Students have a lot on their mind during their first few months of university. Getting used to a new place, making friends and working out the perfect study schedule can take up most of your time. Those things are normal. But once everything does calm down, it might be worth thinking about how you wish to support yourself for the next three years. Even if you have help from family and grants/loans, looking at part-time work has several benefits, not just money related (though that is the main reason for all people that work!).

You don’t have to work crazy hours and burn yourself out, but we’ve thought about some of the options available to you…

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Working in a bar, restaurant or café

This is probably the most popular option amongst students, especially if you live in one of the bigger cities in the UK. High streets and town centres are streaming with pubs, bars and restaurants that offer all manner of part time work hours that can suit you. Please note if you’re under 18 you won’t be able to serve alcohol.

Bar and restaurant staff also receive tips which vary in amount depending on the person and occasion, which means you can always earn more money that may not be an option in another job.

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Retail

Think about the discounts. Like with bar work, there are plenty of retail stores to choose from. Retail is the best place to work on your communication and customer service skills, helping customers and solving any issues.

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Tutoring

If you have a solid grasp of a subject, why not look at helping someone else out? Sharing your skills with others and being paid for it isn’t a bad gig. You can tutor both online and in person, sharing your knowledge of something you’re passionate about!

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Dog walking/Pet sitting

You can’t take your furry friends with you to university, but you can make money looking after someone else’s. You can set your own hours and decide who you want to work with. And you get to make some cute friends. Perfect.

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Internship

Internships are an important experience for students to be able to get a feel for what future work will be like. Normally internships are taken up during your final year of university of after you graduate, but it’s never a bad idea to look into which internships might be linked to your course.

You can learn more about what to look out for with an internship here.

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Student Union – Jobs on campus

Student unions are a great place for students to work. They know students better than anyone and can offer you part-time or flexible work hours that will suit you. The role that you have there may also be quite varied, from event monitoring to bookstores and managing social media.

It’s also an excellent way of meeting other students.

Other part time jobs to consider:

• Fast food delivery
• Research Assistant
• Paid advertising
• Lifeguard

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Whatever you choose to do, fitting a part-time job into your studies will be both challenging and rewarding. Or maybe you just want to do something over the summer. It’s really whatever works for you.

It’s not too long until September, still looking for accommodation? Check out our locations across the UK and Ireland.