student jobseekers!

Poverty_stricken_student

I'd like to initiate a new thread entitled the above, for students looking 4 work experience seeking part time work or full time work in the holidays.I thought it would help as i am aware at the difficulties faced by many students when it comes to job hunting. Hope it goes down well.

lazymoezy

I applied for M&S customer service assistance at the Ilford branch in London. You have to fill in 3 questionnaires and if you pass all 3 then you call M&S and arrange a interview.

I got an interview on Monday 16th July, hope it goes all well, but I think my chances are slim, even though they say they comply with the Equal Oppurtunities Act etc etc they would rather have someone who is 25 year old with more experience than a 17 year old who has no experience.

Is there a website or something where you can find local job agencies? I dont want to just go out and look for them, thats time consuming, there should be a website or soem sort of directory.

Thanks,

-MoE-

cazzie_4

I went to a recruitment agency and am going to do some factory work, clear some debts, hopefully starting on Monday.

Keep an eye out in local paper , usually at the end of the jobs section, you could get some agency work.

pgb2006

I've got a mate who is only 15 still and finished his GCSEs. He wants to get a job for the summer but can't because of his age - any ideas?

seanbrown86

I've been looking for a job for the last 6weeks, and guess what....No ones seems to want to employ me? Which seems very strange since I've never had trouble befor getting anywork.

I'm about to go into my third year and could do with starting it without owinf any money.

So if anyone knows of any jobs in Newcastle, please let me know

Eoin_McLove

pgb2006 wrote:

I've got a mate who is only 15 still and finished his GCSEs. He wants to get a job for the summer but can't because of his age - any ideas?

He should be able to get a job with a work permit. When I was 15, I worked in a toy shop, but I had to have a work permit, which, if I remember rightly, was signed by the local Council and the employer. I've also worked at a box-making factory during university vacations, and I'm pretty sure that they've employed people who are 15. So long as you get a work permit, you can work when you're 15 - not sure if you can be younger though. It's up to the employer to sort out the work permit, so that means a bit of effort on the part of the idiot personnel department, which probably means they won't normally want to employ someone under 16. Probably best to try small shops who are more willing to help.

rammy007

Just found out yesterday that the employment laws for under 18 s changed in the last couple of months and under 18s arent allowed to work with machinery so a lot of factories cannot take them on until they are 18,this bloody goverment is useless its bad enough for teenagers to find a job (my dd has been trying for a year) but now this narrows the job market even more,i feel sorry for those kids who left school last year who couldnt stay on at school or go to college what are they supposed to do,bring back the YTS schemes thats what i say i went on one and i am still in the same job 23 years later.

soolin

Just posting to add that I have a 17 year old son desperate to do a summer job to get some money before he (hopefully...see other thread) goes to uni in September.

He's been for interviews but no one wants a worker for just a few months. I even got him to phone the job centre and they reckon they had only one job on their books which they sent him straight down for, but the coffee shop were surprised to see him as they had notified the job centre some time before that there was in fact no vacancy.

All job centre can suggest is that son tries to sign on when he is 18..but that doesn't seem to be very encouraging. We live in outer London but according to the job centre we are in a very difficult area work wise as the East side of London is such a twilight zone for workers being paid in cash that 'real' jobs are often hard to find.

Soo

Zinger549

https://www.e4s.co.uk has jobs for students it doesn't seem to get updated alot so some of the jobs might have gone

cazzie_4

quick update registered with the an job agency, at the time was told all that a lot of factory work was on offer , then phoned up when told to , asked when I registered, phone back monday. hmm

I get the feeling this will be a phone back fri, phone back mon, go out and find myself another option job lol .

adidas

I tried EVERYWHERE for a job. Jobcentre, local paper, agencies....Tesco weren't any good, but I've just got a job at Asda. So my advice is to try there! It might be hard though if you're under 18 to get a job on checkouts but there are lots of other departments, like produce and George who might be recruiting. It's great because they offer seasonal contracts, so I can just work when I'm back in the holidays I tried so many agencies, most of which weren't interested. Alot of them said that they had alot of interest from students, so they weren't taking anyone else on and even though I've got alot of experience, it took me a long time to find something. So I can imagine it will be very hard to find something without experience.

Bars/restaurants are always a good place to get work. Alot of places won't mind employing younger people with little experience, you could even get a job as a pot washer. Local cleaning agencies are another place to try, as well as local hotels (for housekeeping etc). I saw an advert once for summer cleaners at a halls of residence, so that's another good place to try. If you're lucky enough to live in a touristy area then try local entertainments places, bars, restaurants, hotels etc, because they're likely to need alot of seasonal workers. Also, look out for adverts for flier distributers or charity reps (the ones that stand in the street and get you to sign up to a charity) as they're often well paid (by student standards), but are usually short term.

I know people who have gotten jobs working for local exam boards, such as AQA and IBO. These are usually highly competitive and well paid. So my advice is to apply early/send a covering letter or telephone them to see if any vacancies are coming up. They need extra help to do filing/double marking or sorting papers around summer/exam time.

Hospitals often do Summer audits or may be looking for extra help filing, so you could always apply to the HR/personnel dept to see if anythings available. If you're a medical student then you could try getting a job a medical secretary. Or if you're interested in the health side of things, phone up your nurse bank at your local hospital and they will train you to be an auxiliary nurse or healthcare assistant, as they are now known. It's very hard work though, involving some not so pleasant jobs but it is highly rewarding, reasonably paid and very flexible as you basically say when you can and can't work. But don't limit yourself too much or they might not keep you in the Bank!

I'd suggest trying local recruitment agencies, not the big names, because they seemed to be most interested in helping me to find work. Before my job in Asda, I got offered a secretaries job temping for the day and I did a days envelope stuffing for an agency. The company was really nice and said I could call up anytime to see if there was work available.

Another tip, is to email all the job agencies you can find (look in the yellow pages or on yell.com for them) with a covering letter, stating my experience, what type of work I was looking for, availability for work and suitability for different roles. This saves alot of time and money (paper and postage costs) and I used the same basic template for the emails, just changing a few details here and there.

I can understand that it can be frustrating looking for a job, especially if you're only available for a little while. But do keep trying!! If at first you don't succeed...