Internship Experience UK: Advice for your work sample

We know the work sample task during Internship Experience UK can seem a bit daunting, but it's a worthwhile activity that will give you a taste of what work could be like in your chosen sector. It helps you decide if you can see yourself in this profession in the future, as well as gives you some great talking points for your CVs and interviews - including how it improves your analytical skills, industry knowledge and teamwork (through the peer review).

We've put together some advice below to help you feel confident about this part of the experience.

Keep scrolling to find:

1.1 Dos and Don'ts for your work sample

1.2 Guidance for using AI for your work sample

1.3 Guidance for submitting your work sample

• Read through the task and any accompanying material in full (maybe even twice) to make sure you understand what the employer is asking of you. This may seem like an obvious one but it goes a long way in reality
• Use your initiative - make sure you use all resources available to you (Google is your friend for this task!)
• Utilise your new network - everyone on the experience is in the same boat as you, so don't hesitate to reach out to your new network on the IEUK Guild group (join via one of your welcome emails), ask them questions and brainstorm together. This is a great opportunity to cement your new connections and learn from each other

• Start working on the task before the dedicated working time. Make sure to attend all the sessions so you can implement any learnings in your project
• Ask the team on the Help Desk for help with the work sample - we can only help with logistical questions, not anything to do with the work itself. Take note of points 1 and 2 in the Dos section and look at theFAQs before consulting the Support Team for any quick questions
• Worry too much about your final product - this is easier said than done, but please be assured that this task is for you to learn and practise the skills you've gained on the programme. Your work will not be shared with the employers and, as long as you submit a valid work sample where you've attempted the task, you will still get your certificate
• Cheat by copying work from peers or online - this may be tempting, but you'll only be denying yourself of the opportunity to boost your skills and confidence during your internship experience. If you want something to talk about during interviews, it's more believable if you completed the task yourself

AI tools like ChatGPT can be really useful for tasks like the ones set during IEUK. However, make sure you're using them effectively. This means using AI to enhance your work, rather than completing it for you, so you can still learn from the experience and produce a high-quality outcome.

Things to consider if using AI for your work sample:

• Use it for inspiration - AI is great to get you started with ideas and insight. There may also be templates or tools it can give you. However, use it for inspiration rather than a core contributor to your work sample. This way, you can use your judgement to sense whether your work is of high quality and you can still learn from the experience.
• Create a good brief - anything you get out of AI will only be as good as you put in. Provide the platform a clear, detailed brief in order to get a useful response back. However, never give it any hard data that could breach GDPR rules or share your personal data.
• Proofread your work - this goes for submitting anything, whether you've used AI or not, but make sure you've read through your project to check that it all makes sense and is in your own (not AI's) tone of voice.

You need to submit your work sample via a shareable link. This means using a virtual tool like Google Docs, Google Sheets or Google Slides to produce your work, or a sharing tool like WeTransfer.

If you've completed your work sample task in Word or a similar tool, we recommend using WeTransfer to submit your work. To do this:

1. Export your work as a PDF (click 'Save As' and then choose the PDF format)
2. Upload the document to WeTransfer for free
3. Click the three dots (picture below) to change the format to 'Get transfer link'
4. Copy the link and paste it into the submission form provided via email on Day 4 of IEUK

Alternatively, you could complete your work in the Google Suite (e.g. Google Docs, Sheets or Slides). To submit your work from this format:

1. Click 'Share' in the top right hand corner of your Google document
2. Change the access rules to say 'Anyone with the link' can access your document
3. Click 'Copy link' and then paste it into the submission form provided via email on Day 4 of IEUK