The career story of a UofG student working part-time alongside his degree

By Andrea Currò , MA Honours in English Language Student

Working alongside your studies can present a range of opportunities, some of which can have a big impact on your career path.

A lot in the last four years has changed for me personally. I experienced many different situations and learning opportunities by pursuing part-time work and volunteering.

Here’s some insight into work experience I’ve developed over the last few years, including reflections on how it has helped me.

Working in hospitality

I worked in hospitality for the first couple years at university, and I consider my experience as a receptionist as the foundation of my career.

Through that, I developed my customer service and communication skills by engaging with people from all over the world. I also developed my technical literacy by becoming familiar with different types of software. This was a useful transferable skill as I was quick to learn new software in later jobs.

Hospitality equipped me with skills but also taught me a lot about myself—my limits and expectations—which certainly influenced my career journey.

Working part-time for a charity

My most recent work experience has been with Sight Scotland , a charity that supports people with visual impairment and/or sight loss. My job is to set up community spaces and engage in large communities in Glasgow and smaller ones in the outskirts or around the Central Belt.

It has been a phenomenal place to work with a great work-life balance and flexibility which has been crucial in my last two years of university as I’ve needed to focus on final assignments before graduating. For example, I’ve benefitted from a hybrid working model—remote for meetings and mostly outside for engaging with service users and partner organisations.

This job has given me so much experience and helped me learn more about a demographic that tends to be overlooked who don’t have a personal connection to visual impartment and/or sight loss. I learnt how to manage my time, tasks and projects, all skills that’ll be invaluable for my future career.

I like to keep busy and work on several projects, and my managers have been supportive and encouraging. They’ve trusted me in what I am doing which has been a unique and impactful experience for me, especially coming from hospitality jobs where everything tends to be micromanaged and highly observed.

Volunteering at the Mitchell Library

Alongside work, I have also built my knowledge in historical archives by volunteering at the Mitchell Library. This experience helped me receive an offer for the University’s MSc in Information Management & Preservation .

Additionally, volunteering has taught me another way to engage with the community from a historical perspective where—instead of looking towards the future and what could be done—we look back, observing Glasgow from the past, including its rich history and impact that previous generations have made. This way of thinking and the knowledge I’ve gained by applying it will certainly be useful during and after my postgraduate degree.

I’m glad of the paths and experiences I’ve chosen and experienced because they’ve gotten me to where I am today. They’ve helped me build my skills and knowledge, including my confidence.

At the end of my degree, I can say that working alongside university can be a challenging but rewarding experience that’ll serve you in the long run.

Other resources

Our Internship Hub : Browse a wide range of on- and off-campus internship opportunities

Our Student Job Hub : Browse on- and off-campus part-time jobs in various industries