I walked into the building and breathed in all the creativity I was surrounded by. All the smiling faces approached me, welcomed me and shared their experiences. A coder, a musician — the network of people was limitless; just like the ideas that all these professionals moulded into their careers.

Surprisingly I was assigned to work with Uptree itself, who helped me get this work experience. Everyone in the team was keen on having me there, and as excited as I was to work collaboratively as a team. After a small introductory session, we spent some time socialising in order to gain insight into everyone’s job roles and their speciality; along with allocating me with a few job roles as well.

Fortunately for me, I was given the responsibility to design an event poster for Uptree’s upcoming event (you should check it out!) as part of marketing and promotion; alongside attending workshops each day. In correlation with my duties, I also attended a marketing workshop that day (along with a warm cup of coffee because who doesn’t like coffee) which was ‘uh-mazing’, as it allowed me to gain an in-depth knowledge of the marketing world and how things are illustrated in a particular way to tempt more customers into buying the product/service.

Day 2- Gotta get work done

Following on from the day before, I spent some time experimenting with the designs for the poster, yet I was still dissatisfied with each and every design I created. So, to get some inspiration I explored the working floor and ended up finding such interesting ideas and ways each company functioned; particularly ‘Dubzoo’, with its inspirationally unconventional creative methods.

Followed by two workshops scheduled for that day, one being coding- my absolute nightmare!

However, I was still looking forward to the coding workshop as I always wanted to learn it even though I never understood it. Two talented ladies from the company ‘No Mayo’ presented coding in such spectacular way that I felt quite motivated to attempt to learn coding yet again. Surprisingly, I actually coded successfully for the very first time in my life.

The second workshop was my favourite, and had an open discussion about assertiveness and how each and every person should make use of it. The wisest thing I learnt from the workshop was keeping aggression and assertiveness separate; with a thin line between the two, sometimes it can be very difficult to differentiate between confidence and rudeness.

Day 3- The journey ends

This day was going to be my last day here.

Already coming prepared emotionally, I somehow managed to convince myself that I will meet all of these talented people again sometime — and I decided to make the most out of my last day.

With the determination to complete the poster, I continued to make adjustments to the chaotic creation of mine. After almost half of the day already passed, my poster sort of began to look somewhat decent…and Voila!

Two super-exciting workshops- one being about ‘Project Portfolio’ and other being about ‘Unconventional ways into work’, were about to take place one after the other.

‘Project Portfolio’ magnified the need to present one’s talent creatively in order showcase it to any possible employees; which I found very useful as everyone may think of an A3 book with a collection of photography and art embedded between the pages when the word ‘portfolio’ is mentioned.

The truth is no. That is not where it should end. A Portfolio can take various guises, such as websites, blogs, social media and many more. In an increasingly digitalised world, it may seem sensible to create a portfolio which can be easily accessible. This inspired me to create a website of my own.

Last but not least, ‘Unconventional ways into work’! This exploded with crazy, yet motivational stories from the people of ‘Dubzoo’. Everyone is (at times) helpless against life But using the advice of the guys at Dubzoo, I was motivated to make the most of current situations and look forward to new opportunities, rather than regretting not capitalising on opportunities in the past.

A special tip on beating procrastination and achieving more goals (which I learnt from this workshop), is to draw up a year-long time line, which doesn’t need to be specific in terms of date but should highlight goals that one would like to accomplish. It’s a bit like a journal, except it becomes your display on the wall for the next year so that you are always reminded of your goals.

To finish the day on a happy note…we had a doughnut party!

I would like to thank everyone from Ustwo Adventure for taking such good care of me and inspiring me.