Starting university in London can come with extensive costs, but with some budgeting and part-time work it can be managed. Luckily, as a city full of opportunities and diversity, London holds plenty of businesses eager to hire young, part-time workers. Part-time work can vary, whether it’s just weekends or one or two nights after your academic day dies down. Being based at a campus in the centre of the city means that there is an abundance of restaurants, cafés, clothing stores and even your own university to offer you work.
Working at a café or restaurant can be an easy way to get some part-time work, these are often the businesses with the most demand for staff and the most abundant. There can be as many as five or more on one street around campus! Alongside these, retail stores are everywhere and often taking on new staff and these can be great ways to gain experience from a first-time job and develop your customer service skills. There are also many small businesses which are willing to hire and can provide a closer-knit working environment which can be great to build relationships and teamwork skills – as well as make new friends around the city!
Job opportunities within LSE can also be a great option for part-time work while studying as they are often the most accommodating to a student schedule. There are many different roles available; the Student Union can be a great place to look, as well as creating vlogs and blogs for the Student Marketing and the Social Media teams at LSE. However, these jobs can be in high demand so they are less easily available as others.
Part-time work can be an essential part of London living, and balancing with studies is just as important. Having a part-time job while studying requires time-management skills, university requires lots of independent studies so creating a schedule is helpful to keep on top of things. Depending on your visa, LSE only allows for 15 hours of part-time work per week during term time, which means that your work is naturally capped at a good level to ensure enough time for your studies. My experience managing time with part-time work means that I only work 7 hours per week at a small ice-cream shop, as not only is there work and study to balance but also your social and free time. It’s important not to overload yourself with work as you also must remember to enjoy your time at LSE and become a part of the great community within the school!
Part-time work is undoubtedly financially beneficial when living in London, whether this helps pay for food or enables you to go out with your friends. You also meet great people through work and develop transferrable skills which future employers will look for. This does come at the cost of having that extra free time to either spend at your disposal or go the extra mile with your studies. Student jobs at LSE are accommodating to academic requirements and exam periods where you might want to lessen or pause your work, but external businesses may have minimum hour requirements and not be able to accommodate for breaks during busier times of term.
My experience working part-time at LSE has allowed me to gain the freedom to go out with my friends and cover extra costs while studying. Depending on individual time management skills and commitments, the best jobs to have at university are flexible ones. I’m fortunate to say that alongside blogging, my part-time job at the ice-cream shop is flexible enough that I’m able to balance work levels at different times of the year which is the most important part of working while studying.
