If you’re looking for work experience, London is the place. Work experience is a great way of boosting your skills and burnishing your CV or resume. You’ll demonstrate to employers that you’re serious about joining your industry; and you’ll have the relevant experience to prove that you can seamlessly join any company and hit the ground running.
A major world city, London is home to major firms across practically every industry. Publishers, marketing houses, engineering companies and tech start-ups all have their home here; whatever you’re interested in, you’ll find it.
But once you’ve secured your internship, how do you make the most of your program? Here are our top tips for making the most out of a London internship.
Set Out Your Goal
Before you even begin your London internship, you need to decide what you want to get out of it. Most people take an internship because they’ve been doing some forward thinking about their career; they understand that to stand out from their competitors, they need to take an extra step.
So in that sense, an internship is a precursor to full-time work experience. With that in mind, you’ll probably want to tailor your entire internship experience to achieving that goal.
Tailoring Your Experience to Your Goals
The primary part of your internship will be working with your firm. But there are ways of maximizing your experience.
After all, you could just turn up, work, and go home to relax in the evening. This is a perfectly acceptable way of spending your internship. But if you’re hyper-focused on securing a job afterwards, you need to be doing more than that.
Networking is a key part of any London internship. It’s not an easy skill, but you’ll want to master it; the old adage ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ still applies in plenty of industries. Start with your colleagues, then build outwards. Do your best to impress your co-workers, then see if you can attend any industry events or meet-ups in London. Get to know as many people as possible; when a job next opens up, you might just be in line for an interview.
Relatedly, you’ll want to draw on the insight and knowledge of your colleagues as much as possible. If your firm is offering an internship, that means they want to invest in the next generation of workers; so you can be sure that your co-workers will want to see you succeed. Watch them closely, asking as many questions as you need to. They’ll have years of experience and they’ll be keen to share it with you.
Finding an Internship That Works For You
There are lots of different internships on the market, and some offer more benefits than others. Your typical internship will simply see you working with a firm for a couple of weeks. But other companies offer complete internship programs that can help you get the most out of your time in London.
For example, your internship program might offer extra career guidance, CV and resume tips, and interview masterclasses. Or they might provide you with a community of fellow interns, all living and working in the same city as you, to help you adjust to London alongside a group of friends and supporters. And after your internship ends, they’ll be some fantastic contacts for your future career.
Summary
If you’ve secured a London internship, congratulations: the hardest part is already over. In today’s competitive job market, it can even be difficult to successfully apply for an internship. And if you’re conscientious enough to plan for the future with an internship, you’re probably conscientious enough to put the effort in and make the most out of that internship.
You won’t just want to clock in and out of your role, counting down the days until it’s over. Instead, you’ll be maximizing your experience at every opportunity. From networking with your colleagues to discovering their insights and applying them to your own workload, an internship with a professional firm can represent the chance to take the next step in your career.
If you’re looking for a London internship program that offers a range of support to help you make the most of your experience, why not try Beyond Academy? They offer London internships in 18 different industries; alongside tailored career guidance to help you ensure that your internship is a starting point for your future career. If you’d like to find out more, check out their website.
