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Combining uni with a job

Hey guys, im gonna enter uni in 2 weeks. Do y'all recommend me combining uni w a part time job,when im still studying to get money in the meanwhile and save it up? What y'all think

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Pretty common for people to do this. I wouldn't recommend working more than 8-12 hours a week (probably 15 at most) if you can avoid it during term time while studying full time, to ensure it doesn't negatively affect your studies.

Useful to have some additional income alongside your maintenance loan though, and it can be handy experience to develop useful transferable skills for future jobs and to get some work references.

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 2

gavran

Original post by artful_lounger

Pretty common for people to do this. I wouldn't recommend working more than 8-12 hours (probably 15 at most) if you can avoid it during term time while studying full time, to ensure it doesn't negatively affect your studies.

Useful to have some additional income alongside your maintenance loan though, and it can be handy experience to develop useful transferable skills for future jobs and to get some work references.

Im talking about like 4h a day. I dont know if that will make my studies worse, but I don't see uni as my main focus, just going till i figure out thing

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by gavran

Im talking about like 4h a day. I dont know if that will make my studies worse, but I don't see uni as my main focus, just going till i figure out thing

I've edited my post to make cleared I was referring to hours a week.

4 hours a day is a 20 day week if you're doing 5 days a week - that's most likely not conducive to studying full time. If you're studying part-time then that's more reasonable, if you are able to arrange your working hours around your academic timetable.

If you're just going to uni as a default option until you figure out what you want to do, I would strongly recommend not going at all and just looking at working full time for a while until you figure out whatever it is you want to do.

There are no age restrictions to study at uni, and unlike work, you have a very finite amount of funding to study at uni.

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 4

FayeYSJ

Official Rep

Original post by gavran

Hey guys, im gonna enter uni in 2 weeks. Do y'all recommend me combining uni w a part time job,when im still studying to get money in the meanwhile and save it up? What y'all think

Hi! Congratulations on going to uni!
This is a very common way to keep money coming in while you are studying. You can find part time jobs at your university or maybe a tutoring service if you don't want to get a regular student job however that is very common too.
Hope this helps! Faye :smile:

Reply 5

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

I generally recommend working holidays if you can, if in term time a flexible job on weekends or evenings is certainly manageable but how many hours you do will put pressure on your academics.

Reply 6

University of Kent

Official Rep

Original post by gavran

Hey guys, im gonna enter uni in 2 weeks. Do y'all recommend me combining uni w a part time job,when im still studying to get money in the meanwhile and save it up? What y'all think

Hey,

Mostly echoing what's already been said, but I think it's definitely doable! I personally had a part time job during my undergrad (some weekday evenings/weekend mornings) and found it pretty manageable! Most of the time you won't be in uni 9-5, 5 days a week anyway, so you tend to have a decent amount of free time! Universities also normally offer jobs where you work for the uni and they're normally even more understanding of your need for more flexible hours, so would recommend having a look if there are any jobs on campus as well! However, if you find it a bit much, working over Christmas etc is still a good way to earn some extra money, just depends how you'd rather do it/how busy your weeks are! :smile:

Best of luck with everything!!

Natalie
University of Kent Student Rep

Reply 7

CamembertPaws

Original post by gavran

Hey guys, im gonna enter uni in 2 weeks. Do y'all recommend me combining uni w a part time job,when im still studying to get money in the meanwhile and save it up? What y'all think

Definitely doable, I worked two jobs for the majority of my time at uni but pretty short shifts, it was definitely a challenge at times though. I'd also recommend looking into a student ambassador role at the uni you're going to - they're a great way to combine work and uni, they often are very supportive in helping you manage your work around your studies and also offer a ton of useful experience

Reply 8

Chester Student

Official Rep

Original post by gavran

Hey guys, im gonna enter uni in 2 weeks. Do y'all recommend me combining uni w a part time job,when im still studying to get money in the meanwhile and save it up? What y'all think

Hi @gavran,

Congratulations of getting into uni!

Combining university with a part-time job is definitely manageable, and there are loads of options that you can look at. For example, your university is likely to have multiple roles you can apply for (e.g., student ambassador, catering staff, researcher, etc) which is great to look into as they will be more understanding of your other commitments and are willing to be more flexible around your studies. As its already been said, other part-time work like tutoring, weekend, or holiday work might be something you prefer.

A good piece of advice and something that I have been told is to remember that you're paying for your education and you have chosen to be there, so this should really take priority over working. Working while studying is a great time to be able to work on your time management and build your CV, but just remember that you're at university for a reason!

Best of luck,
Isabella

Reply 9

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by gavran

Hey guys, im gonna enter uni in 2 weeks. Do y'all recommend me combining uni w a part time job,when im still studying to get money in the meanwhile and save it up? What y'all think

Hey there @gavran !

This is definitely do-able. Just make sure you know when to say no to your boss because sometimes they may take advantage of students and then you'll start to feel guilty leading to missing lectures. Trust me I've been there. As long as you're in control of it enough to not let it effect your studies then it should be absolutely fine and an easy way to make money. A lot of students do it so you definitely wont be alone. I'd recommend opening up a separate savings account if you're trying to save for something big as a lot of banks do higher interest rates on fixed-term saving accounts.

Hope this helped!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU

Reply 10

Zarek

I worked a couple of evenings a week in the SU bar. It was good, typically at a time when I would otherwise be out drinking and fairly well paid as the Union felt the need to be ethical. The customers are like minded and lots of cute girls to chat with. Definitely worth putting a bit of time aside to earn money, unless your workload makes it difficult