• Question: Did you have to do work experience before you became an engineer

    Asked by paulo dybala to Siobhan, Katie, Iulia on 13 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      It wasn’t necessary, but I did work for IBM for a year. It was nothing to do with robots, but taught me valuable lessons in managing my time, discipline and interactions with clients I worked with.

      I think it’s valuable that you have some way to show your skills, and working for a business provides a good opportunity to do just that.

    • Photo: Iulia Motoc

      Iulia Motoc answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      You don’t have to. At least not in the field. Like Dmitry said, having some work experience will help you with time management, team work, and so on, but you are not required to have experience.

    • Photo: Katie Pavey

      Katie Pavey answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      I love this question and the advice is to start getting experience as early on as you can!

      I did a working gap year at an engineering company when I was 18 before I went to university though the Year in Industry http://www.etrust.org.uk/the-year-in-industry

      Experience is so important when you come to apply for jobs, so any work experience you can get is a bonus.

      I did a second internship between my 2nd and 3rd years at university. It was a great break from studying and made finding my first graduate job so much easier as I already had 2 years of experience to talk about in my interviews.

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