How to Approach Companies for Work Experience

While nothing beats picking up the phone, it’s best to start with an email. Who you contact is important – a generic email address (i.e. one beginning with info@ or hello@) is not the place to send your pitch. But if you can only find a generic email address, send a message to this one politely requesting the contact details of the person who deals with work experience.

Once you have the email address of a specific contact, make sure to address the person directly and thank them for their time. An email beginning ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ is unlikely to get a response –the more personalized your email is, the better.

Once you have sent your email, or emails, there is nothing to do but wait. Be prepared for some companies to say no – some will be unequipped to handle work experience placements, others may be too busy. This is not uncommon and is nothing personal. It’s also common for a company simply not to reply.

Although it’s not very pleasant, getting no response is something to prepare for. You can follow up with a call after waiting a reasonable amount of time, but be ready to speak to someone at length about yourself, and be equally ready for them to tell you that they cannot take you on.

If you’ve invested lots of time in many work experience applications, be sure to record all your contact with these companies. This will save you having to wonder who you have and haven’t contacted yet, what their response was, and who you still need to follow up with. You can do this on anything from a piece of paper to an Excel spreadsheet, depending on what you prefer.

Whether you manage to secure work experience after your first email or after your twentieth, remember it’s nothing personal; it’s simply a matter of finding the right fit for your skills, plus some good timing.

Alistair Hardaker is a digital content writer for Portfolio CBR, a London-based recruitment agency specializing in placing compensation, benefit and reward employees.