What did you do for Work Experience?

[ThePistonHead]

My son is having a bit of trouble deciding what he wants to do for his work experience placement.

Its through his high school.. basically you choose three areas of interest which you would like to go and do work in for a week e.g. veterinary science.

So! What did you do? I thought he might find an area he would like from some other peoples expierences

[Feathers]

I went to a university's Forensic Science labs.
It was pretty quiet as the students were mostly on holidays, but I followed the PhD students around and fired handguns into a water tank for their ballistics task.

[Peuty]

At my school we did two rounds of work experience.

First up I went to an accounting firm, which was ok, just updated depreciation values and photocopied mostly. Second time I just put down my (then) current part time workplace (pizza shop) and got paid for my work experience!

[daniel_rossy]

real estate agency... it was ok. abit boring though, it was a quiet time of the year at the start of may last year

[Neoxr6]

i am a sales manager for a modular shop fitting company.
i am qualified as a cabinet maker/ shop fitter, if he doesnt mind long hours maybe a shop fitting place. if he likes it the pay is pretty good if he is willing to work.

[FrogInASock]

I did 2 weeks as a teacher for a 3rd class. Ended up being a Mechanical Engineer and Defence member!

[Bucket]

Onsite IT support at The University of Newcastle

[DayTE]

When I had the chance to do it the school cancelled it because it was the time of really high interest rates (16-17%). Why that affected the school I don't know.

But, when I was in the Air Force we had a lot of students come through for work experience. They would generally spend a two day with us in the hangar, a day with the pilots, a day in air traffic control which included being with the airport fire men, and the 5th day was spent floating around the other maintenance areas. The life support guy, the avionics (electrical) guys and the engineers. So these "kids" would get a good look around.

I guess what I'm saying is if you have a military base nearby it could be worth thinking about.

I was at Williamtown where the fighter jets were so every kid that come through wanted to be a fighter pilot. But what sort of things interest him? And it's not as though he has to follow through with it after his week is over.

[Booka]

Tryed to go to the cop shop, then tryed to do the security gig with tha ol man (school denied both) then i got into a Auto workshop, BEST THING I EVER DID!!!!!

[GS608]

Plumbing, still doing it, great job, if he's interested try get some with either ADF or the Police Force, now thats real fun!

[JamesR]

'fitter and turner' at skilled engineering workshops.
spent 2 weeks at same place.

and now im a qualified machinist.

[bingoTE50]

My son did this last year and worked in a joinery with his uncle . It really had no real connection of what he wants to do , he thinks he wants to do accountancy leading to a CPA or CFO in time. Invariably they do something unrelated to their future employ , unless they have a real passion for something like panel beating / spray painting /carpentry etc . The trouble with a lot of schools now , because of the lack of skilled male teachers ,manual arts ( woodworking , metal work ,plastics ,ceramics ) is not taught anymore . So some opportunity is lost for kids to experience these trades at a young age.

[LOWBA6]

I went to the local ford dealer... lol was a bit of fun i spose, played with diffs, gearboxes and servicing really. Nothing special.

[Lightning Strike XR6]

I am giving plumbing a go with a mates dad.

At the end of school i will do either that or real estate.

[zigzagnt]

Being disabled i did mine through my school's special needs unit.From memory (it was about 5/6 years ago) I went to bunnings and a local hotel here in darwin.My younger brothers (who are twins btw) did their's at target and my dad's business.

[LUXO_8]

mechanics workshop, for a large Jaguar/RangeRover/Saab/VW dealer here in geelong (peck and stokes for those playing at home)

turned me off owning a Jag or Landrover/Rangerover ever!

[Geez Louise]

First work experience was at the Blind School in WA teaching the kids to read braille. Second time at The West Australian newspaper seeing what journo's do.

Ended up being a chef for 10yrs then went into accounting.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Went to a computer shop for one stint, went to my old primary school for the other. Ended up being a Primary teacher, and work at the old school every now and again

[falzoony]

I wanted to be a sound engineer so I went to a recording studio, one of the greatest weeks ever!

[Grechie]

I did work experience at a place called Futuristic Games, basically heaven for me, i was in customer service and got to test all the latest games/hardware

[vztrt]

Well my school gave me three stints at this.

1st time I worked in at the Motorolla service center in Thomastown where I pretty much worked on my soldering skills and did software upgrades.

2nd time I just went and worked for two weeks at my part -time job (maccas) which was nice as I made some money.

3rd time I worked in a Computer shop (where I bought two of my computers) and this was basically do some simple upgrades, get computers ready for customers and played video games and surfed the net when there was nothing else to do.

[NC1183]

I worked at Harvey Norman for my first week, i can't remember the second week, that was in year 10 then when i was in year 12 i got the opotunity to go to NEWS Limited in Sydney and work with the photographers from The Daily Telegraph and The Australian was the best week of school ever for that and other reasons :

[xr8cobra]

Well I Worked On A Dairy Farm Yes The Out Doors,and He Had 3 Lovely Daughters...now Im A Opencut Miner The Money Is Great..

[ieatsports_cars]

i did my workplace ment at blue care and it made me relize that nursing is for me at this stage ! well any mining job is good money up 2 or over 100,000 dollars

[Powdered Toast Man]

Did it 2 years in high school.

First (year 10) was the same a fairmont599, i worked at the local Ford dealer in the the sevice department. Mainly ended up helping the LPG installer doing things like drilling holes in the airboxes for what I assumed were pressure valves for backfires, and laying in the boot while the car was up on the hoist and holding the bolts for the tank while the mechanic did them up from underneath. Plus much sweeping, car washing and vacuuming, and plenty of standing around twiddling my thumbs.

Second time (year 11) was at a computer shop and was a similar experience to vztrt, checking the condition of motherboards and other parts, but mainly vacuuming and playing games. No internet though, wasn't as prominant back then in the mid 90s.

I'm an engineer now so both probably came in handy.

[superroo]

Well beat this.

For year 10, did work experience at FPV, simply wrote them a letter asking if any spots were available.
Did a range of things from balancing GT/GTP rims to building BOSS motors to working in the parts store, and watching an engineer create a part in a CAD program. Even got to go out on the test drives that they conduct. Now that was fun

For year 11 VET auto went to an engine reconditoners. Did things there from assembling heads to full engines, machining/honing blocks, and milling heads.

Both were for two weeks and both were great times.

Cheers

[Bent8]

Did 2 weeks at a computer technology firm (Tandem Computers), and got my first taste of a Mac computer....now I know where Gates got his idea for the Windows recycle bin!!

I also went online and did some research for the company.....by the way, this was back in 1995!

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by Grechie

I did work experience at a place called Futuristic Games, basically heaven for me, i was in customer service and got to test all the latest games/hardware

You bastard!

I spent my Work Experience at the City of Monash Depot Works.
I honestly believe I worked more than some of the employees there, who appeared to just sit outside smoking all day.

I did the basic filing, updating datebases and spreadsheats, archiving in the office.
They moved me to the Safety Department and there we just drove around all day, took photos of reported hazards, marked a few footpaths (to be levelled) and went to a few Tuckshops for some bacon and egg sandwiches.

Was paid five bucks a day.

If I was a smoker, I would have fit right in to that place.

[FlipXW]

Price Engines here in Newcastle. Basically into block and head reconditioning. Just sandblasted and crack tested heads. Couple of valve grinds and removing the valve springs from the heads. Was pretty good, learnt a bit. The second time I went out with the old man (mobile mech) just doing services and so forth. They were both for metals and engineering at school.

[azaxr8]

Originally Posted by Peuty

At my school we did two rounds of work experience.

First up I went to an accounting firm, which was ok, just updated depreciation values and photocopied mostly. Second time I just put down my (then) current part time workplace (pizza shop) and got paid for my work experience!

I did the same the 2nd time around. Except done it for 2 months=) oh god it was fun. but i loved my job at highschool so it was awesome. and Got A's right accross the board.