Minimum-Wage Jobs For Students: Should You Find One at University?

In order to find a serious job in your specialty immediately after receiving your diploma, it is better to start working while you are still studying. Then, by the time of graduation from the university, a former student will have some kind of experience with which it is easier to get a job. 

But how can one find their first job without experience? What are the options you should look for? Won’t part-time job harm your educational prospects? These are the questions that any student looking for a job has to answer.

What are the Options?

Option 1: Minimum Wage Jobs

According to the US statistics, the most popular industries in which employers are eager to hire young professionals at a minimum wage are sales, tourism, hotels, restaurants and administrative personnel. And the most common youth-oriented jobs are waiter, sales manager, courier, sales consultant, and account manager.

It is easy to see that the above positions do not imply in-depth professional knowledge of the vacancy’s industry affiliation.

It would seem that the work of a waiter can hardly be anything useful in the sense of a start for a future professional career, for example, a marketer or a lawyer. But in fact, even work outside the profile gives certain universal skills. Several students have shared their experience at working minimum-wage jobs at Gradesfixer. A common conclusion is that success in it develops and demonstrates to the future employer the qualities that are important for most professional areas: at least – activity, resourcefulness, efficiency, attentiveness, the ability to find contact with people, persuade. In this sense, working as a sales or customer service manager, for example, can be a good start for many different professions.

Option 2: Internships

The above professional areas are leaders in attracting youth labor, but the personnel market is not limited to them. The spheres of consulting, finance, banking, investment, marketing, advertising and PR are also relatively active in attracting young people. And among the vacancies there are also positions of novice specialists, including those in reputable companies in the relevant professional fields. Why do such employers want to hire students?

Firstly, for some companies, it is important to “grow” employees “for themselves” by installing their vision and values in students. It happens that the lack of experience is even a plus in the eyes of the employer, because it is easier to teach newcomers their approaches to work from scratch than to retrain those who are already burdened with other people’s methods. For example, law firms and financial consulting companies are quite active in attracting talented students as interns and trainees, looking at them, and then hiring the most promising for initial positions, allowing them to gradually climb the career steps. Many successful professionals have gone this way. It is also quite possible to get into banks as an operator or a junior specialist. Advertising and creative agencies are also quite active in recruiting students.

If you did a good internship or internship but were not offered a permanent position, ask your mentor for a written recommendation describing the tasks you completed and your successes. It will come in handy later when you start looking for a new job.

There are more opportunities than you think

Often, all graduates try to find work in their specialty (for example, psychology students usually look for work in the field of personnel management and become HR managers). After all, it seems that this is all that they can and know. But this is the time when you can really try yourself in something else. Consider vacancies and send resumes to all positions of interest to you. This is a chance to do exactly what interests you in life. You are not always what is written in your diploma.

Wasted time will surely pay off in the future

It seems that the right thing to do even during college is to find a stable job, and not waste time on something unattainable or part-time jobs. However, it is worth considering that you can spend a whole year on boring and hated work that will give you nothing for career development and self-realization. Maybe you should take the opportunity and try to realize your dream, strive for something greater? If you are not constrained by anything, then this is the age when you can find yourself.