It all depends on your lifestyle. If you have commitments such as childcare, a college course or even another part-time job, you need to know exactly when and where you will be working to ensure that your timetable for the week works out. We all know how difficult this kind of juggling can be, so you’ll be looking for a regular, predictable pattern of hours which gives you certainty and means you don’t have to think about how to fit everything in.
If You Need Set Hours
Retail is often a good choice for this kind of working life. Shops are open at set hours, and they don’t tend to stay open later just because they’re busy.
Similarly, bars and cafes often have set hours. But with the restaurant, pub and club trade you are dependent on getting shifts every week, and these will tend to be available at the busiest times of course, so you can expect to give up your weekends and evenings.
Split shifts have always been a feature of the catering industry, with many restaurants running a full service at lunchtime, then either closing or quietening down in the afternoon before running a full complement of staff in the evening. This is fine if you don’t mind going home and taking a nap before the evening rush, but for some people it doesn’t work.
If You Can be More Flexible
Part-time work, covers a lot of different work modes. For example, some fashion stores employ people for a late-night shopping shift, then all day Saturday and Sunday. This can fit very well with a university or college course, and also provides a great addition to your CV. Employers love to see that you have actually got involved in the world of work, rather than spending your entire holiday watching T.V. or playing computer games.
If you are only available sporadically – for example in school holidays or breaks from college – look for opportunities that take advantage of this fact. There’s often plenty of part-time work in August because full-time employees go on holiday and their work therefore must be covered. August is also the time when lots of people want to get married, hold parties and generally celebrate, so event management companies, wedding planners, venue owners, festival organisers and others are looking for staff. Christmas is similar, with stores desperate for staff.
There’s a huge range of part time jobs in Newcastle upon Tyne, and sampling a range of these is a great way of finding out what you enjoy and what you don’t. You can take away some generalised learnings – ‘I prefer working in a big company’, or ‘I love working with a team of people’, or ‘I like being outdoors’.
But don’t consider part-time jobs as simply dead ends. Perhaps in years gone by they were however, these days some people are building careers and getting to the top of organisations without ever working full-time.