Work experience

An internship normally lasts from 6 to 12 weeks. Employers often utilise their internship schemes as a talent pipeline for their graduate programmes; large graduate recruiters frequently advertise to penultimate year students, hoping to convert summer interns into graduate hires. Internships may be listed as ‘placements,’ so read the description carefully to make sure it is what you’re looking for.

Summer internship application deadlines are usually in the autumn term, so it is worth researching your summer plans as early as possible. However, opportunities do still come up closer to the summer, especially with small and medium sized companies. 

Some companies offer shorter experiences specifically for first years (or second years on a four-year degree programme). These Insight Days/Weeks are designed to give students a taster of the industry and often include work shadowing, training sessions, presentations and tours of workplaces. They often take place over the Easter or Christmas vacation period.

These are usually fixed terms of structured work experience, typically 6 or 12 months, and form part of the degree a student is on. Most departments at Imperial now offer the opportunity to undertake an industrial placement. If you are unsure whether you are currently registered on a course that includes an industrial placement, please contact your relevant department admissions team. Review our resources on Industrial Placements for further information.  

Part-time job are not always confined to the summer vacations and can include working in shops, pubs and bars, factories, restaurants, etc. Employers place value on part-time work, as it enables students to develop transferable skills such as customer service experience and or effective communication (especially useful for students who may not speak English as a first language) as well as team-work and commercial awareness.

Think carefully about the number of hours of work which you plan to undertake; you will need to make sure that you can balance the demands of your course with any part-time work you undertake. If you are studying in the UK on a visa then please check your visa conditions to ensure that you are only working the permitted number of hours per week during term time. If you have any queries about working hours and your visa please contact the International Student Support team.

For more information, see our Part-time work webpage.

Volunteering experience can provide evidence of qualities such as initiative, commitment, communication and leadership. It can consist of short-term projects, in the UK or abroad, during vacation time or a part-time role during term. For example, a student might undertake some voluntary tutoring at a local school, via Imperial’s Pimlico Connection programme.

Visit our Volunteering webpage for more information.

Remote opportunities are fantastic ways to evidence your interest in your chosen sector and develop relevant skills outside of 'traditional' work experience.

Remote online courses are a great way to learn unique skills you may not have an opportunity to develop in your degree. Research a job profile or sector, using resources such as Prospects, to understand the essential required skills. Using this knowledge, develop the relevant new skills using online courses such as LinkedIn Learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs). This extra-curricular online learning can showcase your motivation and proactive attitude to continued professional development.

Virtual work experience programmes provide an opportunity to experience different business topics and undertake sector specific skills-based training activities. Get industry experience by completing company-backed online projects provided through platforms such as Bright Network and Springpod. 

Many large organisations that recruit in volume take graduates into graduate training schemes. As part of these schemes, graduates are trained and may have the opportunity to rotate through different areas of the organisation. Some organisations support their graduates through professional qualifications. This is often an excellent way to enter an organisation as graduates are seen as future leaders and are strongly supported.

Typically, the main recruitment into these schemes takes place in the autumn of the year before the graduates start work. Deadlines in some sectors can be as early as October but opportunities continue to open up throughout the year and some positions may still be unfilled in the summer. Ideally you should be ready to submit applications at the start of your final year. However, many schemes will accept applications from recent graduates as well as finalists, so you could also target this job market in the year after graduation.

Not all organisations recruit in high enough numbers or on a predictable enough timescale to warrant having a graduate scheme. Many SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and start-ups recruit on an ad hoc basis through direct entry hires – they advertise roles at any time of year when they have a vacancy to fill. This is common in the media, not for profit and arts sectors, where there are very few graduate schemes.