How having a summer job could save your summer!

It’s the end of your first year and you’ve gone home for the summer. You’ve probably got about £100 of student loan left and need to survive the rest of the summer either living off that, begging your parents or becoming a hermit. That doesn’t sound like much fun now does it?

Well, that was my situation. I had all these plans for the summer – save spending money for my holiday, to make plans with friends and family, to occasionally do fun (expensive) activities – all of which needed money. It wasn’t long until I realised that £100 wasn’t going to last me very long, a couple of weeks in fact. Excluding a bit of birthday money, I really wasn’t in a financial situation where I could do anything I wanted to do – I couldn’t even travel anywhere because that was too expensive!

So, like the functioning adult I am slowly becoming, I went on Indeed (you can try the university job shop too) and applied for jobs – I did this until my applications started to pile up. From carer to kennel assistant and bar staff too barista, I spent weeks tweaking my CV, with the help of my  mum, adding in the new experiences I had gained throughout my first year at university until I thought it was looking really good. But, I realised that ultimately, it is actually quite difficult to get a job right off the bat.

I had spent my first month of summer applying for jobs and hearing nothing back – I hadn’t had a proper job before so I knew it was going to be difficult…but not this difficult. At the end of the day you’ve got to persevere and keep looking and keep applying regardless of rejection. There are loads of ways to get noticed, keep applying online, hand out CVs in person or talk to someone at the uni, because it will pay off.

Now, a month and a bit later, I have myself a decent part-time job at a retail store. No, it isn’t the most fun thing in the world, but a job is a job unless you’re incredibly lucky, but at the age of 20 I won’t hold my breath for that dream job just yet!

I work at the weekends and do as much overtime as possible during the week to keep myself busy, with my friends either working or still at university, and my boyfriend in the army deployed weeks at a time, so I need a distraction and working is a very good way of doing just that! Though, how people keep their sanity working in an environment such as retail is beyond me? I fold a table of clothes, go on to another table to work on, come back to the original table and it’s like it’s never been done. Drives. Me. Crazy.

Having a summer job is a good way to keep yourself entertained. I’ve had many summers where I find myself sat indoors for days at a time bored out of my mind watching Jeremy Kyle with a cup of coffee by my side. All in all, if you’re bored during summer, I would suggest trying to get yourself a job, you’ll get experience, money and something to do all in one, winner winner!