When you go to university, it can be very handy to have a part time job because it allows you to increase your employability, earns you a bit of money (which is always great) and it allows you to mix with people you might never have met otherwise. Therefore, in this blog post I’m going to be giving you some tips to finding a part-time job, and some important things to think about too.
Word Of Caution On Part-Time Jobs:
Before we dive into finding a job at university, I have to mention that you need to consider the hours you can do. Since I remember from my first year, my flatmates were all very excited to get part-time work during their studying before quickly realising that they were in an awful situation. They were working lots of long hours and they didn’t have enough time to study, but they couldn’t reduce their hours, because their bosses didn’t see the problem.
Therefore, my suggestion is before you set out to find a part-time job, take a look at your timetable and see how many hours you can work without it impacting your studies.
I think I remember a university person saying to us, we advise you only do 20 hours or less a week. In all honesty, this makes perfect sense, because 20 hours is still a good amount of work to earn you some money, but it isn’t so much that it should impact your studies.
So 20 hours or less might be the way to go. Personally I would stick with less if you can.
The University Itself:
Now, universities make great use of students in their labour force because there are so many jobs available to students at the start of the academic year. All the cafes, libraries and whatever else your university has all need to be filled with student workers. Even more so because each year the final year students leave the university so these places need to be restocked with new student staff members.
Also, some graduate-level students may be able to find programmes / opportunities that will enable them to teach, either at the university or elsewhere. My supervisor, for instance, is a PhD student who teaches seminars, workshops, and lab sessions.
As a result, when it comes to finding jobs at university, it is a great idea to look at the different places at your university to see if they have any jobs. For example, I know if I go into any bar, café or restaurant website that’s at my university, there will always be a job section at the bottom.
The key to finding jobs is just having a look and trying to make the most of it.
A Job Shop?
Of course all of these blog posts are just my experiences and thoughts, but at my university they have ‘A Job Shop’. I’m sure other universities will have something similar so it’s good to be aware of.
This Job Shop is where the university, local businesses and other places advertise their jobs to students. Making this a great place to have a look if you’re looking for work.
Also it’s worth noting that universities do Career Fairs where hundreds of companies come in and try to sell themselves to the students. They can actually be quite good (just don’t do what I do and just go for the freebies).
Online:
Stepping away from the university-centric ways of finding jobs, you can always look online. Each country will have their own job seeking platforms, like Indeed in the UK, and these are effective ways to find work. You tend to just search for a job, filter the results by part-time work and apply for a job that way.
Conclusion:
Whenever you start thinking about getting a part-time job at university, it can be daunting because you don’t know where to look. But hopefully after reading this post, you now have some idea about how to find one. Whether it is at the university itself, a job shop or online, there are plenty of ways to find a job. Remember to keep an eye out for work in your relevant field too!
But please, remember to prioritise your degree because that is why you are there in the first place.
For other blogs like this, check out the Active-Class Blog page.
