Student years are considered to be the best years of your life, and the college education itself is a valuable experience, yet, it is highly essential to make sure you secure your future while making the most out of the student life. Nowadays, your CV will speak for itself, which ideally should include experience in addition to your degree. 

There are many ways you can become an expert; from reading professional books to listening to self-development podcasts. If you are interested in the ways that you can gain meaningful work experience while still being a student, continue reading for the best 6 tips we have put together for you: 

 

Do volunteer work 

Find a non-governmental organization that corresponds to your field of hobbies and get involved! If there is no appropriate paid position, try finding a targeted volunteer opportunity that can count toward your work experience. Try searching for recurring volunteer opportunities that have a consistent schedule, and ideally are located in an area relevant to your major. 

For example, imagine you are a digital marketing student with no professional experience yet. Getting enrolled in a local NGO and joining the social media department will give you numerous opportunities to get involved in your field. For instance, you will help the team to create an Instagram marketing strategy or SMS Marketing for spreading targeted event invitations or even making youtube thumbnails for their channel. 

Thus, besides being able to show your future employer such soft qualities as punctuality, organizational, communication skills, you will also be able to display professional skills as you have experience in Marketing. 

Freelance work

For doing freelance work, it does not matter whether you are a student or not. It is a great means to acquire real work experience and receive payment online from any corner of the world. 

To start, if you have no experience in freelancing, you may have to do your first freelance job for free or low pay for gaining experience and good feedback.

The great news is that after your first time(or maybe a couple of more), you now have more experience you can add to your resume and increase the payment for an hour. 

Another advantage of freelance jobs is that they can be as short as a day or two, or as long as several months, so it is up to you to choose whichever option works best for you. And remember, sometimes a job that starts as a freelance can turn into a full-time position.

Start your project or business

Campuses across the world are filled with student- entrepreneurs, why not become one yourself. Launching your project while being a student is challenging and rewarding at the same time. To begin with, you need to have a clear understanding of what your project's goals are and what impact you want it to have. If you're having a hard time picking a business project, here are some great business ideas for students.

Whether you are doing a student project, research, or social project, it will help you set up a great network and gain the experience your future employee is seeking for. 

SOP examples and e-commerce strategy tips are available for you and will serve as a foundation for helping you be consistent, cover exactly how to perform a task, and learn from the best business examples.

The promotion of your project will also be easier than it ever was. You may either request your institution to include the posts about your project on their Social media channels or if for some reason it is not possible, you should start your social media accounts and plan your content in a way that will effectively raise awareness about it. 

Part-time job 

Working part-time is a key to finding out if that is the type of work that you enjoy doing. Starting a part-time job will help you to learn more about time management effectively and gain experience to break into your desired field.

FactoHR has several professional articles that will help you have a clear understanding of the HR insights and decide if a part-time job is right for you now. 

Some students find it hard to start pursuing a career in the first years of study, due to the lack of experience. As a result, some find food/hospitality part-time jobs while being in college or university, but in this case, it is important not to limit yourself to just these jobs. For example, you can also continue attending courses and getting certifications or invest in versatile cryptocurrencies, like litecoin.

Internships 

Who said that the most useful source of work experience should be the one that pays? More and more new graduates are applying for internships as a part of their undergraduate degree requirements. 

Finding the right internship can be challenging, so be sure to do proper research before you decide to pursue it.

If your university or college website is not functional or does not have a proper user acquisition strategy, visit your college career center, as well as check local online sources for finding the right fit. You can also make your CV and directly email the company you'd wish to start your journey in.

Often companies offer a stipend for new graduates who hold an internship in their company. It can sometimes lead to a job within the company, or at the very least, it gives you experience and references for your CV. 

Join a Research Team

Joining a research team is a great way to enhance your resume and gain academic experience. This is a unique opportunity to work side-by-side with faculty members and staff. Many students also join the StuDocu research sharing platform where they can share their scientific pieces and exchange their expertises with their colleagues. Research work also can help develop soft skills including, and not limited to teamwork, leadership, analytical skills, and communication skills.

Working with an active research group will provide opportunities to fully get engaged in the university community and practice your discipline. 

Furthermore, it will provide an invaluable complement to your coursework. It is a place where you will collaborate with many people to formulate questions, design experiments, gather data, and present the results for review. 

 

To sum up, our final thoughts on gaining experience in college/university are that - experience is experience. Try not to worry about which type of experience to obtain, the more the better. 

Get yourself out of your comfort zone, experience, and learn.