Why Should I Work Over The Summer?

Because it’s a great way to develop the skills that you'll need throughout your life...

Summer jobs help you to develop skills such as teamwork, good communication and self-confidence. It’s less about what work you do and more about what you gain from it.

So where do I start?

Almost every job you will ever apply for will require you to send a resume (or Curriculum Vitae – CV, as we call it in the UK). This is a document that details your academic, personal and work based achievements helping potential employers to make a decision on whether or not to offer you an interview. Finding content to put in a CV when you are just starting out can be tricky, so think about things you have done at school – that hiking trip that you organised with your friends will show that you are good at working in a team as well as being adventurous, and the volunteering work that you did proves that you are responsible and community minded. Include information about sports activities and hobbies - describe your involvement and emphasise your achievements.

The Careers Service at the University of Edinburgh helps our students with all aspects of finding work, from writing a great CV and finding summer work to landing the perfect job when you graduate. You’ll find lots of useful tips on their website.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/careers

A great way to add to your CV when you get to university is to do summer internships and the School of Economics offers lots of help with that. We organise events where senior students meet with junior students and share their experiences of internships – how they arranged them and what they gained from the work. We also have employers and alumni coming to give talks about what working with their company could be like.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/economics