Engineering work experience: a beginner's guide

Recruiters value work experience. An engineering placement is the gold standard – it shows that you have hands-on engineering work experience to complement your degree, demonstrates your commitment to the sector and indicates that you know what to expect when you start your graduate job.

It will also help you get a feel for where you want to work and indicate to employers that your decisions about where to apply are based on more than guesswork. However, if you can’t manage an engineering placement or you’ve left it too late, take heart – work experience or part-time jobs in any environment can help you develop transferable skills and a feel for the working world. As such, they too are well thought of by employers.

Jump to: Engineering placements | Small engineering companies | Non-engineering work experience | Tips for finding an engineering work placement

Engineering placements

Some degrees incorporate a year in industry; if yours doesn’t, you may be able to arrange one. There are also plenty of shorter-term options. Summer engineering internships usually last between six and ten weeks; some employers also offer shorter placements over the Christmas and Easter breaks.

Placements will give you a sense of what life as a graduate engineer is like and help you gain skills that are relevant to graduate positions, as well as build up a network of contacts.

• Discover how to build your professional network with our advice on networking for engineers.

A placement is also a great opportunity to get to know an organisation better than you could through simply reading company literature. This will give you a good basis from which to figure out whether it’s the sort of organisation you could work for on a long-term basis – and whether you feel the area of engineering and kind of role are right for you.

It also gives employers a chance to get to know you better. Many graduate recruiters like to hire students who perform well on their placements and some may even offer sponsorship to help you complete your degree.

Small engineering companies

Small engineering employers may not run formal schemes but can still be a good source of work experience. You could ask to shadow someone in an area or organisation that interests you for a couple of days, volunteer to come in on an unpaid work placement or look for paid, part-time work.

Go to your university’s careers service for advice and contacts, and check jobs boards and the local press.

You may need to send speculative applications to small employers, in which case you should read our guide to sending speculative applications.

Non-engineering work experience

It’s unlikely that an organisation will reject your application because you don’t have engineering work experience, as long as you've done something else worthwhile with your time that you can draw upon when discussing your background and skills.

Part-time work during university terms or vacations will help you develop communication skills and teamwork skills. You might even be able to go a step further and come up with a suggestion or improvement that will help the business to prosper.

• Learn how to develop your communication skills while still at university.
• Boost your work-experience prospects by demonstrating your teamwork skills to employers.
• Find out more about how a part-time job during university can kick-start your graduate career.

Helping to run university clubs and societies also offers the opportunity to develop skills and provide examples of these. For example, you might have led a team effectively, come up with innovative ideas and carried them through, solved problems or organised events.

• Get clued in to why extracurricular activities strengthen your CV.

Charity work, volunteering and independent travel will also help you develop in ways recruiters like and give you something interesting to talk about in your applications and at interview. Apart from anything else, having a range of interests shows you’re a multidimensional person who is enthusiastic, motivated and likely to be an asset in the workplace.

• Head to this article to learn about your student volunteering options, including potential places to volunteer over the summer holidays.
• Discover your gap year options and how to plan a gap year.

Tips for getting an engineering placement

• Start planning your engineering work experience from your first year of study - and don't just look at blue chip companies! It’s true that most employers looking for placement students only take applications from the beginning of your second year, but planning ahead will give you a better idea of your options.
• Getting an industrial placement isn't automatic ¬ employers will view your application favourably if you combine good academic results (first-year results do matter!) with evidence of career commitment. Have something on your CV that will attract interest.
• Placement officers (if applicable) and the university careers service are the key starting points, but the more people who know you are looking the more help you can get. There is always competition for advertised placements so apply your networking skills to look for alternatives. Read this article to learn how to build your network on LinkedIn.
• If you really can only find a job that has little in common with engineering (eg within a supermarket), try to make more of it by asking for additional responsibility. Find out how the business is run and talk to managers. That way, you might be able to get a bit of work experience in a more relevant job function and also become more commercially savvy – a trait that employers always value in candidates.
• Try to arrange your own placement or work shadowing through contacts from your careers service or your university's job shop. Year-long industrial placements and formal vacation programmes are the ideal, but there are never enough of the latter to go round. You can learn more about work shadowing and other forms of work experience in this article.

Next: search graduate jobs

• View our Graduate engineering jobs