There's a couple of reasons you'll be interested in this post. You're currently studying and looking for a bit of exposure or income over the holidays. You've graduated (lucky you) and you've come to the realization that you actually have a holiday for once where you don't have to worry about ARP, module selection or preparing for the next semester. To top things off, if your chromosomes happen to be XX, you have at least a good six months to work with. If your chromosomes are XY, you have a few months until the nation gives you a job.
So you're saying you want to work.
The first thing you have to realize, is that the moment you step into the working world, regardless of what job you do, you will not be given the same quarter you get as a student. Internships are somewhat in-between, but if you're formally applying for a salaried job, be it part-time or full-time, the expectations of you will be that of competent, politically cognizant, adult. My only disclaimer is that in whatever you do, make sure you have yourself covered. The consequences of not doing so are far more severe than if you make a mistake at school.
There are many types of jobs available for young people, and I'm going to try to group them here and talk about them at length. There's no way I will cover every category or be able to delve in-depth into every one of them, so if you want more information do drop us a note on the tagboard and we'll see what we can do about it.
Tuition
This is arguably one of the most lucrative and easiest jobs to handle. It can also be the most frustrating. The deal is simple. You find students of an educational level you are comfortable with teaching, you meet up with them at some location to be arranged, and you teach them. There are many organizations (a quick Google search will place you in good stead) which will even help you do most of the legwork by pairing students to tutors, though I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not you subscribe to their services. The pay can be pretty good if you are able to establish for yourself a reputation as a good tutor. The stereotypical NUSHS student should do pretty well tutoring Math or Science subjects, and charges for an hour for say, secondary school students, can range anywhere from 20 to 50 dollars, purely as a guide. If you are exceptionally hardworking and you source for many students, arrange one-to-one private sessions, you can see how this translates to good income every month.
The downside of tuition, however, is that it can require a lot of additional "homework" on your part. If you decide to go all out, you'll need to prepare notes for them, mark assignments, administer mock tests, and occasionally talk to concerned parents. This I mention because there is the one rare situation where you meet a parent who may be less compromising in some aspect, and if you are not experienced enough or feel pressured, it may become an altogether unpleasant experience.
Oh, and relief teaching at schools is not too far detached from the above, except that you get paid by day instead of by the hour.
Front-line Staff
This is another big category, which although less well-paying compared to tuition, is an excellent chance for you to gain experience. There are many iterations of front-line staff. McDonald's cashiers, call center operators, sales personnel, receptionists, flyer distributors, the list goes on. You will get to meet many different types of people, and you're liable to get a good understanding of the immediate behind-the-scenes work of what happens when a customer requests a specific service. Pay is normally by the hour, and can be anything from 5 to 20 bucks, again purely as an estimate. I must add that these category of jobs are relatively easy to source, because the very people who take up these jobs move on equally quickly, and the skills required are not tremendously involved that you need a lot of training to pick them up. In other words, from a business perspective you are a dispensable asset.
The downside of working front-line, is that you really meet everyone. You will have days that suck big time, you will have days which you spend doing absolutely nothing, and you will have days where you do not get the chance to sit down or have a meal from 8am in the morning till 8pm. There's a tiny chance your boss may be a(n) , but I'd say that all that's part of the process of getting to see the world.
Office Work
Ah, the white-collar worker. Most office work jobs normally come from referrals, and as such they are a bit harder to come by. To the best of my knowledge the easiest way to land yourself one of these is to look for an internship at say, a government body or a research institution. You normally get at least a nice chair and a shared desk, if not better. The type of work you will do can vary from day to day - anything from clerical duties, to administrative tedium to more interesting project management. If you're at a research institution you can be assigned to a senior researcher or supervisor, and it'll essentially be like working on your ARP all over again. Pay for office work is normally by the hour, and the rates vary so much I can't even quote a reliable range. Specifically however, most internships seem to prefer to refer to pay as "Allowances", mainly commensurate to the difficulty of the work, transport, and meal costs. The main advantage of having office work experience, however, is that the proverbial "leadership" stuff is all seemingly implicated in office work. Citing office or admin work experience can be one way of demonstrating how you've taken your leadership abilities beyond the school environment.
The downside of working in the office is that you have to be prepared to clock office hours. This means things like 8am to 5pm, with lunch from say, 12noon to 1pm. Being the junior of the office means that you can get grunt work "arrowed" in your direction which you sometimes can't say no to. Ultimately your mileage will vary.
Freelance Media
Some people I know of, and myself included, do some work in freelance graphic design, video editing, photography or music composition. This is somewhat a more specialized field that requires you have a knowledge of the area and normally a credible portfolio to go along with it. The big, big advantage of working in this area is that you get to work at your own time and decide what projects you want to take. If you don't like it, don't accept it. If you love it and want to do more, do it. The fees can also be lucrative. If you're seasoned at what you do in say, graphic design, for example, and you're asked to design a logo, you can charge hundreds of dollars for work that takes you less than an hour to complete. If you're asked to do a poster the charges can go by size, and for videos/music, the charges can go by minutes of video. Realize however, that you don't need to have a lot of time to set aside if you want to do freelance work. I did commissioned graphic design all through four years of school, managing my time as I went along. In time and with experience, you also have the benefit of being able to accumulate a nice portfolio that helps show scholarship agencies and universities that you are not only an academics person.
The downside of freelance media work is that not everyone can do it, and it's a dangerous industry for those who are in it. A lot of the industry is based on trust because for smaller-scale projects it gets difficult to work on deposits. If someone on either end absconds, things get sour fast. There will also be people who will steal your work if you're not careful, and easily so, since the bulk of the work done is digital.
Freelance Modelling
This mainly applies for the ladies, though I do suppose that interested, suave young men could qualify. Since I am neither this does not make me an authority on the subject, but I have come into contact with it every now and then, so here goes. The idea is that there are many photographers out there who could do with experience with photographing people, hence the need for models. Shoots are normally themed and linked to either ambiance (conferred by the location) or apparel. And unlike in the previous categories where there's salaries involved, beginners normally go for what's abbreviated as TFCD - Trade for CD. The model gains experience from the shoot, and so does the photographer. In turn for the model's time he/she receives a CD with processed photographs from that shoot with the permission to use them on their own portfolio webpage or as references for future, higher-profile modelling shoots. As time goes on the more well-known of the industry get to set their own prices, and even determine the genre and type of shoot they are willing to do.
The downsides are clearly apparent in this one. Stories of shoots carrying lewd intent or models being coerced into uncomfortable situations are not without basis. You also have to be comfortable with the fact that your face and figure can at some point appear somewhere on the Internet without your initial knowledge.
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That's all for today folks. I've tried to describe the fields as generically as I can, my apology being that in doing so I will not have covered every aspect. It is very possible, and common, in fact, for different people to take away totally different experiences from the same job. Part II comes soon, on how to protect yourself while working.
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