By Saad Khawaja, BA Business Management
Part-time jobs are a great way to earn some extra money, gain work experience and make new friends while you are at University. They offer another social element to life, where you’re not only building up your transferable interpersonal skills, but also meeting other students who are working in a similar capacity. Plus, there’s the financial independence!
It is possible to do a part time job whilst studying. However, we all need to remember that our studies are our first and foremost priority, so part-time work comes second.
For international students, our visa states that we can work no more than 20 hours per week. However, the university recommends that students work no more than 16 hours a week in order to be able to prioritise their academics and strike a balance between studying and working. For over seas students, the first thing to the route of finding a part-time job includes applying for, and obtaining a National Insurance Number, which every employer requires before you can start working for them.
The university runs a Careers Service, where experienced career advisors help you with refining your CV, and any other documents that you may need in order to apply for part-time jobs.
Working on part-time jobs provides you something to put on paper-worth for your CV, and provides evidence to employers when applying for graduate jobs and summer internships so that you really stand out from the crowd and have done more than just studying whilst at university. It provides you with an edge and gives you something to speak about in an interview and expand upon how it led up to building your interpersonal skills.
In addition, the Careers Service runs a Skills for Work programme whereby students are encouraged to complete 50 hours’ worth of work experience, upon which the Careers Service provides a student with a Skills for Work Certificate which is endorsed by leading companies and brands such as PwC, BT, The RBS Group, etc.
All in all, it is a great opportunity to be able to work on part-time jobs as they provide you with extra money to fill your pockets for the month. However, care must be taken that you prioritise your academics first over such part-time jobs and don’t let them get in the way of you reaching greater academic heights!