#working while studying

I know the deal. Student loans and tight budget can make a part-time job necessary to ease the financial burden. Or maybe you’re on a gap year and want money to travel. The problem is, the kind of work available to students is generally quite dull, not well paid, and painful hours. It can be hard on you mentally when you’re used to studying all the time and you’re doing a job wiping up other peoples’ crap without feeling like you’re achieving anything. To be honest, my favourite student job is definitely being a tutor, but tutoring can be a sketchy and unreliable source of income until you have a steady set of students, which means it’s not feasible straight away, but it’s something to consider getting into if you’re really struggling.

Tip 1) Give yourself little goals to work for - ie. if you’re a barista, work on perfecting that latte art, google youtube videos how to do it, give yourself lil things to get excited about. Or just simpler things, “today I want to improve x customers day” by giving them an extra biscuit with their coffee, or offering to carry their tray if they have a pram or aren’t mobile. Your manager may even notice and think “damn that girl/guy is flourishing their customer service”.

Tip 2) Think of the reasons you’re doing it - is it so you can pay your rent? work out if you take that overtime you’re offered, how much percentage of your rent it’ll be. If it’s so you don’t have to fret about money so much, think about how many coffees you can buy if you bear with work for another hour. If it’s so you can go travelling, work out what percentage of your plane ticket the next 3 hours will grant you.

Tip 3) If it gets too much, consider dropping your hours. This isn’t always possible but your boss won’t fire you just because you want less hours. Nothing is more important than your health and wellbeing so think of where you can cut things out. Be that, the extra credits your taking for uni, or the cover shifts for your hungover colleague, be kind to yourself.

Hi! I didn’t work in my first year. Throughout my second and third year, I did a lot of tutoring -music theory, piano and NCEA biology. I also volunteered at StarJam every month or so. Tutoring is really great because you can be relatively more flexible with the hours you work, compared to other part-time jobs. 

In my fourth (honours) year, I was a graduate teaching assistant (university tutor) for a first year POPLHLTH paper. This was a fantastic job because I loved teaching and it paid really well. I also got to know the faculty staff a lot better, and they got to know me- essentially a really good networking opportunity. (Unfortunately, these positions aren’t usually open to undergraduate students).

(via Working while studying in UK - Part-time Jobs for International Students)

Working while studying in UK – Part-time job opportunities

Study maintenance loans often fail to cover the cost of living due to which more students are forced to get a part-time job to manage their expenses. A survey conducted by Endsleigh in 2015 indicated that eight out of ten students are now working part-time to help fund their studies. More than half of students who work part-time spend their additional income on necessities such as accommodation, food and household bills.

How to find part-time jobs?

Students are open to numerous ways of finding a part-time job that includes –

Using university job shops

Through local networking and meeting people

Christmas jobs

Conducting personal market research and contacting relevant job providers in the local area.

Looking for part-time jobs in the UK? CLICK HERE to explore the comprehensive city-wise list of part-time openings in companies in the UK. For example, part-time jobs in the luxurious capital city of England, London, may include part-time teaching, work-from-home market research, part-time tutoring job, sales specialist, SEO, charity fundraiser etc.

Also Read –

I did at one point and it didn’t work out because of the actual job I was in, so I quit the job and studied full time. Now I’m working and going to school full time and my best advice is that you should stay ahead of your readings as much as possible and PLAN, PLAN, PLAN your time. Time management is absolutely essential in this scenario, you should plan out your entire week and allocate study time, time with friends/family, time for work, and take commute time into consideration (e.g sometimes I do readings on the bus/subway), you have to maximize every minute so you don’t fall behind. You always have to plan ahead of schedule when you’re working and managing school at the same time, (this is very crucial for me because of the type of work I’m in, where planning is everything and last minute plans can really throw you off).

I’ll give you an example, two of my profs have already updated my courses on Moodle, so I’m already looking through the course outline and reading up on what they’ve uploaded, so I can plan my course of action prior to the course starting, and maybe do some readings before classes start so I’m already ahead of the game. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed when you’re working and studying, it takes a little getting used to, and by trial and error you will figure out what works best for you. It also helps if you’re in courses that you enjoy, makes things a lot less stressful.