yomag.cz
- european e-zine by young consumers

Rating: (2)

Author: Jaromír Fryščák, MG Příbor, Czech Republic

Students’ part-time job

Příbor 19. 12. 2007

“Money, money, money Must be funny In a rich man's world” (lyrics by Abba)

These lyrics by Abba have inspired me to write about students’ part-time job and my own experience. Undoubtedly everybody knows that many young people, especially students, try to get part-time jobs in the summer; it’s one of their favourite ways to get money. The modern world is based on finance and consumerism so it is important for everybody to have cash both for studying and entertainment and, of course, for me too as I have many interests (sports, cycling, motorbikes, tourism etc). That’s the main reason why I steadily choose for the possibility to get money. So, I want to share my experience how students can make their money.

The easiest way is certainly to live “in a rich man’s world” e.g. to have rich parents who take care of your pocket money and it really “must be funny”. On the other hand, this way can mean that you develop a dependence on your parents and also an inability to run your own budget. I certainly don’t live “in a rich man’s world” so I need money which means that I have to find other ways of getting it.

The internet offers one possibility. By browsing the net you can easily find lots of sites that offer job and vacancies, but it isn’t easy to find one that suits you. Either you are not the right age or a special qualification is required. Added to that, most of the attractive jobs on the net have already been occupied.

Nevertheless, I never give up. Last summer I was successful using the method “go and ask”. You can take my experience as good advice. What did I do? Firstly I made a list of places where I often do my shopping. After that I went to the shops and tried to judge the situation and finally I started to ask whether a helper or shop assistant was needed for the summer season. You can also look for opportunities in restaurants, bars and canteens because places like these are always looking for new staff. (One major advantage of working in the catering industry is that you can make quite a lot of money from the tips that customers give you.) On the other hand, try to avoid working in an environment which can be dangerous for you, e.g. operating machinery in factories or where you might suffer from allergies. In addition, don’t work where dangerous and drunk people can threaten you.

The next important thing, once you have an offer of a job, is the contract. According to my experience it is good to discuss this matter with a more experienced person. And some more advice: don’t do anything that you don’t get paid for, check your payment per hour and, of course, the money you receive at the end of the week; smaller firms, especially, sometimes try to cheat younger and more naive workers.

To sum up my ideas going through this procedure, you will need to be open-minded about where you work but you should also be quite logical and hard-headed when you have to deal with your employers. You have to take responsibility for finding a job, how well they treat you, how much they pay you and, once you are employed in the future, you will be thankful for the experience. And it certainly helps you become a more independent, mature person.