Posted on behalf of Clarissa Allford.

Hey! Clarissa again – this month I’ll be talking about part-time work.

Why I have part-time jobs
In my time at university, I can count on two hands the jobs I’ve had: from a zero hour contract job serving pies and pints at the football ground, to Christmas jobs, to working for the university. As someone who receives the minimum student loan, I’m forever finding ways to fund my hobbies, my rent and time with friends.  That being said, financial reasons are by far not the only reason I work. Part-time work helps me get to know local people, gives me something to, and provides excellent experience for my CV.

UniHub makes it easy to look for work
A good starting point is the University’s own Careers Service. All you have to do is go to the UniHub, log in as you would on shuspace, and select what kind of work you’re looking for.

Say, for example, you’re looking for a part-time job off-campus, you’d select that option from the drop-down menu and this handy little tool would then tell you jobs that are available in Sheffield off-campus.

To access on-campus jobs, select it as an option from the drop-down menu on UniHub and it will show you what jobs are available.

My experiences of working on campus
As someone who has worked as a student ambassadors and #hallaminsider (that’s right – this is my job too!), I genuinely believe that on-campus jobs provide you with the skills that employers are looking for. Working as a student ambassador in first year meant that I was able to gain the confidence to lead tours of prospective college students around the university, give talks to groups of complete strangers, and even visit schools and colleges and tell them how great university life is.

There is such an excellent choice and more often than not, more opportunities will open up when you work for the university. For example, I started work as a Schools and Colleges Ambassador, and now I work at Open Days, lead tours, work for the #hallaminsiders team, and mentor level 4 students. Signing up in October of my first year is definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made here!

My top three tips for finding a job
Part-time work is so easy to get here in Sheffield. So to conclude, I’ll leave you with my top three tips for finding a job:

• Search, search, search! UniHub is an excellent tool and can be used to find all sorts of jobs – not just the traditional hospitality and retail jobs but lots of other fun opportunities.
• Look at the windows of independent businesses. Many will choose not to advertise online and will instead advertise in the windows of their shops and restaurants. Keep an eye out next time you’re walking down West Street or Ecclesall Road! You may be surprised.
• Check your CV! The Careers and Employability centre often run CV workshops so you get the best chance at employment. You can book onto CV workshops using UniHub, or pop into the Careers and Employability Centre (next to Owen Building) to ask when these workshops are.

Best of luck!

Clarissa