Working while you study: a means to an end or career opportunity?
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- 16 Apr 2021
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Carmel Goldstein, a final-year textile design student at Central St Martins College in London, started working for on-demand babysitting app Bubble 18 months ago. The 21-year-old was looking for a way to earn extra cash while studying in one of the world’s most expensive cities, and the company offered flexible evening work that she could fit around busy university life.
The Uber-style app works by helping parents find local babysitters who have been recommended by friends or mutual contacts on Facebook. It means Goldstein is able to put in the required hours on campus and go to a job in the evening near her home in East Finchley.
“You set your availability for a four-week period,” she says. “So, for example, if I know that next week I am going to be really busy, I will set that I am not available.
“It is useful that you can plan ahead. I find it works quite well for students who are not completely sure of their workload.”
Goldstein admits that she has had to sacrifice a social life during the week and has struggled at times to balance a part-time job with coursework – but she is often able to study when the children are in bed.
Though some universities, such as Cambridge, discourage part-time work, fearing it compromises academic achievement and leaves little time to get involved in campus life, for many students it can be a great way to prepare for employment after graduation.
Nottingham Trent student Amy Hawthorne found a career through working as a private tutor to secondary school children during her undergraduate degree. The 21-year-old started working with Explore Learning as a third-year English student when she discovered a passion for working with children.
Hawthorne has accepted a full-time position with the company after she graduates with a master’s in December. “I wanted a part-time job for the money as well, but I knew that I didn’t want to work in a place that didn’t benefit my development,” she says. “When I found Explore and found out that it was working with kids, helping them with education, I thought it was really valuable.”
As well as offering tutors the option to work as little as one four-hour shift a week, the company helps develop part-time employees by providing training opportunities in the evening.
“I have never wanted to leave, even when I was stressed with studies, such as handing in my dissertation before my graduation. It didn’t feel like a massive sacrifice because it is such a nice place to work. Another part-time job that didn’t care about my development would make it difficult.”
Not every part-time job offers obvious opportunities for building the skills needed for graduate employment, but careers adviser Hannah Morton-Hedges believes even the most menial job can add value to a CV. She says there is often a gap between a student’s understanding of the skills they might develop from a job in a restaurant or shop, for example, and the value of those skills to employers.
“Of course it helps if people can get work that’s really relevant to what they want to go into, but we know the reality is that those opportunities can be very few and far between, particularly when you think about the flexibility that’s needed as a student,” says Morton-Hedges, who runs Momentum Careers Advice. But there are core skills that most employers want to see, such as teamwork and communication as well as customer service and problem solving, she says
It’s important to make the most of whatever job you do, she says. Any student can work in a job to a sufficient level, but there will be the student who takes it further. Look for opportunities within the company, take on a supervisory role, maybe suggest how things can be done better.
In short, be proactive, says Morton-Hedges: “It’s quite tough for students to do because often they are still feeling quite young and vulnerable and naive in the workplace.” But putting yourself out there and being proactive are “the very qualities that employers are going to be looking for”, she says.
