What is a student’s biggest worry, other than passing their degree? Well ask most students this and I’ll bet the majority of them will say that money is their biggest worry as a student. So as a student, what do you do about this? Turn into an alcoholic… well some might I suppose, but most students will try to find part time jobs, student jobs or even summer jobs to give them that extra bit of income that they need.
So in light of these thoughts, I decided to go and investigate what it is like, how easy it is, how difficult it is for a student to get a part time job. As a young person myself I know plenty of students who have had part time jobs in Leeds, part time jobs in Cumbria, part time jobs in Newcastle and many other places, so I had plenty of research subjects to prey on.
My first port of call was to go on a night out with some of the Northumbria University student jobseekers, which basically translates as a night out where you hardly spend a penny. I’d had plenty of previous experience in this field, but when you are out with a purpose to learn things you never knew about a lifestyle that you are so used to and involved in, it felt pretty different. On my first bit of prey, I dropped into a conversation the question ‘How do you cope for money when you’re in full time education, have rent and bills to pay and more things like nights out and food?’ The response I got wasn’t what I expected, they simply said they don’t cope at times, they have their student loans and they get a weekly allowance from their parents, but it’s still not enough.
By pure coincidence, the next thing I knew I was standing at a bar on Newcastle quayside chatting to a person who was trying to recruit students to take up holiday jobs which can lead to graduate jobs. I wasn’t drunk at this time, so yes it was a real funny coincidence. This person was talking about how it’s so difficult to recruit uni students due to their already hectic schedules. I then actually introduced one of my student friends to this person and to my ultimate satisfaction, I found that less than a couple of hours into this night out, I’d already got one of my friends a part time student job.
We then proceeded to a strange little establishment that I can only best describe as, well… a strange little establishment. I never even knew this place existed, yet there I was partying on down on a dance floor with a man with a withered arm and a woman on what appeared to be a dog lead – they were doing this strange hop along dance move. It was good entertainment to be fair and it seemed to have all the students’ enthusiasm and attention, so it was all good fun. Well in this strange little establishment I started talking to the woman who to my astonishment actually was on a dog lead (fashion accessory i guess), and she was saying about her daughter who had went off to Uni in Leeds and had managed to find part time jobs in Leeds that were relevant to her course which ironically was fashion. This gave me food for thought indeed, so the night went from strength to strength and then before i knew it i was being told it was time to call it a night. So as we all slumped back home in the bright light of the early morning with professionals on their way to work looking at us as if we were some sort of unique and wild species, all I could think about was what could be done to give students a better chance of finding student jobs, holiday jobs, summer jobs, and part time jobs.
The next morning, or should I say afternoon, I went online and started searching for a service that could help with what I am trying to find. Then after a few minutes of browsing I came across a website called www.ukstudentjobs.com, whose motto was ‘Discover new jobs to fit in with your student life’ BINGO! I’d found what I was looking for, a very colourful and artistic little corner of the internet which was dedicated to helping students within the UK to find part time jobs, summer jobs and even graduate jobs. So I would suggest that if you’re a student reading this, give UKstudentjobs.com a go because not only is it an ideal service, the help and support from their support team is second to none.
By Ben Little ©
By: Daaaaavid
Posts Tagged ‘Part Time Jobs’
A Student’s Guide to Getting Part Time Jobs/student Jobs When at University or College
November 5th, 2009Summer Jobs – 3 Simple Rules
October 5th, 2009When I was in school I typically started looking for a summer job a couple of days after my exams ended. I always wondered why some people found such terrific jobs while I seemed to have so much trouble.
The best summer jobs I ever had were places where I already had some kind of an in. The first was in my senior year of high school, at a local utility company where my aunt worked. There I earned much better than average income for my age and got some great accounting experience. During my university years I had a summer job with our local school board that I heard about from my next door neighbour who, again, worked for there
But what about when you do not have an in? Yes, I found jobs, but they were not always that great. Having a crummy, low-paying job can not only wreck your summer, but also lead to financial hardship during the school year, I often found myself working 2 or 3 part time jobs throughout the school year to make my rent and tuition payments, never mind having spending money for entertainment.
There are ways that one can avoid such pitfalls. The 3 things I never did, but should have: Plan, network, and start early.
Plan
Some people have terrific summer work experiences that help them in their permanent job search when school is over. While I had some ideas about what I wanted to do when I completed my post-secondary education, I always looked at summer work as a way to get through school, a means to an end, as opposed to a foot in the door when I finished my degree. When I received my BA, I found that most of the jobs I was interested in required some previous experience or credentials I had not managed to get while I was in school. Seems pretty stupid, but I never had a plan, aside from getting a degree, as to how to obtain the career I was interested in. This left me, and many others who graduated during the economic recession at that time, casting about just to get a job never mind a career.
Network
Being in a school environment affords a student ample opportunity to get information about many career opportunities. Once the summer jobs I found through my aunt and neighbour had ended I felt as though my network of ins had pretty much been exhausted. What I should have been doing was building that network! Interviewing people who had the jobs I was interested in obtaining when I graduated and getting information on the experience and credentials that I would need would have been a giant step forward (this can sometimes even lead to internships or seasonal employment if you make a great impression). Networking with my friends, their parents, my parents’ friends and so on. Joining campus clubs or volunteering my time in areas related to my field of interest would also have been beneficial. High schools guidance departments and post-secondary employment service centres could, and should, be utilized. More than that, there are teachers and professors to speak to. Being shy and just a little bewildered by it all, I failed to develop any connection with my university professors or TAs who could have provided me with valuable resources, including summer work experiences which in turn could have advanced my career aspirations.
Networking can also work in reverse, that is, you might learn what jobs to avoid. The summer prior to my final year of university I opted not to move home because I didn’t want to lose my apartment. There were posters all over campus exclaiming “Work Outside on Boats!” Sounded great to me! Early in May I reported for work at a Toronto yacht club. The job was not that glamorous, it was cold, hard work scrubbing boats that had been stored outside for the winter. We were assured that things would get better as the weather warmed up and after the initial spring cleaning was out of the way. Indeed, it probably was for the young man who had subcontracted the work from the club and the 2 or 3 friends he kept on after laying the rest of us off! There I was, with a lease and no income. Complaining of my misfortune around campus I learned that others were aware of this shady outfit, it is a small world after all! If only I had taken some time to look into the job before committing to it, I would have saved myself a world of trouble.
START EARLY
Planning and networking needs to be happening all the time. As a student I operated under the misconception that I should be focussing solely on achieving good grades. In retrospect, I could and should have given some of my study time (and social time) over to career planning. A person can get so bogged down with their studies (and in my case juggling part-time jobs) that they neglect to do the work that will truly affect their career more than a high grade-point average.
Start early, plan early (understanding that a plan made early will also need to be flexible), network early, and look for summer work EARLY. It never occurred to me that I should be looking for my summer job during the dead of winter. Being fixated on my studies in February led to a great deal of frustration in the spring. The fact is, many summer jobs are advertised in the winter and early spring. Seasonal job fairs take place months before the summer work term and this is when the bulk of hiring will take place.
Does the early bird really catch the worm? While there may be an element of luck involved in job searching, starting early and applying the plan and network approach will improve your odds of landing a great summer job that might just launch your career.
By: Vin Domino
The Day I Found the Path to My Dream Full Time Job
September 18th, 2009Have you ever considered that your personality might be a factor in whether you get a full time job or not, or even whether you get a part time job or not? Well I know I hadn’t, until a friend pointed out that we all have one of these ‘personalities’. So on realising this, I decided to go out in to that enormously large universe of information that is the world wide web, on a mission to find out my true self, the true inner me, my personality as one would call it. All this in the hope that I find out what I need to know about myself to make the big step up from student life and student part time jobs, to the scary, but exciting world of being a graduate and getting my first graduate job which hopefully would lead to a great full time job.
So there I was, browsing the internet on your usual searching websites, getting nowhere, until all of a sudden as if a switch had just been flicked, exactly what I was looking for appeared before my very eyes on the screen in front of me. Yes, the answers to all my pondering thoughts about personality affecting what type of jobs in Newcastle that I will get or will not get, all within a click away. The website was Bluezonjobs.com and it offered a free psychometric personality test. As I took a deep breath and was preparing to learn about myself things that I may already know, things that may pleasantly surprise me, or things that I subconsciously already know are true, but don’t like to admit to myself.
As I was preparing to make the big click, thoughts were flooding into my mind about previous employments that I’ve had, my part time jobs in Leeds while at University, my part time jobs in Cumbria while I was a boy in a man’s world and how these all compare to my potential future job or jobs in Newcastle that I was comprehending. What if I didn’t like what this personality test told me? What if it shattered my confidence, or what if it made everything I’d achieved at University seem worthless now? Well this was something I had to do, and with the comfort of older siblings telling me that a degree is a degree and as long as you’ve got one in whatever subject, you will always find a career in any field you want. You know they say to learn about yourself you need to stare down the barrel of a gun, well this was a similar feeling, only without the possibility of being shot at the end of it all. As I stared down the barrel, or at my screen in real terms, questions began to appear on my screen that instantly made me think about myself and my prospects of full time jobs that I enjoy, because the last thing I want is a job like my part time jobs that I had while at University. Then once the final question was answered, I nervously waited for the dreaded news as my results loaded (talk about walking on egg shells)…
Sitting there in my old roughed up chair that had taken the hammerings of a conveyor belt of students in the past, possibly all going through the same frantic full time job searching on Newcastle full time job websites as me, it sudden dawned on me that even before the results, the excellent questions on this Bluezonjobs.com website had already answered a lot for me and taught me a few valuable lessons about my inner personality. Then as I sat there with my eyes scrunched shut fearing what I was going to see, the inevitable ‘ding’ sound that my laptop makes when something has finished loading echoed in my ears, and before i knew it, as if by magic the information that I’d craved for so long was there in front of me for me to see. What I seen delighted me, it was as if the Bluezonjobs.com Psychometric Profile Testing tool had drilled into my deep mind and plucked out all the things I didn’t know I already knew about myself. It gave me several relevant pieces of information, types of jobs that were relevant to what I’d been studying for at Leeds, but also types of jobs that made me feel inspired and enthusiastic about my future – This was a great feeling.
This was a real valuable learning exercise for me, and thanks to this, after working my way up through various typical graduate jobs in Newcastle and then working my way up with promotions from jobs in Cumbria, I now have a really successful career in the property business which is a job in Leeds that I love and that pays me a wage better than I could ever have imagined. Bluezonjobs.com is a website that I would thoroughly recommend as not only did this site help me with the Psychometric testing, but it was where I found my graduate jobs, and then my jobs in Newcastle and ultimately my amazing career and life that I now have. My job now really is a far cry from my previous part time jobs and student jobs.
By Ben Little ©
By: Beniano
