Finding a Part-time Job

Transcription

1 Finding a Part-time Job This presentation provides you with information, links and support to help you secure a part-time or casual job. We don t place students directly into employment, but focus on helping you to develop the knowledge and strategies to successfully gain your own employment. A summary of all the websites mentioned in this seminar is provided next to the link for this session. Advertised Part-time Vacancies Part-time jobs are advertised on the major job vacancy websites such as Seek, Career One, and My Career. Put the word part-time in a search engine and then search by area or do a more advanced search, in which you specify the role, or the industry (such as retail) that you wish to work in. It is also advisable to consider local sources for part-time/casual adverts such as the Courier Mail, and the Gold Coast Bulletin on a Wednesday and Saturday. Also the free local newspaper Quest News is worth having a look at. Please be aware that some jobs are advertised as commission only. This means you will only be paid if you make enough sales to achieve the agreed commission, which is generally a percentage of the sales you have made. University Student Vacancies Employers, who are particularly interested in employing students for part-time or casual roles, place advertisements with our Careers and Employment Service and these can be found on the CareerBoard, linked from the careers homepage. Just go to Find job vacancies and click on CareerBoard. Login using your standard password. From here have a look at the general part-time and casual vacancies list. If you view all you will be able to look at all the roles in there. Just note that there are discipline-specific roles advertised in here as well as general roles. Now if we have a look at a general role, just have a look at the wait person position, it will give you the details and how to go about applying for this role. 1

2 If you re interested in discipline-specific roles, then you can also do a search, if we go back, by filtering by discipline in the part-time/casual vacancies, or by having a look at the Australian degree-related vacancies by discipline. If you re looking for student jobs on campus, a number of opportunities are advertised on CareerBoard throughout the year. It s updated daily and the number of adverts increases as the year progresses, so you ll need to keep checking back to see what has been posted. You might also consider joining the Student Jobs@Griffith Talent Pool, as some campus jobs are exclusive to these members. You ll find more information about this at the Find job vacancies and work experience link on our website. Food service jobs on campus are generally listed on the Griffith website under About Griffith. And here s a short link for it: Hospitality Jobs If you re hoping to secure hospitality work, be aware that in order to work in venues that serve alcohol, you will need to have a Responsible Service of Alcohol Licence (RSA). If a venue includes gambling, you also may need an RSG (Responsible Service of Gambling Licence). There are a number of courses available to attain these licences; just make sure they are accredited. TAFE offer these courses online at a reasonable price, and another option is to go through the Queensland Hotels Association. Working with Children If you re working with children, either in a paid or voluntary role, you will need to check if you require a blue card. If so, you will need this before you start working. You can find the criteria for this online and the link has been provided. If this is for a paid role, it costs about $72. If it is for volunteering, your volunteer organisation should organise this for you. If you require this for working-integrated learning activities as part of your degree and you already have a blue card, you do not need to apply again. 2

3 Responding to PT Job Adverts Most part-time jobs are casual jobs, which means that you are given varied hours and days of work depending on the employer s needs and your pay reflects the fact that you re not given holidays or leave. If you don t work, you re not paid. A small number of part-time jobs may be permanent, which means you are entitled to leave and other worker entitlements. To work out whether you should apply for the position, first clarify if the position offers suitable hours around your studies. There is good evidence that working part-time up to a maximum of twelve hours per week can actually boost your grades and provide valuable work experience. However, working long hours has been shown to significantly reduce grades. You ll need to find your own balance with this, but some students need more time for their studies, particularly new students in their first semester, students with English as a second language, and students attempting challenging courses without strong networks to support them. Next, assess whether you have the majority of skills and experience required for the job. If you don t, and want to develop them, you may need to consider doing some voluntary work. In addition to helping you to develop desirable work skills, it will also provide you with references that can help you with your next application. If the advert requests own transport, this is usually because there is no public transport available. Most adverts will request a resume. It is expected that you will submit an application letter with your resume. Follow the instructions on how to apply as methods can vary. Resume A resume for a part-time/casual job is quite different to a resume for a degree-related role. Generally, you would be emphasising your experience more than your education and it would be a much shorter resume, a maximum of two pages as opposed to perhaps three for a graduate role and you do not need to include a career goal for an unrelated casual role. If you are looking for degree-related employment, you do need to provide what is a more professional resume and you can see some resources on how to do this from our website. 3

4 Referees Referees are quite valuable when seeking part time work so it s important to include them in your resume with their phone and contacts. Employers prefer a manager or supervisor from your most recent workplace. However, if you don t think they re the best person to comment on your abilities, you could use a colleague or even a regular customer. If you ve never worked before you could consider a tutor or an academic who knows your work and could comment on your attitude towards it, or a sports coach or someone who has seen your involvement in community activities. If you are an international student you may use an international contact if they can converse in English. If not, a residential advisor or an academic tutor may help out. Simply contact your potential referee, explain you are seeking part-time work and require references and give them an idea of what you ve done previously and how you might have demonstrated good work ethics. Ask if they may be able to comment on what they know about your work performance or attitude, and suggest you would be happy to notify them of positions from which they may get a call and that you could forward your resume and a brief summary to them. If they agree, make sure you get their phone and contacts. Application Letter The purpose of an application letter is to introduce yourself and to persuade the employer to give you a chance. What you need to include in an application letter can be seen in the Writing a covering letter link on our site. Again, be aware that an application letter for a degree-related professional role should be much more detailed than one for a part-time/casual job. For a part-time/casual job simply introduce yourself, highlight the relevant experience and skills you have for this role, and finally indicate your availability. When making an online application, you could include your application letter in the body of the where you attach your resume. Don t be tempted to use informal language; the application requires business etiquette. 4

5 It s a good idea to check that you have presented yourself in the best possible way in your resume and application letter by having one of our careers consultants review it to give you feedback. To do this, you can make an appointment online and just see the link from our website. Better still, our staff deliver workshops specifically developed to help you gain excellent job search skills. See our Job search seminars for details on bookings. So you just go to the On-Campus Seminars link. Best Job Search Technique? Consider this, how do you think most people find part-time or casual work? Through adverts or through word- of- mouth? If you ask around a bit, you ll find most people got their job through word-of-mouth: a contact, a friend, family member, or a fellow student referred them to it. So if you are just relying on adverts, you might be missing a lot of opportunities. We might not all have lots of contacts, but you can get around this. It is perfectly acceptable to approach employers directly for work, as long as you do this in a courteous and professional manner. This means respecting the employer s needs by not showing up to a restaurant during meal times, being polite and offering your services without demands or expectations. It may also be useful to ask fellow students, tutors, or academics about any opportunities they know of. Letting everybody you interact with know you are looking for work, can assist you as well. It is useful to leave a speculative application letter and resume with any potential employers you make contact with, and see our Speculative application letter template from the Application letters link on our website. If you just scroll right down to the bottom, you ll find that. Unadvertised Vacancies There are a number of recruitment agencies that manage part-time or casual employment opportunities and you can find these on our website under Find job vacancies Part-time and casual recruitment links. Remember, agencies make 5

6 more money placing candidates so they are going to be more helpful for those who have relevant work experience. However, they may give a good idea of where to target your job search efforts. Another good source to start investigating is the Yellow Pages. Simply look up the organisations you might wish to work for and make contact. Phone Applications If you re contacting employers by phone to determine potential opportunities there are a few things to increase your chances of success. First do your research, find out as much as you can about the employer and what they do before you speak to them. Make the match between your skills and experience and what they might need so you can highlight this in the conversation. Make some notes on the key points you wish to articulate and also what questions you might have for the employer. Treat the first contact as if it s an interview: present courteously, professionally and confidently; respect the employer s time; find out the best time to speak with them; introduce yourself and briefly state that you re seeking part-time opportunities; and ask if they have a few moments to assist you with some information about this. Outline what you think you have to offer and whether they could see any opportunities with their organisation or could recommend anyone else. Never demand an employment opportunity as this will close the communication very quickly. Offer to bring your resume just in case any opportunities open up in the future. Ask if they have any recommendations on who you should contact about this. It will be no surprise that face-to-face contacts are much more successful than telephone ones so the aim would be to organise a face-to-face meeting if there is potential. Applying in Person When meeting in person, make sure you present professionally even if it s for non-professional work to create a good first impression. Ensure you re on time if prearranged and bring your resume and an application letter to leave with the employer. Make sure you meet the appropriate person, so the manager or the 6

7 supervisor and if they re not available, find out when they will be and come back. Don t try and talk with them while they are managing customers. Wait until they have a break, or come back at a better time. Follow the principles outlined in doing a job interview and you can see this from the Job Interviews booklet from our website. The Value of Work Experience If you are trying to get that first job opportunity you might want to consider doing voluntary work to gain experience, demonstrate employability skills, and gain references. Work experience is also highly valuable to your graduate employment prospects for the same reasons. Of course, if you gain degree-related work experience this is highly regarded. You ll find some degree-related work experience opportunities advertised on our CareerBoard, but you may also need to seek this out independently, by approaching organisations that may benefit from projects you could potentially do for them. Of course, finding out about this will require some research. Start by looking at the Career options with my degree site to find links to potential employers in your field. International Students For international students, the 20 hours during semester includes voluntary work but not work-integrated learning. Outside of the semester, hours are unlimited. Employers can check your visa entitlements on the online Vivo system, if you give them permission. It is advisable to apply for a tax file number to avoid excessive taxation. You ll find the link for this on our website under Global careers Working in Australia as a student. If you are very new to the Australian culture, you may find it a little confusing as to how to present to and communicate in the Australian workplace. Therefore, you may find the Getting a Job in Australia seminar helpful as a start to your job search activities. 7

8 Wages and Worker Rights Young workers and those new to the Australian workplace are some of the most vulnerable to inappropriate employment practices, so it s important you understand your workplace rights and rights to fair pay and equitable, ethical treatment. If you are under 25 and have concerns about unfair pay or treatment, contact the Young Workers Advisory Service. If you are over 25, contact the Queensland Workplace Rights Ombudsman. It is advisable to check your pay meets award wage requirements and you can do this on the fair work website. Careers and Employment Service The Careers and Employment service have a range of resources to assist you with your part-time job search, in addition to your graduate and undergraduate job search. We have vacancies and employer lists on CareerBoard, we offer career and job search consultations and face-to-face appointments, we run job search seminars, and we also have a range of resources in our careers library and online. Come and meet employers, potential graduate employers, or internship employers with our Careers Fairs and On Campus Talks. And our services are available for up to twelve months after you graduate. Good luck with your job search. 8