How to apply for a side that fit your studies
For many students, a side job is mainly practical. You want to earn money alongside your studies, to cover rent, pasta pesto nights, and a few drinks with friends. Totally understandable. But a side job can be so much more than just a way to pay the bills, if you approach it consciously.
What we often see is that students apply for whatever is available without thinking about what they could learn. Sure, you can learn from any job, but a more targeted approach can add real value. Employers later care about the skills you’ve gained along the way, especially when you can show them in a relevant context. Communicating with different people, handling responsibility, planning under pressure, or working in a team: these are skills you don’t only learn in the classroom.
What fits you?
Your side job doesn’t have to perfectly match your study program. What matters is which skills you develop and whether you can explain them later. For example:
Sales / commercial roles: Learn persuasion, listening, handling rejection, and results-oriented work. Perfect for studies like business, marketing, communications, or any role involving people.
Recruitment or HR support: Practice conducting conversations, asking questions, assessing fit, and professional communication. Great for HR, psychology, business, social work, or communication studies.
Hospitality (service, bar, leadership roles): Build stress resilience, multitasking, teamwork, and customer focus. Valuable for studies where collaboration, handling pressure, and service orientation are important.
Customer service (phone or online): Develop communication, problem-solving, and professional handling of difficult situations. Relevant for communications, law, HR, business, or care-related studies.
Teaching assistant / tutoring: Improve explaining, structuring, and adapting to different levels. Fits well with pedagogy, teacher training, psychology, or social studies.
Project support / administrative work: Learn planning, organizing, keeping an overview, and working accurately. Ideal for business, finance, law, or management-oriented programs.
Marketing or content (social media, email, content creation): Practice analyzing, creative thinking, writing, and working with data. Perfect for marketing, communications, media, business, or creative studies.
Smart applications start with asking yourself: what do I want to learn alongside my studies? And which work environment suits that? Read job postings with that in mind. Look beyond hours or pay and consider how this experience can boost your CV or interview performance. You don’t need to overcomplicate your motivation—showing that you choose consciously often makes all the difference.
Our experience with side jobs
Besides developing relevant skills, having a side job also offers other benefits. You put yourself in situations where you can build relationships that may be valuable later, and you give yourself a chance for a little luck through your social circle. Side work also helps you figure out what does and doesn’t suit you. Personally, I started in staffing at 19, continued part-time for another year and a half, and immediately landed my first full-time job after graduation.
Was that exactly the plan? Not at all. Otherwise, I could have spent a year and a half in a supermarket, gaining little relevant experience and missing out on professional connections. The goal wasn’t a long-term plan—it was about learning from others and standing out. Staffing ended up not being my perfect fit, but I discovered I loved helping people find work satisfaction and income, achieving results, and improving processes. That operational experience combined with what I learned about myself led to my next step.
Long story short: by doing, you give yourself a better chance at success.
What will your next side job be?
Don’t treat a side job as “just a job.” It’s the perfect place to practice presenting yourself, asking questions, and discovering what suits you. That almost always pays off later. Unsure which side job fits your studies or how to showcase it on your CV and in interviews? At Nexie, we’re happy to help. Schedule a free intake or book a training today.
