Let’s face it: in an ideal world, students could just focus on their degrees and academic development. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and the reality for many students including me is that they have to work to support themselves during their studies.
LSE allows you to work up to 15 hours per week during term time, and LSE Careers provide support for students looking for a job. A good place to start a job search is LSE Careers’ internal job board – CareerHub where there are a lot of part-time opportunities advertised, especially at the beginning of the academic year. In particular, there are offers on campus, ranging from research assistant positions to marketing or administrative support, which often have a yearly cycle of admissions. Indeed, that’s how I found this job as a student blogger.
Moreover, LSE Careers’ services include reviewing CVs and cover letters or one-on-one sessions on any career-related topics you might want to discuss. The bottom line is – there’s a lot of support from LSE for students who have to work.
Despite that, my personal experience has been quite complicated with a few bumps on the way.
Since the beginning of my postgraduate studies at LSE last year, I had six various jobs and submitted over fifty applications. Unfortunately, it’s still often the case that you simply don’t hear back from employers, or you get a rejection after a few months of waiting. You just have to be resilient.
The most important source of income for me for a few months was a waitressing job. I worked with the agency High Society, which I found on CareerHub. I really recommend working with an agency if you’re a student as it usually means flexible hours on a zero-hours contract. I could easily schedule my shifts around my classes, and if I didn’t work at all, especially when I had to prioritise my studies or leave London for a break, there would be no consequences.
As in any hospitality position, there was a lot of hard work, naturally. However, as I worked mostly with other university students, some shifts could be fun. Another benefit was that I was mostly working in different locations so I managed to see a lot of wonderful venues. For example, some parties were held in places like the Natural History Museum or Madame Tussauds – I got to see them from a different perspective than a regular visitor.
In the Winter Term, I managed to get a more stable position as a marketing intern at a startup called Pally. I found it via LinkedIn at the beginning of December and went through a smooth and quick recruitment process, which was a pleasant surprise after so many applications sent only to never hear back from other companies.
The great thing about working in a new startup is that there is a lot of scope to take on real responsibilities and wear many hats. I got to work on marketing strategies, had to learn Figma from scratch and design interactions for a prototype, recorded street interviews and conducted research on competitors. To put it simply – there was not a single boring day in this job.
Overall, working part-time during my studies and job search were definitely humbling experiences for me. I developed a lot of resilience and new skills. I felt lucky that in the end I found a job that corresponded to my interests and was a valuable addition to my CV.
