Sam Parker is assistant editor on AOL Music, former content editor of ZOOtoday.com and, naturally, a freelancer. He’d love for you to follow him on Twitter or at his personal vanity project.

‘One day, this too will be pleasant to remember’ said Virgil.

It’s unlikely the ancient smartarse was referring to the rite-of-passage that is a young journalist’s work experience year, but he could have been.

Looking back on the eight months I spent traipsing around magazine offices in London, writing and editing, usually for free, I can only recall now how exhilarating it all was. So my first piece of advice to anyone contemplating the same is don’t be daunted. Eschewing training to be a journalist for just going out there and being one instead was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.

And if it helps, here are some of the things I did during the time I would have spent studying: wrote a feature for Times 2 on London’s performance poetry scene, flew all-expenses-paid to L.A. to report on a new computer game, threw a party around Trafalgar Square on an open-top bus with three glamour models, defended the concept of pay walls (and Come Dine With Me) for GQ, attended Jason Statham’s birthday party with Empire Magazine and interviewed Giles Coren and AA Gill on journalism, blogging and the future of the internet. Show me a journalism course anywhere offering those modules.

Crucially all of it – even the time I had to go and be photographed eating the UK’s biggest burger in a greasy spoon cafe in Bristol – involved being a journalist in practise, rather than in theory. It was all an opportunity to show editors the only thing they care about: that I had the ability and personality to deliver them the story, the interview and the copy they needed by deadline. Do that enough times, and they’ll care roughly as much about your absent post-grad qualification as they do about your brilliant personal blog.

As every aspiring journo knows, the basic idea is that you excel on enough work experience placements until eventually someone offers you a break. But here’s the thing I think some people miss. In my opinion, you have to be prepared to do almost anything to take that chance when it comes along. The first time I was offered a week’s worth of paid work at the magazine I’d interned for, it meant quitting my brand new ‘stop gap’ job on the spot (and no, sadly, there wasn’t a wealthy family member to back  me up). Far more impressively, a friend of mine flew back from a holiday in Australia just to attend an interview for a job at the BBC (which he got).

You may think if it happens once, it will happen again. Trust me – say no at this stage, and you won’t be asked back by the same place twice. During my first proper journalism job, we decided to give one of our excellent recent interns a chance to cover for me while I went on holiday. The guy we asked said he couldn’t because he’d left London and lived too far away. It may sound harsh, but he’d blown it. We needed someone quickly, and the next person on our list jumped at the chance.

The old moan: ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’ doesn’t actually mean your Uncle is Alan Rusbridger (though that would help), it means that you need to make friends wherever you go. And so the final tip I would offer is to pick your mentors wisely.

I’d recommend the person who treats everyone – his boss, the junior writer, the tea lady – with the same courtesy and respect. They’re the ones who are secure enough in their own talents to give a new face an even break, and not just use you for free labour in the mean time. And of course, they’re the perfect type to learn from, even after your tortuous work experience year is over. Just try and remember to enjoy it while it lasts.