Part-time job-hunting tips

Getting a part-time job while at university is something every student should consider. To save you from an unpleasant common life experience, graduates often complain about finding it impossible to land any jobs once they’re out of uni, because of lack of work experience. You might have gotten involved around your university or done one-time jobs, but the reality is that employers are looking for physical experience from contracted jobs. Don’t worry, nobody is expecting you to specialise in anything just yet, but starting out with simple jobs like bartending or retail, can help you build up your skills list on your CV. Trust us, it will come in handy! 

Why get a job? 

1. Income! A bit of extra cash can justify that extra cocktail or Uber ride, or you can put it into savings.
2. It’s a great way to make friends and connections outside your immediate university social circles. Never underestimate the power of social networking, and always be polite in order to leave the door open behind you, even when opportunities end or pass. 
3. It gives you the opportunity to integrate with the local community. It really helps you feel at home in a city when you know that you’ve also got friends outside of university. Sometimes a coffee with a friend and a breath of fresh air outside of uni and studying can be all you need to keep going.
4. Working a long shift is a great way to get away from university stress. When you’re working, you literally cannot think about anything but the job for however long that shift lasts, so it can really help you break up your university work.
5. It provides structure and a sense of real-life living. Having a busy schedule might be overwhelming at times, especially until you get used to it. But it’s definitely a positive experience because it will force you in the nicest way possible to organise your time around your studies better. 
6. It’s all about life skills. You will develop so many skills at any job, including customer service, organisation, work experience, communication, and teamwork. This is all great for your CV when you start looking for jobs after university!
7. Depending on the job, there may be progression opportunities. This is fab if it takes you a bit longer than you’d like after graduating to find an ideal graduate job. Going back to a job you already have experience in, is way better than having no job. 

Now that you’re (hopefully) convinced to get a part-time job, here’s how to approach it.

Job suitability

Firstly, work out what kind of job would suit you. You might feel a little lost in the beginning, but that’s okay. Try to match your personal characteristics, preferences and current skills (and skills you would like to acquire) with a list of jobs. Thankfully, nowadays we can send a paragraph about us to ChatGPT and ask them to kindly suggest some suitable jobs. For beginners, a couple of common things might come up like bartending, waitressing, hospitality (eg. restaurants and hotels), retails, etc. It’s important to note this also depends on the city you’re in. 

When applying to jobs, it’s important to adapt the wording/skills for each type. For example, a bartending job would need something like customer service, while hospitality and retail would require some teamwork too. It’s good to list more rather than less, but when you go into practical detail about where you demonstrated a specific skill, it’s useful to know which ones to focus on. We suggest keeping a folder with different types of CVs if you want to apply for different sectors. 

Hours

This would highly depend on your lectures and university commitments. Some jobs might be ad-hoc, which means you will be called when you’re needed, some may have flexible or fixed hours. It depends on your current timetable; also, remember to allow some time for your studies or you will fall behind and burn yourself out. 

Working hours can differ from job to job too. For example, bar work will involve more evening or night shifts, which are good because you get the whole day free and can go out the night before a shift, as long as you don’t drink. But it's not great for those who tire easily, want to be able to get up early or don’t want to miss nights out whilst working.

Day shifts such as café work give you the evenings so you can sleep earlier if you’d like and you also won’t miss any nights out! But alongside university, this may take more organisation in terms of attending your lectures, and they’ll involve more early mornings.

Think of criteria by which to assess different jobs by & which are more important to you.

Some of these could include staff discounts, free staff uniforms, flexibility of hours and wage.

If the wage isn’t listed in a job ad, you can often assume it will be around the minimum wage for your age group. As of April 2024, the rates are:

• £8.60/hour for 18-20 year-olds
• £10.18/hour for 21-22 year-olds
• £11.44/hour for those 23 and over (National Living Wage).

Where to find jobs:

1.Students’ Union website, your university’s careers webpage and campus shops. These are all great places to start looking as they are only hiring students. They will also tend to be closer to campus.

2. Google! For example, by searching ‘bar jobs York’, a whole list will come up which you can filter down where needed. Make sure to apply via the official website of these employers. Prepare not to hear back from a lot of these.
3. The company’s official website. If there’s a specific place you’d like to work, search their website for their current jobs. For example, if you Google “Sainsbury’s careers", you’ll be taken to the careers section of their webpage, from which you can filter to your area and for part-time only. They often will save your application, so if you’re unsuccessful, it’ll be easier to reapply for other jobs later down the line. Just so you’re prepared, customer service jobs now have tests built-into the application. These are often scenario based such as how would you react if a certain situation happened to you. These take more time than your average job application, and a successful result doesn’t necessarily mean you will get the job. Take them with a pinch of salt and use it to learn what those kind of jobs are looking for. 
4. Linkedin. It may be more catered to full time & corporate jobs but don’t underestimate it! Part-time jobs will be listed, and you may find slightly more interesting jobs as well as remote opportunities. Make sure you do your research of the company you’re applying for as there’s plenty of scammers on there too. A good way to check a company is by searching it against Companies House; this is where businesses register themselves with the government. You’ll be able to see if the company is still active, who owns it and more. Please also be aware that a job application resulting in someone (usually without a real profile picture) messaging you on WhatsApp, asking you to click links to register, can also be a scam. Be vigilant when clicking links.
5. The old-fashioned way. Print out your CV and it into shops/restaurants/bars, especially independent ones. Alternatively you can email your CV to places you’re interested in working in. Many places may be looking but not advertising somewhere that you’ll have seen. Make sure to ask if they can give you a trial shift, this gives you a great opportunity to see if you’d enjoy that type of job and more things to speak about in a job interview! For this to work, you must make your CV visually appealing, catch as much attention with it as you can, and make sure it’s structured and easy to read. Employers usually don’t read through CVs from start to finish, so it must stand out and be scannable.
6. Join a job-hunting Facebook page for your local area! Loads of jobs are posted daily and the application process tends to be much more relaxed. You can even take a more proactive approach and make a post yourself, stating that you’re looking for work, listing your age, experience and anything else you think is relevant. This way local companies or their recruiting teams might reach out to you.
7. Look on shopping centres’ websites rather than the company’s website. This will list vacancies for all their stores so you can quickly see everything that’s available. 
8. Recruitment agencies can be an easier way to get a job because it’s in their interest to hire you. They make money for sending people to work. In some cases they may even help you with documents needed for example DBS checks if they’re required. The only trick here is that there may not always be work, but some offer pretty regular part-time jobs too. 

Application tips:

1. Beating the competition! If you’re going into first year and you want a job from the get-go, make sure to apply before arriving to universtiy. Most will apply after they arrive so by applying early, you’ll beat the competition. Furthermore, at this time there will be more vacancies because the students from previous cohort will have left and the locals will have left for university themselves.
2. Ensure to tailor your CV to specific sectors. Don’t list more than 6 previous jobs/experiences in high levels of detail if they’re not all relevant. Instead, expand on fewer but more relevant skills, putting into perspective where and how you used that certain skill.
3. Keep your CV simple, not too wordy, and easy to skim. Do this by putting most relevant experience first. This will make it easy for employers to make a quick decision about whether to interview you.
4. If you’ve not had a job before, don’t panic. There’s still so much you can talk about, have you volunteered, been part of a sports team or had leadership responsibilities before? Everyone has something worth talking about, it all depends how you talk about it. Focus on transferable skills, perhaps skills you have picked-up from certain assignments. Speak to your tutor and/or students services if you need help with this.
5. Think of answers for interview questions! If you’re applying for a job at a well-known company, sometimes you can Google questions that previous applicants have faced and come up with answers in advance. It is also worth practicing answering them. Ensure you can think of examples of skills you have that employer are likely to ask about and have preprepared convincing answers for the usual questions. These include: “tell me about yourself", “why do you want to work here?", “tell me about a time you displayed excellent customer service skills", “tell me about a time you encountered a problem and how you went about solving it". There will be many more online, but the most important tend to be about what you can do well, what you struggled to do well in the past and how you overcame it.

Interview tips

1. Make a great first impression by introducing yourself. If they offer you their hand to shake, shake their hand. If they don’t offer, it looks great if you offer, but if you feel uncomfortable offering, don’t feel you have to.
2. Smile and say “please" and “thank you" to both the interviewer and any other employees that help you. The interviewer’s priority is to hire someone who can work effectively with the current team, and friendliness and politeness will show them that you can do this without you even having to say anything about your skills.
   
   
3. Compliment them when relevant but don’t come across ingenuine. For example, this could be commenting on how they’ve decorated they shop/bar, if you genuinely like it, or how the working space feels. 
4. If they offer you a drink, say yes! You can take a sip of water before answering questions, giving you time to think of an anwer. It will also help to calm your nerves.
5. Don’t panic. A job interview can be scary so really try and reframe the interview as a conversation, not an interview. Try to stay calm, focus on your breathing before you go in, and fake it until you make it. There will be other interviews, and you’re still gaining experience just by even being interviewed. Many people go to interviews not because they want the job, but because they want the opportunity to practice interviews. 

In the relief of an interview being over, it is easy to not ask any questions. Think of any questions you want to ask in advance and write them down. This will show the employer that you’re organised and serious about the job. Some questions are more welcomed than others, but employers always like when you ask about the team, company culture or outside of the box. But don’t let that pressure you, it’s important to also get the basic information down if it wasn’t already provided, such as working times, salary, uniform, holidays, etc. 

Of course, it goes without saying, if you struggle juggling the job or if you don’t feel respected or happy in the job, always put your mental health and your degree first and leave, respectfully. Every opportunity counts as experience and skills you can further list in your CV for a future job. 

Hopefully this helps you feel a bit more equipped to go into the world of job hunting!