Where should I get a job?/Student employment general

Matt H

Matt H

Eats Squid
After moving out of college and almost a year of living on struggle street, I've decided that I should really get a part time job. I'm a second year economics student at UQ - majoring in international trade and finance, and apart from a few months at best & less when I was 14 I've pretty much only ever worked in bike shops.
I want to get into something that will look good on the resume and be somewhat related to my degree, but I'm pretty stumped as to what I should even be looking for. I can only do 2 days a week tops as well. I'm planning on going to talk to student services about it, but I thought I might as well ask here too.

Any thoughts?
 
S

stringbean

Likes Bikes and Dirt
dont be picky, i know you want something in your feild but its not always possible, money's money so dont limit yourself to anything to specific.
 
Matt H

Matt H

Eats Squid
stringbean said:
dont be picky, i know you want something in your feild but its not always possible, money's money so dont limit yourself to anything to specific.
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If I just wanted a job I'd go back into the bike industry, which will probably be my last resort. I'm sure there's something better suited, even if it's just a part time teller at a bank...
 
Regan of Gong

Regan of Gong

Likes Dirt
Data entry. Good money, awesome hours, white collar work. Sometimes a little dry, but it's the best job I've ever had- no late nights or weekends either.
 
tc2233

tc2233

Likes Dirt
A few mates of mine have just been employed part time (20 hour week) as customs and border control officers. They do a 12 hour shift on a saturday and and an 8 hour shift after uni on a thursday night. They like it a lot more compared to working at Woolies and Bunnings.
 
L

Lard

Likes Dirt
Just having a part time job puts you miles ahead of a lot of ppl looking for work after uni. Many students have never worked a day in their life and it really shows in their poor attitude to full time work and work/social skills. I'd say just keep working in the industry you enjoy as long as you can.
 
Nerf Herder

Nerf Herder

Wheel size expert
Given your majors ... I suggest trying to get an internship at either the big 4 accounting firms (holiday work leads to part time work leads to full time work ... just to hark on economic linkages) ... or one of the Banks as a grad pleb

Keep away from Audit if you can, but realistically thats where they need the plebs. I recently worked with the forensic accounting team at PwC and they were a good bunch, with a mix of accounting, IT and other banking and data mining related roles ... and although similar to audit, was more varied. Ideally you get yourself into a business consulting area ... in financial services

Your grades are very important ... especially when getting that first job ... but couple that with actual and relevant work experience and your on a fast track to easy street.

Once your in, then its a matter of being lucky or strategic about the managers you get ... and this gets you to the next level and the next after that.

My advice is, if your going to sacrifice uni life and get a job, you may as well get a job that will count for something when you finish uni. Good luck with it
 
harmonix1234

harmonix1234

Eats Squid
Might sound crap, but have you thought of call centre work for a financial insitution?

Your'e definitely qualified for an entry level position.

They have a lot of part time employees and you shouldn't find it hard to secure a few days a week, usually the part time hours are 9am to 1pm.
It pays OK and it's not hard work. And you learn heaps.
It looks good on your resume 'financial industry experience' and you can use it to acquire financial industry referees.
You get to sit in a nice air conditioned room and not have to do anything that will harm your ability to ride (like labouring or high labour intensive environments).

I did it for almost 6 years and loved it. No experience like hands on.
 
'Ross

'Ross

Eats Squid
If I lost my job in retail I would go for supermarket-nightfill. Pays a fair bit more than working during the day...easy work if you have stamina and caters for part time people. Also good if you want time to think/solve problems/imagine crazy shit without getting interrupted.

Agree with Regan about Data Entry, a few people at my Uni do it for various Public Service institutions, good pay and they will end up working for those departments in the future when they get their degrees.

I don't know how essential a good resume is for your industry...a lot of the people from my uni studying similar courses end up in those internship programs or graduate trainee or whatever they like to call them, I get a lot of emails about them (PWC, KPMG, Delloitte etc).

I'd rather go for more money/less hassle while studying and then jump into the proper career when the time comes.
 
Registered Nutcase

Registered Nutcase

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I am going to go against what everyone has said here and get a shit kicker job. As an accountant you make budgets and work them assigning where the money is spent. I belive that you really need a grounding and understand why money needs to be spent. If you spend time working at places that only buy cheap things, high quality things, or does not spend money, I belive that you will be able to make the most efficant budgets that will give you the magical balance between a happy workforce and a profitable company.

I would recomend doing something like forklift work, or process work. Something that shows what the worst is.
 
321

321

Likes Dirt
Regan of Gong said:
Data entry. Good money, awesome hours, white collar work. Sometimes a little dry, but it's the best job I've ever had- no late nights or weekends either.
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Really? I have only done a few days of it and chose to head back underground to work my guts out offsiding! I think having a history of hard work labouring or similar no matter if its relevant to your studies or not, must look good on any resume when applying for your first full time job. Proves commitment and hardwork ethic ect. Either ways a win .
 
3viltoast3r

3viltoast3r

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Alternatively for a non-career path job you can get paid $21-$28 bucks/hour to stand round as a pool lifeguard and pretty much do nothing except agitate pool lane numpty's* for funnies. Although it can be a little hard to get into without volunteer experience.. Hours are normally fairly good, ~5 hour weekend shifts, And sometime's early morning (5am start work) sounds nasty, but is the easiest money you will ever earn - Pretty much just for turning up.


*Pool lane numpty's are a particularly strange creature which I won't delve into here..
 
dog boy

dog boy

Likes Dirt
Sorry about the thread jack but I dare say the answers will be helpful to your situation Matt.
Im kind of in a similar situation looking for work doing full time at uni. I Have had 3 jobs before take away shop then bakery and helped out at a thai restaurant for a few months. I really dont want to go back to working food but I will if I have to.

I really struggle to find jobs to apply for, you go on any of the big company websites there is never any jobs up or if there are they are usually managers positions or a million miles away from where i live. So then I look on seek.com or something like that, after pages and pages I pretty much find nothing that will suit a uni student and have come to the conclusion that thats more the place to look once I have my degree. So I googled student jobs found a couple of websites but none of the jobs listed on there were suitable for a student i.e full time minimum 30 hrs a week. I tried max employment but im not on the dole and am a student so they cant help me. other employment agencies wont be interested in finding me a job either. Apart from going round to the local shops handing resumes out I have no idea where to look.

Am i missing something? is there a decent student jobs website?
 
taitt

taitt

Likes Dirt
dog boy said:
Sorry about the thread jack but I dare say the answers will be helpful to your situation Matt.
Im kind of in a similar situation looking for work doing full time at uni. I Have had 3 jobs before take away shop then bakery and helped out at a thai restaurant for a few months. I really dont want to go back to working food but I will if I have to.

I really struggle to find jobs to apply for, you go on any of the big company websites there is never any jobs up or if there are they are usually managers positions or a million miles away from where i live. So then I look on seek.com or something like that, after pages and pages I pretty much find nothing that will suit a uni student and have come to the conclusion that thats more the place to look once I have my degree. So I googled student jobs found a couple of websites but none of the jobs listed on there were suitable for a student i.e full time minimum 30 hrs a week. I tried max employment but im not on the dole and am a student so they cant help me. other employment agencies wont be interested in finding me a job either. Apart from going round to the local shops handing resumes out I have no idea where to look.

Am i missing something? is there a decent student jobs website?
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If you want a job that bad, man up and cop the hours. I'm a full time student doing my honours thesis and 32+ hour work weeks. It's easy if you learn time management.

Adversely, bottle shops, servos etc. are always looking for students to do the shitty weekend hours that no-one else wants. You just have to accept the trade off of no Friday and Saturday nights for more $$.
 
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PINT of Stella. mate!

PINT of Stella. mate!

Many, many Scotches
All these suggestions are fairly common ones and as such will have you facing a lot of competition. I think you would be better served thinking outside the job and going for a more niche field.

Useful suggestions:

Zeppelin mechanic.
Burglar
Roadkill Taxidermist/ Piñata Assembler (great crossover potential in these fields)
Window washer at the peep show booths (flexible hours, good pay rates and you often find a lot of dropped $2 coins lying around)
Court Jester
Horse Whisperer
Knight
Medium

Alternatively you could just look into the wide and expanding world of illicit drug manufacture and distribution. Top money, great perks and ho's.

lots of ho's...
 
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