By Leroy-Winston Scott

3rd year BU student, BA (Hons) Events Management

We are all aware of the jokes that students can’t afford food, or that it is a very poor lifestyle. These jokes are true, we do have to learn how to budget and how to maintain a flow of finances that will allow us to manage the basics, eat, loo roll! And other such things as well as have fun, but where do we find the time!?

Easily is my answer, my first year consisted of 16 hours contact time at university and then 16 hours of reading around my subjects. This took up 30 hours of my weekly time, future employers will know that leaves me with a lot of spare time. So how do I choose a part time job? Well what do we want out of it, as students we are in a very rare position where work is not our priority, this allowed me to realise that this is an opportunity for me to find out what I do and don’t like doing. After working at Phones 4 U, for four of the longest weeks of my life I realised that I was not ‘suited’ to that type of business, my second job, in a call centre, was not any more satisfying, so after 5 weeks that was another job on the wayside.

What I wanted from a part time job was growth and experience, this is where the university helped me out, their Ambassador schemes, Mentoring in Schools opportunities, Summer Schools work ultimately led to me getting a very fulfilling and financially secure placement for a year within the university, and also gave me job satisfaction and paid my way through my first 2 years.

This was not an easy process and brought challenges, yet each challenge is what we should be facing in life and it set me up for that very well, it also gave me multiple skills, confidence and assured ability in myself. There are many choices we face in life and we have the control to affect each one ourselves, a part time job which will satisfy you may take more pain to find, a part time job will in every sense give you skills in responsibility, impress employers and pay for that extra night out.