A big issue that many students and graduates are facing these days is the fact that they are struggling to find the jobs they want they because they lack experience. How do you convince employers that you’ll be good at the job if you’ve never done it before? But of course how do you get that first experience without prior experience? Well, one solution to this problem of is to tap into your contacts list. They are, of course, a great way to get one foot through the door. It’s an easy way to get big CV points. Another way is to take part in societies and make the most of what they have to offer. Doing this will give you very transferable skills and great insight – and with the best societies, this will often be for free! One series of events in particular gives students an unparalleled opportunity to get a real business experience. This is Oxford Entrepreneurs’ The OxPrentice.

The idea behind The OxPrentice is simply that students are put into teams and are given business challenges to complete, just like in the TV series, The Apprentice. However, instead of being a knockout competition, with the OxPrentice, the winners of each challenge will have the opportunity to take forward their idea after the event and build on it to make it their own venture that they will run. What is unique about this series is the fact that students are given the chance to experience first-hand real responsibility for a money making project. Whilst some societies provide “trading games” to simulate the trading floor at a bank/hedge fund, or trial law cases, the opportunities that arise from the OxPrentice are by no means fictional. To illustrate this, there were two winners of the iPhone App challenge that we held at the end of last month. One team is already at a stage where they will be meeting with the developers from Inside Mobile to speak about the coding that will be involved in developing their idea. The other team is making rigorous plans to ensure that their idea will materialise into a sexy yet simple app that will hopefully become a very scalable product.

Events like this, and the G&D’s Ice Cream Flavour Event, that we held all day on Wednesday 6th week Michaelmas at Science Oxford (see map) are great ways to get business experience. Running your own venture requires many skills such as organisation, leadership and negotiation. Employees recognise this and therefore look for people with these kinds of experiences. There are no risks in terms of financial investment, so opportunities such as these are rare. Seize the day, and help yourself gain the right experience.