We know that around the beginning of semester lots of you think about getting a part-time job. Our student intern, Stephanie Gray, gives her advice to get you started.
What are the Benefits of Part-Time Work?
Build Experience
- Boost your CV – working while you study shows good time management skills and will improve your confidence and knowledge of the workplace for future job applications
Support Yourself
- Extra income during the semesters to support yourself and cover your living expenses.
- Often there are options to work more hours during the summer to support yourself when you don’t have student loans, bursaries or support funding.
Make Connections
- You will usually be able to keep in touch with managers when you leave who can give you references for future jobs or point you towards opportunities.
- Working part-time is a great way of meeting other students but also meeting new people outside of the student community.
What are your options?
Working within the University
The university employs student staff across the different university departments. This can be a good option if you’re worried about being able to prioritise your academic commitments around work. University staff are used to working with students and understand that you have other commitments. Roles include: student assistant, student caller, student ambassador, IT support, admin roles, retail and hospitality roles.
Working in Hospitality
The hospitality sector has seen mass staff shortages during the summer of 2021, due to the impact of Brexit and covid-19. It’s still worth looking for these kinds of opportunities. Even if you might think they aren’t as widely available as they would be normally, recent trends suggest the opposite is true.
Tutoring
Tutoring was a popular option even before the pandemic but online tutoring opportunities have boomed since the coronavirus outbreak. Tutoring can be done on a freelance basis (this is not possible for everyone) or through online tutoring websites. On some platforms you can earn up to £20 an hour and you’ll be able to choose how much work you take on and organise lessons around your availability.
Other sectors to consider
Other industries with lots of part-time vacancies are health and social care which could be working for the NHS and private care companies. This does not always have to be care work – these organisations will also recruit administrative staff and receptionists.
Recently there’s also been an increase in online Sales and Customer Service positions as well as delivery and warehouse jobs.
Keep your options open!
Don’t limit yourself to the possibilities mentioned above – keep your options open and consider all the different possibilities.
How can we help you?
You’ll find links on this webpage to some of the different places you can look for all the types of jobs mentioned above – and important information about things to watch out for:
Where to look for part-time jobs
We run an event called Finding Part-Time Work in Semester 1 which we would encourage you to attend if you want more advice. There is also a recorded video on MediaHopper of the same name covering similar topics for those who can’t attend. Find out more about these in our Career Essentials leaflet.
Watch for our #PartTimeJobofTheWeek on the Careers’ Service Twitter page which highlights new opportunities.
Coming soon! Watch out for Stephanie’s posts about working in the gig economy, and applying for part time jobs.
(Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels)
(Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels)
