How to Find a Part-Time Job at University

We don’t need to tell you that university can be pricey, and so getting a part-time job can be the best way to avoid eating Tesco value noodles and toast for three years straight. Eleni Cashell, the editor of Whatuni, explains how to find a part-time job at university.

Go to Student Haunts

 

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Do you know who really like hiring students? Your university. After all, they’d rather hire their own students, who picked their uni over all others, than a random who knows nothing about them.

It’s likely that your campus is full of potential employment opportunities. So head to the student union bar, the cafes, the restaurants, even the library, and ask if they’ve got any vacancies.

As well as being in a convenient location, the best thing about these jobs is they’re often flexible hours. So you could pick up the odd shift after lectures, before having drinks with friends, or just as a form of paid study break.

That’s What Friends are For

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Annoyingly there is some truth in the overused cliché of “it’s not just what you know, it’s who you know”.

Ask your friends if they’ve got any friends of friends looking to hire people. Or maybe they’ve just landed a job somewhere and there are other jobs going too? You never know unless you ask.

Of course, the easiest way to do this is to post something on social media and hope they see your post amongst the baby pictures, weddings and birthday notifications. But it probably wouldn’t hurt to drop a text or arrange to see them too.

 

Walk into Town

 

 

Your nearest town is where you get all your shopping. From the food essentials to the fancy dress accessories, you’ll head there. And if that’s where you’re going, chances are that other students are doing the same.

 

Most student-based towns will often have shops that like to hire the students that live nearby. You’re there for the busy periods (which is when students are there), can work flexible hours and the shop can go back to having skeleton numbers of staff when you head home for the holidays and the town becomes quieter as a result (you noisy bunch).

 

Ask Your Lecturers

 

 

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If you want your part-time job to be relevant to your future full-time career, then why not ask your lecturers if they know of any work? They’re likely to have an industry filled contact book, full of potential work that won’t look out of place on your CV. And as long as you haven’t been caught sleeping in lectures, handing in assignments drunk or turning up late in your onesie, they’ll probably consider helping you out.

Go Online

 

As well as putting on your best walking shoes and heading into town, you can also find a part-time job in your slippers.

Using sites like the very one you’re on now, you can find part-time work that fits you, your uni schedule, and of course, your social side.

Freelance

 

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Don’t like being bossed around? Want to set your own hours? Then why not become your own boss and earn some money by freelancing.

Whether you’ve got some serious Photoshop skills, can banter in different languages or have the maths skills of a Countdown contestant, someone out there may want to learn your specialist skills, and will happily pay you to teach them. You can help someone and earn money. Win/Win.

Work for Free

 

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Ok, this one sucks a little bit in the short term, by doing volunteering work or an unpaid internship here and there, you’ll build experience on your CV, which in the long term could impress employers and land you full-time work in the future.