Anyone else having hard time finding summer work?

CrispyUK

Just wondering if anybody else is having difficulties getting work in over the summer? I was hoping to get myself back near the £0 mark in time for going back to uni in September, term starts again in 6 weeks and I'm still £900 overdrawn and have £630 on credit cards (£400 of that is 0% 'til Dec though).

I've been doing odds and ends back at where I used to work. I'm currently only booked for 16 hours work there before I go back to uni. Agencies have only been able to throw up 2-3 days of unskilled labour work so far this summer.

Getting short-term retail work isn't proving very fruitful, my work background is all admin/data entry and nobody wants to train you in retail for you to then be leaving once you're fully trained.

Anyone else in a similar boat? Guess it doesn't helping being in a small-ish town, or are the cities just as bad for student summer work?

Chris.

MercilessKiller

I'm afraid it's prob very very late to find summer work....

The time to do that is STRAIGHT after exam periods.. bar's and shop's employ loads at this time.. just give ur CV in to as many places u can think of and wait for a call basically!

Agencies are a good idea ye but once again, may be a bit late as it takes weeks for the admin to get you sorted anyway!!!!

I'm in a small village but drive 30 mins a day to Milton Keynes for my job.. helps obviously if you have a car but ye...

Places like Ladbrokes also recruit over the summer part time.

CrispyUK

MercilessKiller wrote:

I'm afraid it's prob very very late to find summer work....

Agencies are a good idea ye but once again, may be a bit late as it takes weeks for the admin to get you sorted anyway!!!!

Yep I'm pretty much consigned to the fact I'm not gonna get much, if any, more work in before I go back to uni, was just wondering if anyone else had found themself in a similar situation and whether they'd come up with any bright ideas to manage the debt (and the boredom!!).

Agreed on the agencies being useless, asked all the agencies to re-activate me a week before I came home from uni and e-mailed over updated CV - flex took six weeks before calling me to say they had my application but weren't taking anymore students on this summer!

MercilessKiller

Ebay is a good bet.. find whatever useless junk you can and sell it on ebay. Prob immoral and wrong, but you could use those freecycle sites maybe? get stuff for free legally, sell it on ebay! no idea if anyones tried that but will give it a go if legal!

Otherwise wait till you get back to uni and get a part time job in a bar or subway

circuit

MercilessKiller wrote:

you could use those freecycle sites maybe? get stuff for free legally, sell it on ebay! no idea if anyones tried that but will give it a go if legal!

not illegal, but definitely goes against the spirit of freecycle.

Snow_Angel

Hello CrispyUK - I live in a city (Plymouth) and I'm having a hard time finding summer employment too. Which you may think is strange in a fairly tourist orientated part of the world at this time of year.

Unfortunately, no-one is willing to employ me for a short period of time. I have lots of waitressing/bar expereince, but still employers don't want you if you can't stay with them when the new term starts. As I'm doing a clinical course, this isn't possible for me as I have full-time placements away from home in the academic year.

Also, the temp agencies have been totally unfruitful.

The only 2 things I have managed to do are : 1. I'm in the TA so have been doing some work for them during the summer (training and helping with odd jobs etc!)...unfortunately, as a Pte soldier, my wages are not great! 2. I've been doing psychology research at my local uni. I get paid £3 for every half-hour study...unfortunately, they are few and far between - but it's better than nothing and goes towards my food bill!

So, you're not alone!

Also, when you go back to uni have you considered applying for a hardship fund?



P.S. As far as taking things from people through Freecycle and then selling them on Ebay - only recommended for people with no morals. Our Freecycle group has a lot of members, and when something is offered a lot of people get back to you - I generally choose who I think is the most deserving. I want items to go to people who need them, not someone who's just going to sell them on Ebay.

Skyhigh

The time to look for summer jobs is around March - you really want to start mailshotting and emailing companies over EASTER.

Its ALWAYS worth getting a list of companies (and contact details) that you'd like to work for and sending them a speculative letter with your CV asking if they currently have or *may* have any placements/jobs for you over summer.

If you have to, even aim toward the "looking for experience" mode, not "I just want a job for a few weeks to get some cash and I dont care about the job".

Employers are, well...scared of employing people with little experience over a short term - as they don't "care" about the job or work...or they assume you won't. So aiming more towards the "I'd like to build my experience...xyz" market will at least put you in a much better light.

Agencies suck, seriously - I've signed up to 13 and only ONE got me a job (in 2 days!) I had to quit the job due to the employer flaunting health and safety regulations.
(Non-qualified people playing about on 2 tonne fork lift trucks? I think not sir).


To be honest, I've had NO "real" jobs until this summer (in between my 3rd and 4th year at Uni).

I've relied on Ebay to make a bit of cash throughout the terms and over summer. As I found agencies were...well ...crap and no-one wants to employ you for a couple of months at most.
- But having contacted many companies over easter for prospective summr jobs I've had quite a few offers and am now infact in my second job over summer.
I started my first job the day after my last exam, 120 miles away too...
It lasted 6 weeks, then I started this second contract job for 8 weeks, possibly extended to 10.

Meanwhile I've still been ebaying like a madman and doing part time (what time do I have??) web site design work.


At the end of the day its down to what you want to put into it.
At the moment I work 8am till 6pm Mon-Fri.
I have since May16th and will until Sept 15th.
Evenings, I spend listing things on ebay, processing ebay payments and packaging things - this from when I get home till about midnight.
Weekends? Mostly all Sat and Sun packing ebay stuff.

It can put a bit of strain on relationships but my girlfriend understands, plus she'll benefit from the cash too.

All I really have to worry about now is:
Researching for my 4th year.
Spending more time with the girlfriend (but I have all term time )
Hitting the personal allowance (£4745).....


When you hit summer, give it 2 weeks at most to hit a job that you *want*, something related to your studies or what your career choice is.
If you don't hit anything then you'll have to go for any job, cleaning, packing ,picking, warehouse....anything.

Why? - Well even work such as this have minimum employment times (unless its through an agency), which is usually 2months for warehouse work in my experience.

davelewis

Agree with above post - you really should have applied in March. I have a 12 week summer job in the Civil Service - applied in March and the contract started mid June.

At least you know for next year!!!! Also there will be plenty of shop work from now until Xmas - i think M&S have already started recruiting - try their website...

MercilessKiller

Snow_Angel wrote:

P.S. As far as taking things from people through Freecycle and then selling them on Ebay - only recommended for people with no morals. Our Freecycle group has a lot of members, and when something is offered a lot of people get back to you - I generally choose who I think is the most deserving. I want items to go to people who need them, not someone who's just going to sell them on Ebay.

I've never done this and don't plan to, don't worry was just coming up with some floating ideas of how to make money in desperate times.

faithless

Snow_Angel wrote:

Unfortunately, no-one is willing to employ me for a short period of time. I have lots of waitressing/bar expereince, but still employers don't want you if you can't stay with them when the new term starts. As I'm doing a clinical course, this isn't possible for me as I have full-time placements away from home in the academic year.

That's what you're doing wrong -telling them you can't stay. I've got a job that transfers back and fore uni with me - yay Tescos!- but when my friend was looking she just told them she'd had enough of uni/was taking some time out, and then she got a job. Sounds a bit morally suspect, but to be fair, the type of jobs you'll get are ones people constantly leave for better things anyway, so they're used to high staff turnover.

Snow_Angel

faithless wrote:

That's what you're doing wrong -telling them you can't stay. I've got a job that transfers back and fore uni with me - yay Tescos!- but when my friend was looking she just told them she'd had enough of uni/was taking some time out, and then she got a job. Sounds a bit morally suspect, but to be fair, the type of jobs you'll get are ones people constantly leave for better things anyway, so they're used to high staff turnover.

I guess I just have too many morals then! And it's people doing things like that and giving other hard-working, honest students a bad name with employers. When I was working/travelling in Australia for a year I had no problem getting short-term bar/waitressing work - the employers were extremely grateful for me being honest with them from the start and also said they didn't normally employ travellers as they were tired of them saying they'd stay and then disappearing at some point. At least with me they knew exactly when I was going to be moving on and could arrange to find someone else before then.