Congratulations, you did it! You managed to spend a year living abroad, away from family and friends, from native English speakers and that extra cheeky Nandos. You braved life outside of our little island, trading WKDs for French Wine, endless rain for Spanish sun, tea for tacos, Carling for Erdinger. I describe my Year Abroad as both the best and worst year of my life so far, and you probably feel the same. You did it, and now you are back home.
So, congratulations young MLings, you spread your wings and soared beautifully across the sea to new horizons, and now you are all grown up. Mama is very proud. I won’t lie to you, the good bit is over now, and you are going to experience “reverse culture shock” culture shock now that you are home in the strangest of ways. Dinner and sleep patterns are ever-so-slightly off schedule; you had forgotten what custard, or decent gravy tasted like. Your friends from first year are all ready to graduate, and have changed a lot since the last time you saw them; you had forgotten just how much it rains here.... Your MLang mentors from first year will have graduated and you will soon step up in their place, taking bright-eyed little MLings under your wing (don’t worry, you’ll be a great mentor). Gone are the days that teachers would give you slack because you are ERASMUS. You are one of a handful of third years in a class full of fourth years, and so now the pressure is on.
To add further stress, you once again have to learn how to be thrifty: you don’t get an ERASMUS grant to study in England, your rent has doubled, maybe even tripled, and you are beginning to miss the price of veg and wine on the other side of the channel. Sure, you are going to save on travel (although some of you, like myself, may have met a special someone on your YA, and they may inconveniently live quite far away), and (hopefully) you will be saving on going out clubbing too, but for some people that still won’t be enough and you will have to think about getting a job.
Working and studying may seem daunting, and if you are wanting a perfect first degree, and/or a decent social life, getting a part time job won’t be for you. The other way you can earn is through a summer job at home, or finding a paid internship, the latter of which I did these past six weeks. I am going to talk a little about working part time at uni, and doing an internship, as these are probably the best options that I would recommend for those a little strapped of cash.
Job type 1: Part Time Bar Work
I started being a barmaid at the Crafty Scholar in October 2016, two weeks after I started back at university, and it is simultaneously the best and worst job that I have ever had.
On one hand, I sometimes have to work 18 hour shifts broken up with a two hour break for food or sleep (I usually choose the latter), the customers can range from creepy to being downright disrespectful, and there is something slightly soul destroying about having to walk home at daybreak. But, on the other hand, I absolutely love it. Working outside of university gives you so much more freedom, and offers you a new perspective of the city. I now have a completely different circle of friends who are here for me in Lancaster 24/7 and have become my family in the same way that my housemates have. It is an escape from university life, and the local customers come to care for you and stand up for you in cases of disrespect, giving you discounts for their services (like removal companies, free consultations etc.) and asking after you if they see anything on the television that could have affected you. My boss is kind and fair – he understands the pressures of university, and if you show him loyalty and do your job well, he will make your life easier so that you don’t fail your courses (i.e. he will give you time off around exam season, or give you day shifts in your final year so that you can maintain a normal sleeping pattern) and on top of that you can enjoy the luxury of a 25% discount (or 50% after Christmas) on all food and drinks! Plus, you get tips.
The extra money not only means that I can steer clear of my overdraft, but it also means that I can afford nice things, like holidays or new clothes (I am not massively rich, just slightly less in debt than the average student) which help me feel better about the stress of third year. It also massively helps with your time organisation: You have to write a timetable of your hours every week, so why not write a timetable of your classes and study patterns too? Deadlines become more important, and gone are the days of ‘leaving it ‘til the night before’. Getting a Saturday job means that you have to get your arse into gear and work twice as hard.
I finished third year with a 2:1 with some modules reaching a first, (which was mainly a knock-on effect of having done poorly in exams on my year abroad, thanks to a teacher in Poitiers changing the date of an exam without telling me, resulting in a 0 on my transcript, and having to claw my way up from a low 2:2), had mini breaks to Paris, London, Edinburgh, Northumberland, Malaga and Glasgow, and I’ve booked to spend all of my Christmas travelling around Mexico. I kept up with fashion (in a way) and not once did I resort to living off Tesco’s own brand beans.
Internship
The second type of job that you can get at university that isn’t directly associated to working there is an internship! There are two types of intern: paid and unpaid. If you are short on cash and need experience, FASS can help you find something paid that is a good fit for you. I worked as a Marketing and Publicity Assistant for Comma Press Publishing and it was an incredible experience. Sure, the hours are long (it’s a 9-5 job), but once you get into the swing of working full time employment it feels great. My only advice is to not continue doing your Saturday job at the weekends as well. You need at least one day break for some ‘me time’ otherwise you will go crazy.
In my internship, I did many things: editing, social media and website building, researching, going to events, writing blogs, and translation. In all honesty, the only thing that I didn’t do was the stereotypical intern job of making/going out to get coffee. The company specialises in short stories and translated literature, so usually their intern is a Creative Writing or English Literature Student, meaning my jobs branched out a little bit more compared to the other interns, especially when it came to blog writing (Women in Translation, European Languages Day and Libraries in the Digital Age) and translation. They will be releasing a book in February 2017 that I can proudly say that I helped to translate and edit, and I have already been promised a free copy, so watch this space for a cheeky review! Not only that, but they are going to keep in touch in the future, and provide me with a reference that is specific to translation, which will help me so much when I go out into the big scary world of work.
Working hard gives you great long-term results: More experience, more references, more endorsements on Linkedin, more time management skills, more maturity and (more importantly) more money. Don’t overwork yourself and burn out, but 10-15 hours of work every weekend is harmless as long as you keep your head on straight. At the end of the day, if it doesn’t work out for you, you can always quit.
My motto in life is: Work Hard, Play Hard. Yes, I have to give up some of my social life, but how many students can say that they have self-funded a month-long trip across the Atlantic over Christmas? I bet they all have jobs too.
