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Student jobs

We have some exciting changes coming this month. Our new common room, café, reception and meeting rooms will open in North Building in Docklands. We’re also going to be using our Stratford space much more.

With these big changes, we can now hire more student staff.

We’re hiring around 30 students to work in the following areas:
- Café
- Groups/societies
- Events
- Research
- Reception
- Voice/representation

What are the key tasks in each role?

Most of these roles are new for us, so we’ll be learning as we go along. However, the key tasks in each role are listed below.

- Café: serving customers; making coffee and other hot drinks; preparing food; keeping spaces clean and tidy.
- Reception: dealing with customer queries (mostly from students) by email, phone and in person; booking rooms; setting up rooms.
- Groups: supporting student group committees to plan and deliver fun, engaging and safe activities.
- Voice/representation: preparing papers for meetings; recording minutes; researching policies.
- Events: supporting the delivery of events such as film nights, debates, clubs and day trips.
- Research: undertaking quantitative and qualitative research such as surveys, face-to-face interviews; preparing reports and summaries.

Why should you work for us?

Depending on the role, you can work 10-15 hours work per week. Shift times will vary greatly per role, with some roles starting before 08:00 on weekdays, some working until 23:00 or later, and some working weekends. They’re typically in blocks of four to seven hours, meaning you can work around your studies.

Roles in the café will be based in Docklands, but all other roles are split across Docklands and Stratford campuses.

We pay the London Living Wage (£13.85 per hour). Holiday pay is paid in addition to this.

There are lots of opportunities to learn new things, and you’ll be working with a broad range of staff and students.

What experience and skills are needed?

If you have the right attitude and approach, we believe we can train you to do most of the jobs on offer. Therefore, we don’t expect you to have specific experience for most of the jobs.

Of course, if you have experience in a particular field, that could help, but it’s not critical.

We’ll run a group assessment/selection process where you’ll have a chance to demonstrate what you’re good at and what you like doing.

What is the application process?

Applicants are, in effect, all applying for the same jobs. You can state a preference for some jobs, but we'll consider you for everything as they're all similar. We'll work out what you're good at during the selection process. (See the point above about being able to train you to do the jobs.)

The application form asks about your experience in previous roles (paid and unpaid/voluntary), what skills you have, what you’re not so good at, and what type of work you’d like to do. You should provide enough detail so that we can see what you can do. If you've writing one-word or one-sentence answers, there won't be enough information.

We intend to run two assessment/selection events. These will involve a mix of interviews, tests, etc. which will be related to the work in the roles.

Using AI

We’re not against students using AI as an aid in job applications. However, you shouldn’t use it to write applications. Instead, you should use it to help you to structure or format your writing or to write more clearly.

Here are some examples based on applications we receive from students. It’s not helpful to ask AI to describe what you did in your last job so you can simply paste that into a question about experience. AI has no way of knowing that and will simply provide generic text based on the job title. AI also doesn’t know what skills or attributes you have; it just provides generic answers. At an assessment/interview, you’ll have to answer lots of questions about your experience, skills and attributes and demonstrate those things. AI won’t be able to help with that.

If you are selected based on an application written by AI rather than by you, you’ll be found out very quickly in a face-to-face interview. You’ll just be wasting your and our time if you haven’t really thought about your answers.

Our top tips

Our first tip is to tell the truth. Just be honest about what you’ve done before, who you are, and what you want to do. Focus on what we're asking and think about why we're asking that.

Our second tip is to re-read this page and follow the instructions/advice carefully. This is really the first part of the process. The second part is using the information to write a good application. You’re already ahead of everybody who skipped straight to the application link below.

Deadline

There’s no formal application deadline. Take a day to think about, write and edit your application, and then submit it.

We’re running the first assessment/selection event on Wednesday 15 January, so don’t wait too long to apply. If we like your application, we’ll invite you to the selection event.

Anybody appointed at that selection event to work in the café will have to start work almost immediately. This means attending a training event later that week (16 or 17 January) and several days the following week (week commencing 20 January).

Those appointed to jobs other than in the café will start training towards the end of January.

Application form

If you’ve skipped all the above to save time, you should re-think that decision before you go any further.

We recommend you type your answers in Word or similar so you can edit and save them before submitting.

Apply here: link

Those appointed to jobs other than in the café will start training towards the end of January.

Questions

If you have any questions, email su.jobs@uel.ac.uk