What job did you do as a student?

[Mymugoftea]

I washed up in a small hotel.

Woolworths weekends and evenings. Averaged about 16-20 hours per week

In the long summer break I worked agency in a biscuit factory full time.

Oxbridge didn’t allow us vehicles or jobs. My holiday work included dressing as a Roman Maiden at Thorpe Park for that summer’s theme, fun but chilly. Radio 1 Roadshow came and those of you of a certain age will remember the slogan ‘Let’s get this road on the show’

Working in Boots put me off shop work to this day; working in a jam factory put my bro off jam for life.

Behind a bar, waitressing and as a face painter for kids events.
Face painting was my favourite as it only lasted about 2 hours and someone would usually give me some cake.

16 hours a week at PC World. This was back when sales staff used to get commission. My commission each month was more than my pay!

I'm surprised they can attract staff now. They have targets for all sorts of things but get paid peanuts.

How are your modesty skills? 😄

Holidays only - silver service, BP science summer job (got to go to Brussels and work with a EU quango), lab technician.

Dish washing and basic food prep in the kitchens of a local cafe. Cleaning empty offices for a few hours each weekday evening. Order picking in a warehouse in the holidays.

I tried two customer service jobs (supermarket and waitressing) and lasted less than a week in both. Too antisocial to work with general public 😅

Cleaning offices in the evenings for 3 hours. I also did tutoring on Saturdays.

Oh and when I was sixteen/seventeen I spent a summer in Europe working on a candy floss stall and doing hair wraps at various music festivals. Think I could just about cope with the customer service aspect of that because I was drunk and dealing with drunk people for most of it!

I packed cooked chicken in a factory in the summer holidays and every weekend in my final year. It was hard work and freezing cold. I went to work dressed like the Michelin man. I hated it but it was a case of needs must. Chicken factories are spotless and you could literally ‘eat off the floor’.

Shoe shop assistant
Behind the scenes in a dry cleaners
Christmas postie
Cleaner on the orthopaedic ward in a hospital
Waitress in a cafe at Chester Zoo.

Barmaid in Hull City centre, evenings from Thurs to Sun. Made a fortune in tips, especially when the navy boats were in. (40 years ago now... FORTY!)

Worked in a pharmacy. Started aged 15. I worked 3hrs 1 day in the week after school, and Saturdays. I stayed working there all through my uni years too.

During term time, I worked as a bar person at a nightclub.

During holidays, I worked as a waitress/bar person at a function centre, a bar person at a hotel, golf and country club and a bar person at a pub (yes, all 3 jobs at the same time).

During the long summer holidays, in addition to the bar jobs I worked full time as an admin person at a carpet factory one summer and the next summer as a junior at a chartered accountancy firm.

Cleaner on a labour and delivery ward, I did the night shift. It was my favourite job ever.

Bar work, cleaning, housekeeping, cooking in an old folks home, waitressing. All sorts really

Took names and addresses of potential customers in a mobile marketing unit for a double glazing company.

Call centre evening shift which worked well round my studies and topped off with working in retail over Christmas. I also worked in a law firm as a receptionist for a while too.

Then in a pub after 18.

In school holidays I worked in a clothes factory pressing the shoulders of jackets. It was the most soul destroying job I have ever done. If anything made me what to work hard at school and get a career it was that job. 40 hrs a week on my feet for £60!!
There weren’t many options in my town and I couldn’t have worked in a customer facing role at that age( painful shy and awkward) so factory work suited me. It did teach me resilience aka just suck it up!

Warehouse work (order picking)
Bar work
Waitressing
Cleaning hotel rooms
Factory process worker

All hard work, but often enjoyable thanks to camaraderie with other staff.

At uni I worked part-time in one of the administration offices. Absolute best situation a student could wish for. I mostly compiled people’s applications into a single folder as their various pieces came in the mail. I also answered phone calls from anxious applicants wanting to know if their scores or letters had arrived. It was a job that definitely no longer exists.

during breaks I picked up shifts in retail shops and once tried telemarketing when I was desperate. This was before caller-Id when telemarketing was still a legitimate, if annoying, business technique.

Worked at a clothing store, a photo processing shop, McDonald’s and a catalogue call centre.

This was during A levels and uni.

@LividGas that sounds like living the dream

Hospitality for me, waitressing and chambermaid as it was called back then.

loads of things- cage cleaner in a cattery; till worker in a shop; exercised racehorses before school (barely paid tbh... it's easy to get unpaid labour in a stable!); briefly a waitress.