This week, I decided to interview one of my friends about working on a part-time job in the campus. This blog will give you an idea on how she balances her student life while having a part-time job.
Q1: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about what you do as your part-time job?
A1: Sure thing. I’m Lavinia Dragan and I am a 20 years old International Bachelor of Psychology student from Romania. I work part-time at Tosti World in the Erasmus Food Plaza at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, where I basically make one of the most popular dutch lunch snacks/foods, tostis, which are toasted sandwiches. My job is pretty diverse, I either make the tostis, deliver them, or work at the kassa, and it all depends on the time of day and how many people are working.
Q2: What are some advantages and disadvantages at working in the Tosti-World?
A2: There are a lot of advantages, I think. Probably more advantages than disadvantages, because the only disadvantages I can think of are the fact that closing shifts take up most of your day, and you do tend to smell like a tosti yourself after a long shift, but that’s not the worst thing possible. Advantages include meeting and working with cool and diverse people. I’m pretty lucky because the majority of the current Tosti team is also Romanian, so in a way, my job here actually helped out with my homesickness. I also get to interact with a lot of the people on campus who come and eat at Tosti world which is pretty cool.
Q3: How do you balance your study load and your part-time job?
A3: I found it hard in the beginning, but I learned to plan my time pretty well. I’m lucky because my course involves mostly self-study, so it really is up to me to study wherever, whenever. Working at Tosti isn’t stressful, so I never have to handle both work and study stress at the same time, and I often find myself actually studying at Tosti before or after my shift, depending on when it is not too busy there.
Q4: Do you like working in the campus?
A4: Definitely yes. As long as I am studying on this campus, I feel like it is the best possible option for me. I don’t have to worry about travel time to work before or after class, and it helped me become more familiar to the campus. And like I said, I can easily study before or after my shifts, so a quick run to Polak from the Food Plaza is very easy to do.
Q5: Can you walk us through one of your busy days?
A5: Hmmm, my busiest day as of right now has always been Friday, unlike other people. I always have classes and work on Friday, so it would usually go something like: wake up, prepare for class, get to class at noon, and then just go through the usual post-discussion, pre-discussion until 3pm. That’s when I get 3 free hours to myself, so depending on what I have to do for next week, I either stay at school and work on what I need to do, or go to the gym. My shift at Tosti would be from 6pm until 8pm, so I would come and start slowly preparing for closing, cleaning around the Tosti world area and making sure everything is clean and ready for the next day. And sometimes, I would make my Fridays last even longer by staying at the university for some Dungeons and Dragons, but that’s already not school/work related… But in the end, having such a busy day just keeps the time flowing smoothly.
Thanks to Lavinia Dragan for giving us insight on how it is to work on campus.
Don’t forget to use your ESN-card discount in every Tosti-world location which will give you 0.25 cents off your order! Visit our ESN-card site for more information on the discount locations of ESN-card.
Article written by Birsu Obalar, from the Content Committee