Part-time Jobs - Boosting your Employability

Having a part-time job can be a great way to boost your overall employability. It can also help you to gain practical skills and aid you financially. Your time at university can be a great opportunity to experiment with different jobs and to help you develop professionally ready for entering the graduate job market.

In broad terms, most universities will recommend that full-time undergraduates should not work more than 15 hours a week, and postgraduate students should not work more than 6 hours a week. These guidelines are to allow you sufficient time to concentrate on your studies. When having a part-time job, it is important to keep this in mind and remember that your studies do come first.

Below I will detail some of the reasons as to why a part-time job can be beneficial to you while you are a student:

Reply 1

Swansea Students

Official Rep

1. You can gain transferable skills.

A part-time job can help you gain key skills from work experience that a university degree might not teach you. By working in a fast-paced environment, for example, you will learn how to work as part of a team or on your own, as well as how to use your initiative and develop attention to detail. These are all valuable skills that can be carried across different jobs and in all aspects of life. To further this, interpersonal skills can acutely be developed. For example, as most student jobs can be found in retail or hospitality, it will force you to interact with lots of people who you wouldn’t normally talk to, ultimately encouraging your people-skills to develop as a result.

Swansea University

2. You can learn effective time-management.

By having to go to lectures, work on assignments, socialise with friends, make time for your hobbies, whilst also balancing a part-time job, it can mean that you are often having to manage your time. By juggling so many different tasks, it can help you improve your time management skills and also help you learn how to prioritise. Indeed, you will undeniably become more organised and efficient with your time.

Reply 3

Swansea Students

Official Rep

3. You can network and make friends.

No matter where you’re working, a part-time job gives you the opportunity to network with other people. So, even if you’re not gaining work experience in a field that you want to pursue, you are still making connections in the professional world. Not only this, but those connections can also turn into friendships. As you will be working with the same people for many hours during the week, you will undeniably form connections with those people which can positively impact on your personal wellbeing.

Reply 4

Swansea Students

Official Rep

4. Importantly, you can also gain work experience.

For many students, having a part-time job is not only a means to gain money, it can also be a way to gain experience and add credibility to a CV. Having a part-time job highlights many unique attributes that can be seen as valuable to a potential employer.

Reply 5

Swansea Students

Official Rep

As a student who holds a part-time job myself, I personally have benefitted from all of the points mentioned above. I truly believe that part-time jobs are a unique and great opportunity to develop yourself away from your studies.

Swansea University particularly encourages its students to have a part-time job. The Employability Hub offers Swansea University student great support in their job search. Not only helping students to locate jobs, but also prepare their application. The university itself aims to employ as many of its own students as it can to work in the on-campus campuses cafes, bars and shops. In addition to this, Swansea University also has a great Student Ambassador Scheme that offers a wide variety of opportunities to get involved in that benefit personal development and employability skills so to prepare you for the world of work once you graduate.

Megan, Swansea University, Student Ambassador.

Reply 6

Ðeggs

What examples of types of part time jobs do you recommend? Social media and content creation, freelancing services such as digital design, working in a supermarket, a café / restaurant, a kitchen porter, a waiter or waitress?

Reply 7

Swansea Students

Official Rep

Original post by Ðeggs

Hi Deggs,

Thank you for your reply and my apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

So I believe that any part-time job is great, as long as it work for you. I myself enjoy working at a supermarket for only 8 hours per week. It's a place I can go to, get my work done, and then come back home without having to do any additional work outside of my contracted hours. It means that I can focus on my university work without having to worry about anything extra to do with my job.

As I only work 8 hours there, I am also able to do some extra work for the university, primarily through the Student Ambassador Scheme that we have here in Swansea. I can pick up extra work at many different times throughout the year. The work can range from helping out at an Open Day, doing admin work or even taking part in a marketing photoshoot. This type of work is available on an ad-hoc basis meaning that I can pick up work whenever it suits me best. By doing both of these jobs, I find a good work-life balance and don't have too much time taken out of my studies.

Other students enjoy being content creators for the university. This is also a paid opportunity, again through the Student Ambassador Scheme where you might be asked to create YouTube videos, Instagram posts/reels or TikToks promoting what the university has to offer.

I think its very dependent on what you personally find works best for you. You might prefer to do a job that is remote and can be done at home, or you might enjoy getting out into a different environment for a couple of hours a week.

I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions😃

Megan, Student Ambassador, Swansea University.