Student Summer Jobs

As university students it is essentially obligatory that over the summer you get a job to pass the time and more importantly to get some money for your next year. Something which of course. I have done this summer. I admit last summer I had little luck at getting a job, most likely because few places were willing to take on temporary staff members during the height of the covid pandemic. However, this year I have been more successful; getting a job as soon as I came back home for the summer. Now this job is not anything particularly special or entertaining. But, it pays well, which is (let’s face it) the most essential aspect.

Most student jobs are temporary jobs, usually in the service industry as the summer and Christmas seasons are always busy and this was the kind of job I was expecting to get. However, I found employment in a factory which mainly carries out injection moulding. One of the things that has surprised me the most about working there is how many products go out of the factory. Their main product is the alarms that old people wear around their necks. Although it is not as surprising how many go out after I was told that they get supplied across Europe, not just the UK, but still I pack five hundred a night which admittedly still seems like a large amount to me.

I suppose the point of this article is to highlight the mundanity of this kind of work and how it is many people’s everyday working lives. Not to seem superior or pretentious in any way about the work, all of the people there work immensely hard and it is commendable work that does ultimately need to be done. The problem with the job is how repetitive it is. How it doesn’t particularly require any kind of working of the mind. I mean you need to be able to have a keen eye and a serious amount of concentration to be able to spot the small mistakes on the moulded plastic and to ensure consistency in order for all the products to pass the quality control checks. I understand completely that some people are not interested in work that does anything to challenge the mind too much, some people are there to earn a living and pay their taxes; which is completely fair enough but for me I find the lack of mental stimulation problematic.

Realistically though, there isn’t much cause to argue about my employment in the factory. For all my moaning it pays better than any service job I might have had and I am only there temporarily. I do not expect to get a job that is particularly exciting when I have not yet received my degree qualification; particularly when I only need the employment for around three months. I suppose a positive of the work is that I have met a wide array of people . . . both in a positive and negative way. Perhaps two of the most memorable people have been a woman from an Indian background that makes me laugh everyday and has happily taught me the odd phrase in Guajarati to pass the time… when this will come in useful I don’t know but it passes the time and we both enjoy it. Another memorable person is one of my line managers who, to describe him in a simple and accurate enough way, is to coin him ‘David Brent’. He goes out of his way to be a ‘good boss’ but it ultimately comes across as try hard and irritating. He believes himself to be someone who can joke around but also be serious when this is far from the truth. Okay, the odd funny thing may be said by him but then he is unable to seriously hand out any stern words as he fears he will ‘lose his popularity.’ Although this irritates me, I have also come to the realisation that, like David Brent, this job is ultimately his life. It’s the best part of his day and he so clearly gets a sense of fulfilment from his work and making the employees laugh. So at least he has pride in his job which is more than can be said for many other people.

My worry here is not that there are supposedly less intelligent jobs than others because there are jobs that need doing and we need the people to do them. However, what does surprise me is the fact that there are so many jobs like this that exist, that don’t allow people to expand their mind, their intelligence or their creativity. Perhaps this opinion comes from a more socially privileged perspective, at the end of the day it is usually rich people that can afford to pursue creative careers. However, it is vital that people’s minds are used to their full capacity so that we don’t all becomes cogs in the machine, a mindless society that just works.

This article might seem a little harsh but I suppose that is because it comes from someone with a slightly more privileged position that is aware that my degree will hopefully take me on to something with greater opportunities and stimulation. The job will most definitely give me life experiences and has already given me many stories to tell which at the end of the day is what these jobs are about. They prepare you for the reality of the real working world, to understand the lives of other people so that my existence isn’t sheltered by my privilege [not that I am working there as a sort of tour of the working-class]. I am ultimately there to gain experience and earn some money whilst I have the time before I go back to my studies. Hopefully the point I am getting across is that summer jobs are vital to people’s life experiences – well I think so – they are a sort of right of passage in a way.