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# 14
TALKING ABOUT YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE
un stage = a work placement / a period of work experience ( See Bruce
Robertson's discussion on the uses of these words. At the bottom of this page.)
un stagiaire = a trainee
a six-week unpaid placement
I worked with a firm of subcontractors specialising in car equipment
They produce a range of electronic machines
the R&D [Research and Development] department
I used CAD [Computer Aided Design] equipment
my tutor / supervisor...
I worked on my own
The staff were very friendly
I was in charge of sthg / V-ing
I had to reorganise the warehouse
My job consisted in reorganising...
I was asked to reorganise...
They made me reorganise
I carried out a study of the production line
I think it was a great experience
It gave me first-hand knowledge of life in a factory
It forced me to master new skills
It was not exactly as I expected [it to be]
Contrary to what I expected, I didn't get any pay!
.. et ajouter ici le vocabulaire spécifique à votre activité
v Introduce
§yourself (studies, future plans, ...)
§ the company (type of activity, location, assets, problems)
v Explain how you prepared your work experience.
§ how you chose / found the company;
§ what you expected from this experience.
v Describe
§your activities.
(Did you analyse a problem? Did you create / improve something? What tools did
you use? What were your working hours? Did you work on your own or in a team?)
§ the problems you had to face (technical problems, human relationships, ...)
v Analyse the results
§ for the company (Will they use what you created? Did you change their way of
working?)
§ for yourself:
in terms of professional skills (What did you learn / improve?)
in terms of personality: what qualities did you develop (self reliance,
team-work, creativity, ...)?
what you liked and didn't like.
Has it changed your attitude? your vision of working life? your choice of a
career?
v Conclude by deciding if it was a positive / negative experience.
Contributed by Jean Roy
After going for a whirl on my concordancer, I have come to a few tentative
conclusions concerning the usage of "work placement, internship, training course
and work experience".
1. WORK PLACEMENT
General usage in British English
Collocations: accept, undertake, find a work placement to be on, on a placement
I have often heard "do" a placement in Somerset. At least I think I have... :-)
2. INTERNSHIP
In British English, internship tends to be used more in a medical context or a
business context (to do with MBAs). Sometimes used to refer to American context.
American usage includes both medical and non-medical contexts
Collocations take up an, do an, complete an, begins with an internship
3. TRAINING COURSE
Usually used with driving, computer, teacher, etc. Not work experience related.
Collocations: go on a, teach a, sponsor a, run a, undergo a
4. WORK EXPERIENCE
Seems more common in British English than the other terms. However, I found no
examples of "a work experience".
Collocations: gain, have, do, be on
"But one graduate says that faking work experience is easy"
5. CONCLUSION
To translate "stage" I would use "gain work experience" (uncountable) or
"placement" (countable). Although "work experience" is far more common in the
corpora I have checked, "placement" is the word used by my colleagues in
Britain.
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