Everyone Wants a Job: Who Actually Gets Hired in St Andrews?

In a town with over 10,000 students, finding part-time work can be no easy feat. Some students seem to secure well-paid, flexible positions almost immediately, while others struggle to find a job that fits around their degree and social life, or discover that the job they want requires experience they do not have.

But how selective is the part-time job market in St Andrews?

Some of the better-paid jobs will ask for a certain degree of qualification in the sector. For second-years Abigail Svaasand and Orla Smout, who work as swim coaches at Swim World at St Leonard’s School, having a Level 2 qualification in Teaching Swimming was a necessary prerequisite. With swim teachers in high demand, they said that previous training was the most important requirement for the job.

“Getting the qualification in the first place? That’s a privileged position,” Smout said. Her parents put £600 towards her training, with the condition that she paid them back once she started earning. 

Getting qualified can be expensive, and not everyone comes to St Andrews with that kind of training already behind them. In other jobs, previous experience can matter just as much.

At Tailend, general manager Marc Anderson said experience is “first and foremost,” when looking at applicants during the hiring process.

If you haven’t got five years of food service work already behind you, though, don’t panic: some other local businesses are prepared to invest in workers without any previous experience. Charles Mair, general manager of Cromars, said he is happy to hire students with no previous hospitality experience because he can “train them from start to finish.” 

Many standard student jobs, like working behind the bar at the Student Union, also don’t require any previous training. Second-year Nella Zorawska, said that when she applied for  bartending work at the new Red Gown Wetherspoons the Union “was very open to hiring people with no previous job experience because they said that they would be providing schooling on bartending.” 

Still, students believe that having previous experience undoubtedly implies some advantage in the hiring process, if only because it’s the norm. 

“The majority of people I know from my high school worked in their last year of school at the very least,” Svaasand said, adding, “most people did a hospitality or retail job.”

There are great cultural differences regarding the normalised practice of working during high school. Someone coming from a country where it is rare to work before eighteen might face a built-in disadvantage for jobs requiring previous experience.

Regardless of experience level, some international students worry that visa restrictions on work hours are a big factor in employer hiring decisions. Neither Tailend nor Cromars said term-work limits affected their hiring decisions. Mair said he currently employs multiple students with visa restrictions and that it doesn’t impact business. 

Being a non-local student might make it harder to work outside of term time. “A lot of people go away for summer, which doesn’t help,” said student Yves de Courcy-Ireland, who works at Cromars.

And even during term time, not every student can offer the same availability.

Student Amy Koster, who works at Janettas, said that availability in work hours is important when applying for a job there. “A Medicine student who needs more hours of study might be disadvantaged in getting a Janettas job that requires flexibility with shifts,” said Koster.

Then there is — perhaps unsurprisingly — the component that comes up again and again in St Andrews: who you know. In such a small community, your personal contacts may matter just as much as your qualifications. 

Some local students see this as a big advantage in landing part-time work. 

“It's easier to get a job if you're local because people know you and have known you for a while,” said de Courcy-Ireland.

Svaasand believes that having mutual connections was an important part of her job search: “capitalising on a network of connections is essentially the easiest way to find a job in St Andrews.”

For Brando Esposito, a golf caddie at Kingsbarns Golf Links, a family connection helped him get his foot in the door. His brother passed on his employer’s contact details, after which Esposito was invited to participate in the caddie training course, and eventually got the job. 

Employers also said that once someone does make contact, personality matters. For managers like Mair, a good personality is the most important requirement. If someone fits “well” in his team, “it’ll make everyone’s lives ten times easier.”  

Anderson similarly said he values the personal relationships formed among colleagues and that an enthusiastic attitude is key.

When students look for jobs online, that personal element of the process can be lost. Sites like Indeed are a natural starting point, but they can make the initial stages of an application feel impersonal. 

Sean Lowry Cummings, a golf concierge at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, thinks that by “passively” sending out a job application, “you completely lose control of the whole process.” Instead, he prefers going out and speaking to employers so that they can “put a face to a name,” he said. Lowry Cummings believes it “shows engagement with trying to get a job, [and] that you really want it.” 

If you can’t go in person, Koster recommended reaching out digitally. She told The Saint how she drafted an email and sent it to multiple St Andrews retail businesses, asking whether they had any vacancies.

“Indeed is great, but the reason I emailed is because I thought everybody would be using [Indeed], and I kind of wanted to stand out,” she said.

The scramble for jobs in a town full of high-achieving students is a considerable challenge. There is constant competition with others who have gained qualifications, made use of previous experience, or who have simply capitalised on contacts. Ultimately, a common trend links those who succeed in the job hunt — enthusiasm and initiative to put themselves out there.

Illustration by Mokshita Nagandla