Going to a university ushers in a new phase for every student, your family (you included) is proud that you are going to do something worthwhile with your life. Let me go out and say this… University life is amazing! You get to do what you haven’t done so far in your life. Meet new people (Yeah, hot chicks too!), share new experiences but what most students don’t think about is expenses… Your parents or that bank loan may cover some your tuition but there are plenty of spending involved too, rent, books (yes they are very expensive), food, daily expenses and well…ummm shopping, booze,partying.Finding part-time work opportunities is one of the priorities of many students (International students especially so!!). The trick here is finding part-time (preferably on-campus jobs) that make your life easy and don’t put too much workload on you.
Most students find part-time work opportunities through university portals. While it is a good resource to find a job, there’s plenty of jobs that aren’t listed there. The first thing you will want to know about the job is of course how much will it pay, but most people overlook the obvious (the workload it brings with it). For example you’ll find plenty of job opportunities (undergrads mostly!!) for programming or research. They pay well too about $15 ~ $20 per hour but they involve a lot of work. You’re gonna have to submit your progress to the professor each week or so. One thing you have to bear in mind is that you don’t wanna bring your work home. There will be plenty of that already. Assignments, reports, portfolios, and research you name it!!
I would suggest people to go for other jobs which are more mechanical in nature. For instance, campus dining or cafeteria services are never listed in the university portal since most of them are managed by a third party vendor. The job is simply to cook food or cut veggies, make sandwiches and so on. Once you’re done with the day’s job, you don’t have to look back on it. One significant advantage of these jobs is that more often you get to eat in the cafeteria for free and many of them let you take food home too! This leads to a considerable amount of time and money being saved over the month. Albeit, it is exhausting and you don’t feel like doing much once you’re home but it is definitely a good option to think about. Another good place where you can find work (No one usually goes for this one) is the campus disability services. These too, are not listed online, hence not people know about it. The work here is simple; provide assistance to disabled students and help them find resources. There’s less work involved but then again you don’t get free food. You could also try at the international student services organization. Again, it is a pretty simple job with just answering queries of international students.
The idea is to get paid and not be overburdened where you concentrate on your studies and career. Such work can leave you with enough free time to hang out with friends, complete that onslaught of assignments and occasionally, comfortably spend on night outs and parties. I hope this article helps you find a comfortable part-time or campus job, at the same time, always remembers the basic premise of you being at a university is studying; not working.