Five Popular Part-Time Jobs For University Students
Part-Time Jobs For A Student
Studying and working can not only be substitutes – they can be complementary. As a full-time student, you can still take on side jobs to enjoy the benefits each has to bring. There are countless part time job from various job websites available. The question is – which one should you apply for? With the myriad of opportunities, your decision would revolve around your own preferences. In this article, we will share with you five pieces of advice, compiled from students around the same age as you.
- Tuition
This is undoubtedly the most attractive part-time job among tertiary students. The growing education industry in Singapore provides many opportunities for part-time tutors, in particular home tuition, be it subjects from the primary, secondary or junior college levels. If you are keen, you will be able to apply for tuition postings from numerous legitimate tuition agencies.
The industry norm is for tutors who have just secured a tuition job to pay 50% of their first month pay to the agent who managed to match a suitable pair of student and tutor. If you want to avoid this payment to the agent, you can promote your tuition services online by yourself, such as on the Kiasu Parents Forum, where Singaporean parents gather. Another way you can seek for tuition jobs is to tap on your network to see if they have any tutoring opportunities for you. However, be warned that the process of finding your own students can be much more time-consuming as compared to you going to a tuition agency. Other benefits of going through tuition agencies is that you can choose which postings to apply for according to the tutee’s location and other non-monetary advantages such as a larger range of relevant tuition assignments you can apply for.
If you are keen on teaching, do find out the fee you can charge per level and per your experience. If you apply for an assignment that is home-based, the tuition timings should be pretty flexible, where you can liaise directly with the tutee’s parents or the tutee himself/herself. Therefore, we consider home tuition as one of the best ways you can earn a side income with reasonable effort.
- White-collar jobs
Most firms do offer freelance part-time jobs. When students take up such office jobs, they get to be involved in a real office setting and be accountable for the work assigned to them. You will be able to see your hard work bear fruit in a real company, and this should be one of the main reasons you should go for office jobs.
You can find office-related jobs on available Singapore job websites.You can choose to sign up for their regular newsletters for real-time jobs updates so that you will be able to keep up to date with the job market. The career office in your institution might announce such jobs too, so you can look out for them. From our research, we do observe that more final year students get hired in part-time office jobs as they can commit at least three to four days a week for work. However, the fresh and penultimate students have more modules to clear and will not be able to commit as much.
- Research participants
Have you seen emails requesting you to join as a participant for studies or research? Such opportunities pay by the hour with a minimum of five dollars per hour. The requirements of participants of research greatly depends on what the research is trying to achieve. You get to try something interesting and earn money for it – why not? Do take note that some studies need a long-term commitment, so do read the information properly. For example, for a weight loss study, you might be given instructions with regards to your diet and exercise with regular measurements of your physical condition.
Most of such research will be broadcasted by your schools and professors. Some external firms or institutes might come to your school and ask for participants for some of the research they are conducting, so keep a look out for those!
- Student caller
This is similar to an office job, where you will be sitting at a desk, but you will be mainly calling strangers over the phone. This is starting to become a popular part-time job among tertiary students as a decent amount of communication and language competency is required but no official certification is needed.
The simplest way to find such jobs is to seek for such jobs among organisations within your institution. Some research institutes perform surveys administered through calls with regards to their research at certain periods of the year. The norm is for students to be paid by hour. If your institution does not have such opportunities, you can look for such jobs in private firms of the likes. Such surveys via the phone are mostly used to find out the customer’s level of satisfaction, perform market surveys or to advertise their products or services.
- Miscellaneous university jobs
Your institution should have some job postings to support students who are financially challenged. You can see if there are jobs such as library assistants, where you can help to sort and rearrange books in the library. If not, there are also administrative assistants required in offices to complement their work. Otherwise, you can also look out for jobs in the various shops within university such as in the eateries, book stores or convenience stores.
Your university should have a job portal with consolidated job postings to make job finding more convenient for their students. However, if your institution does not offer such services, you can seek jobs externally on other websites or go down physically to ask for an interview.
Conclusion
Studying and working over a prolonged period is no simple feat. You have to properly manage both your academics and work deliverables. However, the benefits will definitely be equivalent to the hard work you put in. We hope you will be able to find a suitable job and gain more working experiences which will be advantageous for your future careers.