Recently, the number of university students with part-time jobs has increased. There are various reasons why students get part-time jobs.

First, students work because they have to pay their tuition. There are students who need to pay for their own tuition because they refuse to ask for their parents’ help. In some cases, their parents simply can’t afford it. Second, there are those who want to earn pocket money on their own. Third, some students need to earn money for basic necessities. Since they live apart from their families, they need money to pay for rent and basic living expenses such as food, transportation, etc. Apart from economic reasons, there are students who see the benefit of building up relevant work and social experiences.

What sort of part-time jobs are available for university students? The most common jobs are in the service industry. Students work as servers in restaurants, bars, or coffee shops. Some work as clerks in department stores or as cashiers at convenience stores. Students working in these places earn a minimum wage of about 5,000 won per hour and have to work from at least four hours to eight hours a day.

There are jobs which pay more than minimum wage. One typical example is teaching privately or at institutes. Another example is working as an office assistant in companies. Teaching privately is more popular, however, because it allows students to earn over 10,000 won per hour. Private tutors usually work two or three days a week, at least two hours per day. This type of work attracts more students because the money they make from teaching privately is comparably higher than working somewhere else.

Having part-time work may pose some problems for students. Working and studying at the same time can be very demanding. Working students feel tired and stressed out most of the time. They are pulled away from more important obligations like studying because they invest too much time and energy into working. Eventually, their academic performance suffers and they get stressed more. To prevent this from happening, working students should try to achieve a balance between work and studies by managing their time more efficiently. Balancing work and school is no easy task, but working students should think about school work, not part-time work, as their priority.

Park Ji-min  applemaro@changwon.ac.kr

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