Getting a job while at university proved difficult in my first two years, with Covid affecting the job market and businesses closed for months on end. I would sit at my laptop and scroll for hours, applying for nearly every part-time job on there, from stockroom assistant to cleaning roles.
Luckily I managed to get a few temporary jobs doing accommodation tours for the university and a temporary role at a big department store over Christmas. However, I still found myself getting closer and closer to my overdraft and felt increasingly isolated completing university online with nowhere to go. Like a lot of people, once the pubs and clothes shops opened their doors again after many months, my bank balance, which had been okay during lockdown (for obvious reasons) began to noticeably drop.
Made it my mission
Even though I’m now in my most important year of university, and can sometimes struggle to find the time to juggle university work with general tasks like going to the shop, I decided I would make it my mission to get a part-time job, to make money and meet new people. I originally started working in the university nightclub. But I’ll be honest: the hours and deafening music were not for me. Luckily, I managed to move to the bar upstairs, where the latest you could work is 2am, as opposed to after 4am.
Working as a member of bar staff in the students’ union bar has definitely been my favourite part-time job to date. Enjoying a job really is down to the people you work with and working with fellow students in a relaxed (apart from busy club nights) environment definitely proves that. Most of the time, there will be someone you know or vaguely know in there either having a quick pint or on a bar crawl. Yes, the hours can be long and your legs may begin to ache, but there’s never a dull moment.
Serving your friends and them expecting a free drink (this doesn’t happen because I don’t want to get sacked) or them spilling a drink over themselves is both funny and something to embarrass them about when you see them hungover the next day. Working on a busy student bar also really makes you realise just how annoying drunk people are and personally makes me actively try not to be annoying when I go out. I definitely still am, but you’d have to ask that to my colleagues when I’m on the non-working side of the bar.
Watching the fun
One downside to the job is serving your friends and colleagues who are out, feeling jealous that you’re going to be there until 2am cleaning up after people and having to check the toilets to make sure no one has been sick. Working hungover is not the most enjoyable thing to do either. I’m sure those of you who have done it know just how excruciating it can be, especially when you have to pour someone ten Jager bombs and watch them down them with their friends while you’re trying not to be sick.
Great opportunity
Overall, working in the students’ union is a great way to earn money, work alongside friendly people on an array of different courses, and be able to manage your university work too. As the managers know you’re a student and that you’re there to work but mostly to get a degree, you’re never tied down to certain hours or made to work when you’ve got multiple deadlines or exams. It tends to be very easy to get a shift covered or explain your situation to the manager and actually be understood, which I know isn’t the case for other students working in local nightclubs, pubs or cafes etc. If you’re starting university next year or are currently on the hunt for a part-time job, I would definitely recommend visiting your students’ union as a first port of call and asking them if or when they are next hiring.