Hello forum people,

I am looking to move to Manchester the beginning of next year ready to start an MA in September. I have a couple of loans in repayment, not crippling, but with the cost of rent I'll need to be working essentially as close to full time as possible. Does anyone have any experience of doing something similar? Or any advice as to going about types of jobs to look for etc?

Any help gratefully received!

I worked 20 hours a week during my MSc. I went to uni from 9 - 4 and then worked 5 - 9 in the evenings. It meant I had my weekend free to socialise or do more uni work if I needed to. I worked in a call centre so it was easy, stress free and I earned a pretty decent wage. I could also take my notes/papers with me and read between calls.

It also helps if your place of work is nearby your uni/house. Mine was only 15 mins from uni on the bus so it was very convenient.

Check out the timetable for your course first. I did my MA part time in Manchester and most of the tutorials were weekends and the odd evening in the week. If you ask what they are doing this year on the course it won't be drastically different for the next year, it might just let you see what the overall attendance pattern looks like.

This will dictate the type of work you can do. If you have a skill or are already in a professoin try joining an agency. If you just want mundane work that pays well and won't tire you out night time shelf stackers in supermarkets get paid pretty well plus no customers to deal with!

Thanks for the advice, two jobs that I hadn't really thought about. I work in the museum sector so it's incredibly hard to get a similar job within a strict time frame. Any recommendations for call centres as good employers in greater Manchester, or, indeed, places to stack shelves in the evening?

Why not stay in museums even if it's not realted to what you do in museums now, like cafe, gift shop, education etc? Manchester has loads, natural history, MOSI, peoples history museum etc etc and lots of smaller collections :-) Google museums in Manchester, I'm sure there will be something going. If you wanted to do shelf stacking it;s the big ones that pay best, TESCO, ASDA, etc.

As well as getting yourself a regular job, also look out for casual/ad hoc work around your uni. Sometimes there are opportunities for students to pick up paid work helping run conferences, or doing public engagement/schools outreach activities. The latter would particularly look good on your CV if you want to go down the museums route.

Thanks for the advice about the ad hoc jobs! I'm already looking for museum related jobs, however, at present they are few and far between (as always) and either wildly below what I need or above what I'm qualified/experienced to do. My experience to date is with schools, workshops, audience development, customer service and a bit of publicity/promotions/press/marketing related.

I can always volunteer in a museum or gallery, but it would be harder to get flexible working there to provide time for uni work, I think and still provide the minimum income I need...

I did a part-time Masters whilst working full-time throughout (38 hours per week). It was an online MSc, with tutorials in evenings. I worked most evenings, weekends and holidays. It can be done but I felt a) I did not get as much out of the MSc as I could have if I had more time b) it was horrendously stressful especially writing up the dissertation at the end!!! c) I had no social life etc. for the duration. But, at the end did manage to get a job paying a higher salary... Would I do it again? Not full-time work and part-time study, but perhaps part-time work part-time study.