Building your experience whilst you study 

Q&A guide to finding part-time work and internships.

If you’re looking for part-time work to earn money, gain confidence or fit work around your studies, this handy Q&A will help signpost you to flexible job opportunities, volunteering, short courses and quick ways to build your experience. 

You’ll also find information on support if you need that extra bit of help. It’s a great place to start if you’re in your early years of study, new to job hunting, or still exploring what you might want to do in the future.

If your question isn’t answered here, you can book a 1:1 appointment with a Careers Consultant on Handshake or use our recruitability tool Shortlist.me.

Start by registering your interest with URJobs to be considered for part-time and temporary work on campus including Student Ambassador positions. If there’s a particular job on campus that you’d like to do, you can always ask that team or department directly for information on when they’re likely to be recruiting next.

Find and apply for roles on Handshake and with any local employers in the area that interest you. Wandsworth Work Match often advertises vacancies and runs live recruitment events.

Consider platforms like Stint for flexible hospitality jobs and MyPocketSkill for freelance gigs in anything from digital design to dog walking. Occasional virtual work is also available through sites like UserTesting.com and Userbrain (get paid to give feedback on websites)

You could try online tutoring agencies like:

There are lots of online platforms advertising part-time jobs: you could start with this Guide to working part time as a student. Also try Student Job, Save the Student (where you’ll also find a fantastic guide to student side hustles), E4S (you’ll also find jobs in kids’ summer camps in the UK, USA and Canada here, along with summer jobs at festivals and theme parks), Leisure Jobs, JobToday and the government-run job listing site FindAJob.

For retail jobs try the following or any other outlets local to you:

In some sectors recruitment agencies may be able to offer you part time work. Use agencycentral.co.uk to find agencies local to you in the field that interests you. You could Google “event staff recruitment agencies London” to find agencies staffing large events.

You could also go direct to the jobs pages of local events venues like:

Try a virtual internship on a site like The Forage. These professional-level tasks are supplied by larger businesses, and you can often complete them in a day and get immediate CV content.

The Bright Network Internship Experience UK runs every June and offers a more live (online) virtual experience. It’s open to all that apply

If you’re considering law, you can try the PRIME virtual experience programme

Follow sector organisations like the CIPD (HR), CIM (marketing), BPS (psychology) – and many more. Just listening to a few of their podcasts or following their socials will give you things to talk about at interview and you can add this to the Interests section of your CV

Free courses on sites like Coursera, FutureLearn and Openlearn will give you quick, job-specific knowledge and great content for your CV (you could add a section called Courses under your Education section).

Some organisations offer free sector-specific training e,g. ACAS Employment Law e-learning. You can also learn tech like:

You could volunteer virtually with organisations like Zooniverse (science-related) and BeMyEyes (supporting blind and partially sighted people)

There are many fantastic sector-specific volunteering roles in our guide on Handshake (click on the PDF at the bottom of the page)

There are many job sites that advertise formal internships and year in industry placements for students and graduates.

These opportunities are competitive but worth applying for. Always check any visa restrictions regarding working hours if you are an international student. You could try:

You can also go to individual hospital trusts and look for their short term or voluntary roles.

You could use an AI search tool like Google Gemini to find job sites for particular sectors e.g.“Make me a list of internship and work experience websites for roles in the HR sector, including recruitment agencies and companies a university student could approach directly in the Wandsworth area of London”.

More ways to find sector-specific opportunities

There are other ways to find professional work experience beyond the big jobs portals. Remember that experience doesn’t have to be from a formal internship scheme. Any short period of work experience, paid or unpaid, official or casual, is fantastic content for your CV.

You can use recruitment agencies to find short term contracts or temporary assignments. The website agencycentral.co.uk will help you find recruitment agencies local to you.

  • You can register with as many as you like
  • Re-upload your CV to your profile every 2-3 weeks to show that you’re still available
  • Be ready to tell the agency about your skills if they call – reliability, professional attitude, attention to detail and great time keeping are always valuable skills for temporary contracts

This approach is best avoided for public sector organisation (e.g. the NHS, education, government departments) but can be very effective within the private and charity sectors.

Making direct contact with people at organisations demonstrates your motivation and proactive approach.

It is fine to direct message small business owners or department heads if you have a professional-looking social profile. Keep it short:"Hi [Name], I'm a local Roehampton student following your work in [Sector]. I’d love to send over my CV – I’m looking for unpaid work shadowing or any short term paid work experience opportunities!”

You’ll find volunteering opportunities on Handshake (through the Job Searching platform or Volunteering Collection), sites like Do-it, Reach Volunteering, CharityJob and the Media Trust. 

On campus you could volunteer as a Peer Mentoring Buddy – email studentengagement@roehampton.ac.uk, at Growhampton – Join their Give It a Grow, Chicken Care, and Wellbeing Wednesday. At the Roehampton Students’ Union, join a student society or found one, to show your leadership and organisation skills.

For sector-specific volunteering read our excellent guide to options for your subject on Handshake (click on the PDF at the bottom of the page).

 

 

Organisations like SEO London, Zero Gravity, The Brokerage and Upreach are focused on social mobility and offer mentoring, training, contacts and exclusive vacancies for students trying to access professional work experience.

For those with a disability or health condition try EmployAbility for 1-on-1 advice on adjustments and advocacy during the recruitment process, Change 100 (Leonard Cheshire) for paid summer internships and professional development, Evenbreak for job postings for disabled students and MyPlus Students’ Club for specific advice on how to "open up" (disclose) your disability to an employer and request the right support.

For specialist support for neurodiverse students you could try Enna, a specialist recruitment agency for neurodivergent talent, and Auticon for STEM or data-focused students – they hire autistic consultants for high-level tech projects.

Try the hidden job market: Many job offers don’t come from job portals and websites, but through networking and making direct contact. You might not feel like you have a professional network, but think about the people you know: 

  • School / College / University friends, teachers and academics
  • Family and family friends
  • Former colleagues (e.g. from part time work)
  • People you’ve met through social and community groups and people you’re connected to on social media

Even if people in your network don't have any opportunities themselves, they may know someone who does. That's why it's important to tell people that you are actively looking for internships and work experience, so they can be looking out for you. 

LinkedIn is a brilliant way to find former Roehampton students doing interesting jobs. It’s fine to connect and ask for work experience. Use the Alumni tab on the Roehampton LinkedIn page, find people doing work that interests you using the filters and then send a connection message. 

Hi Ali. I am also studying Psychology at Roehampton and I’m interested in a career in the charity sector. Hope you don’t mind connecting. Thanks.

If the people you approach connect back, you can then follow up with your request for work experience. 

Hi Ali - thanks very much for connecting.

Be clear at the start about what you’re asking for:

I am in my second year at Roehampton and I was wondering if there may be any short work experience opportunities in your client team in Twickenham. I'm looking for anything from one day/a few days of shadowing to temporary paid work, between June and September this summer. 

Explain why you’d like to work there and what you’d like to do:

I’m interested in Mind Matters because I’ve seen some of your work on your Instagram and YouTube pages and the award you won with the London Community Charities. I’d really like to learn more about your client-facing approaches. 

Tell them why you’d be a useful person to have around:

I have experience dealing with clients and members of the public from my part time retail job and I am learning about different counselling approaches on my Psychology degree. I am a fast learner, and I am very keen to develop my skills in the mental health sector.

If you tell them at the end of your message that you will follow up, the person reading it may be more likely to pay attention and more receptive when you do follow up:

I hope you don't mind if I follow up in a week or two.

Many thanks,

Jo Sharma 
07777 777 777

Avoid any ‘job’ that asks you to pay for training or equipment upfront, communicates solely through Telegram or WhatsApp without a formal interview or platform and/or offers "too good to be true" pay for simple tasks (e.g., £500 a day for "liking videos").

If you’re studying at Roehampton as an international student, you’re restricted to 20 hours per week during term-time. 

You are allowed to work full-time during university holidays. If you start work, you must apply for a National Insurance number if you don’t already have one.

Of course, you can always book an appointment on Handshake to get support from a Roehampton Careers Consultant.

If you’re a postgraduate student looking for a placement email Placements@roehampton.ac.uk for information on support available.