As an international student, one of the ways of funding my studies in London is by taking on occasional jobs. In addition to the student blogger position, which I’ve held with the Student Marketing team since November 2022, I’ve also worked with the Student Recruitment team as one of their LSE accommodation tour guides during the April 2023 Undergraduate Open Day and Offer Holders’ Day.
The LSE Student Recruitment team recruits LSE students to help out with LSE events, such as the Open Day and the Offer Holders’ Day.
I live in High Holborn Residence, the closest LSE hall to campus. This was one of the two halls (along with Bankside Hall) that offered accommodation tours during those School events. As a tour helper, I was responsible for welcoming prospective students and their families at the reception and offering general tours of the High Holborn communal facilities and my flat, including the shared kitchen and my room. While showing the visitors around the hall was not as arduous as I expected, I was genuinely surprised by the questions they asked. Although the Student Recruitment team provided sheets with key facts and information about High Holborn Residence, there were certain questions that I couldn’t answer. Some parents questioned the comparison between High Holborn Residence and other LSE halls that I’ve never been to, or even about approximate costs of living outside of LSE halls. I was instructed not to make up facts and be honest, so I signposted them to relevant LSE websites or sought guidance from the accommodation team leader. Unlike the Undergraduate Offer Holders’ Day, anyone interested could attend the general Open Day, provided they registered beforehand. I guess that was why there were some unexpected questions from the visitors, given that not all of them were in their final years of high school. Other than that, it was a fun experience overall. I found myself competent at memorising facts and integrating them into multiple versions, which I didn’t notice before.
On the Undergraduate Offer Holders’ Day, the role was the same as the aforementioned Open Day. I had mixed feelings over this Offer Holder’s Day, though. When I was an offer holder, I couldn’t attend this event in-person because we were in the middle of the COVID-19 restrictions. And a year later, I was there for the in-person event, but as a student helper to guide people just like me the previous year year. The fact that I’m part of LSE just hit me hard. For the offer holders – at least for those groups I was in charge of the tour –, they were committed to attending LSE in September as long as they met their conditions. That was another moment of realisation – my first year at LSE was almost over! Time flies. At the same time, I was happy to provide them with a sneak peek into what it is like to live in an LSE hall. This time, the groups mostly questioned potential academic coursework and workloads. This was much easier for me to handle on the spot.
Of course, part-time jobs help us finance our studies during our time at LSE. Simultaneously, I want to highlight valuable experiences you can gain from taking on these roles. I’d strongly recommend that all of you experience part-time or occasional job, like the one descrived above, s as long as it doesn’t disrupt your academic studies.
