Meet Larry. Here at Primarius we are always encouraging students or those looking at different careers to undertake work experience as a way to see how they enjoy the type of work.  I myself spent 3 years studying engineering and only when I started doing the practical side realised it was really not for me and was thrilled when I found accounting (dorky but true!) So, this is a very important issue to us as a firm and to me personally.

Over the years we have assisted many of our work experience attendees to find full-time employment, either with us, another firm or sometimes even another field.

A few years ago, we met Larry working at a retail outlet near our office.  He indicated he was keen to do 2-weeks of work experience in our accounting and tax area as he was studying commerce.  Recently I bumped into Larry again and he is now studying Engineering and having worked with him for a short time my first instinct was that he would make a great engineer, which I told him.  I then got Larry’s permission to post this update as a current example of why work experience is so important when embarking on study or a new career. Read more here about why we offer work experience.

This was the feedback that we received from Larry recently about his career choices:

As to why I decided to change career trajectories, I think a lot of it had to do with my attitude towards studying. Throughout my Commerce degree, I had just kind of studied for the sake of studying; I knew that eventually this path would lead to a career in this industry, but it never felt like there was a concrete connection between those two ideas. It didn't feel real to me at the time, which I think is a symptom of the current tertiary education model. There's was a lack of practical work at uni, so I was never exposed to an industry environment. During the work experience, you gave me it really kind of hit me all at once. I thought maybe I should really re-evaluate what I was studying for and whether this career was for me or not. In that sense, I think work-experience, or at least getting exposure to your intended industry, is invaluable.

Thanks to Larry for your great feedback and for agreeing to be part of our update.  It is quite coincidental that Larry ended up in Engineering, however we have had many of our work experience attendees move onto other fields, including tax consulting, audit services, nursing and teaching.

So, at Primarius, we are able to offer work experience through our non-for-profit Salt Financial Care Services Ltd (SALT) - read more about SALT here.  If you know anyone who is struggling with career choices, then suggest they get some work experience before embarking any studies. If you know anyone interested in taking part in some accounting and taxation work experience then ask them to email us at HRTeam@Primarius.net.au