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Work experience is an essential component of a personal statement. It shows that you are passionate and knowledgeable about your chosen course. Some courses even require prior work experience before you can apply. But how do you squeeze all the relevant facts about your work experience into your personal statement?

So if you’re looking for a way to showcase your work experience, this blog post is just what you need. Learn how to write about work experience effectively in your statement to help you stand out from the crowd and get into the university of your dreams.

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Check The Course Requirements For Work Experience

Some courses require you to have work experience before applying (e.g. medical courses.) You may need to complete a certain number of working hours before you’re eligible. It’s best to check out the course requirements before writing your work experience personal statement. If you’re thinking of applying to medicine or law, then check out our specific articles on these topics – medical personal statement advice and how to write a law personal statement.

With that said, other courses don’t require work experience. But whatever you’re applying for, it will elevate your personal statement if you have relevant work experiences to share.

Examples Of Work Experience

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Perhaps the greatest obstacle to writing your work experience personal statement is determining whether an activity counts as “work experience” or not. As a high schooler with limited workplace experiences, you may have to include examples of experiences where you held responsibility in your school or personal life – even if they were not strictly “work experience”. For example, you could include:

  • Extracurricular Activities

These are activities that are not included within your formal curriculum. Being a member of the sports team, debate club, Red Cross, or theatre group are good examples.

  • Volunteer Work

Whether it was for a day or a weekly position, you may have experience volunteer work. Perhaps you helped out at animal shelters, completed environmental conservation activities like litter picking, or worked part-time in a charity shop as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award – or just for experience! All of these experiences can be mentioned in your personal statement as work experience.

  • Personal Projects

Your personal projects reflect what you love doing. That’s why there’s a high probability they’re related to the course you’re applying for.

If you love coding, you may have built websites. Love writing? Maybe you’ve set up your own blog! Write them down in your work experience personal statement. If you’re keen to explore your passions further but don’t know where to start, why not check out our Online Research Programmes? You’ll be able to complete a university-level research project, accompanied by an expert tutor, in whatever area you choose.

  • Leadership Positions

If you occupied leadership positions in your organisations relevant to your chosen course, mention them! Universities are on the lookout for motivated individuals willing to take responsibility.

  • Competitions

Look out for competitions in areas that interest you. Whether you’re interest in design, writing, maths, or business, competitions often allow you the chance to use the skills relevant to your industry to work on an entry, and they may even involve chances to receive expert feedback, present your work, and attend workshops.

Traditional Work Experience

  • Formal Work Placements

Formal work placements are exposures to real-world experience. These are often required as part of your curriculum.

  • Part-Time Jobs

Part-time jobs are significant for your work experience personal statement. Working as a customer service agent, freelance writer, or salesperson at a local store demonstrates a sense of responsibility on your part. Mention what’s relevant to the course you’re applying for!

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The list of work experiences to include in your personal statement hopefully helps, but make sure to check out our what not to put in a personal statement to double check that everything you mention will help – not harm – your chances.

Writing down your leadership positions can take your work experience personal statement up a higher notch.

How To Include Your Work Experience in Your Personal Statement

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You now have a solid idea of relevant work experience you need to include in your personal statement. But how will you present it? For each piece of relevant work experience, you’ll have to think about the following questions. When you’re getting started, try to brainstorm freely without worrying too much about structure – you can neaten up later!

If you’re wondering how to start a personal statement in general, check out our article. You can then come back here to figure out how to include your work experience.

Discuss What You Learned, And Why It’s Essential

After stating the facts about your work experience, it’s time to get to the heart of the matter. You are writing your work experience personal statement not to brag about your achievements, but showing why you’re serious about your course.

That’s why discussing what you learned is essential. Beyond your role, share what insights you’ve gained that helped shape your character.

If you’re not sure how to start, let these questions unknot your ideas:

  • How did this position impact you?
  • What are the primary skills you’ve gained that are relevant to your course?
  • How does this experience influence your decisions in pursuing your study goals?
  • How does this experience relate to your general ability to succeed in your course?
  • What are the major lessons you’ve learned that are helping you grow as an individual person?
  • What is your biggest takeaway from this position?
  • Are there significant interactions that impacted your desire to take the course?

After answering these questions as part of your brainstorm, identify the most relevant points and craft a powerful paragraph that demonstrates how deep your understanding is.

The more interesting facts you share about yourself, the better. Bring your work experience personal statement to life with vivid details that convey essential ideas about who you are.

Ideas For Essential Skills

As you’ll see, one of the questions to answer about each of your work experiences relates to the skills you picked up. You may be unaware of skills you possess that are relevant and essential for your course, but after some reflection, you might find that you have in fact developed useful skills during your experiences.

Here are a few examples of highly employable skills. If you used these in any of your experiences, try and integrate that into your paragraph.

  • The ability to communicate effectively with higher-ups, colleagues, and clients
  • Perseverance amidst challenges
  • A sense of duty and obligation
  • Eagerness to serve the community, especially marginalised members
  • Critical thinking skills to overcome setbacks
  • Initiative
  • The ability to work independently
  • The ability to work in a team

These are some of the common skills valuable across several fields of study. Among these, which describes you most? Go ahead and write about it!

Demonstrate Understanding Of The Course You’re Applying For

Your work experience should deepen your understanding of the course you’re applying for, and this means that you can write about your general experience of an industry – as well as what you’ve achieved personally. Dig deeper and reflect on these points:

  • How is your course making a positive change in the world? If you’re eyeing health-related courses, explain how health workers have significantly impacted your life. Do you want to apply for education-related courses? Relay a story of how significant educators in your life changed you for the better.
  • Mention the gaps and problems you see in the field. Do you see a severe lack of health facilities? Perhaps you’ve witnessed the challenges teachers and professors experience in the education system.
  • What do you plan to do about it? Demonstrate that you’re applying for your chosen course because you want to help solve the problems that you see. Convince the admissions board that you’re the person for the course by writing about your desire to be an agent of change!

Reach Out To Role Models

To enhance your work experience personal statement, reach out to people who’ve been where you want to be. University students and professionals working in your dream career are great individuals to approach.

Set appointments with them and ask them about their experience. What is it like to be in their position? What are the challenges that they see? How are they working to improve their field of study?

Best of all, solicit advice on how to write your work experience personal statement. What skills do the admissions boards search for?

Then go back to your personal statement with the newfound knowledge. You can mention how their insights and advice shed greater light on how your work experience will help you succeed in your course, but be careful not to namedrop for the sake of it!

Do this in your personal statement, and you’re guaranteed to show that you have a dedicated approach to gaining work experience.

Read Up On The Current Situation Of Your Chosen Field

Soak up knowledge on the current challenges and breakthroughs of your chosen field. Read journal articles, news websites, and featured stories. You can also visit blogs written by practitioners or university students.

Make sure to cite authoritative sources and figures when discussing the status quo. Then weave the information back to your work experience.

Do you have similar experiences? Have you experienced any of these situations yourself? How could you make a difference in the field? Will your perspective matter?

What a perfect way to build credibility in the work experience section of your personal statement!

Check Out Work Experience Personal Statement Examples

You now have a rich draft of the work experience section in your personal statement. But you might still be unsure of how to word and structure it.

Why not check out work experience personal statement examples on the web? Examine how they presented their experiences and insights. Make sure to read as many examples as you can.

Choose your top 3 favourites and save them in your documents. If you’re short of ideas, go back to them. Don’t forget to highlight paragraphs, sentences, and words that inspire you, and utilise their structure. You might find, for example, that the ones you like best begin with a gripping anecdote before presenting the facts of a work experience, and finally reflect on the impact the experience had on the writer. You can mimic this in your statement!

Be Authentic And Vulnerable 

Don’t be afraid of being vulnerable in your work experience personal statement. The admissions board needs to know if you are genuinely passionate about this course or not, so don’t hold back!

But remember to stay authentic. Don’t overdramatise mundane events. State events as they happened, and share your realisations as they are. Authenticity is a precious factor!

Conclusion: Perfecting Your Personal Statement

With the suggestions mentioned above, you’ll be able to craft a more compelling and impactful personal statement that integrates your valuable. Understand that this is YOUR story. Don’t copy work experience paragraphs in other peoples’ personal statements.

Through adding a unique angle and spin to the work experience paragraph in your personal statement, you can rest assured that the admissions board will want to see you exceed in your chosen course!

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