VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of university students are now working part time at supermarkets, serving the high year-end sale season to earn money for Tet celebration.

Playing truant to go to work

As retailers need more servicemen in the year-end sale season, they tend to employ part time workers from university students, who have the demand for working to earn money and can fulfill the works well because they have good knowledge and communication skills.

Working at supermarkets, in the eyes of students is a “good job”. They can earn 200,000-300,000 dong per working shift, which lasts two or three hours.

At big shopping malls such as Big C, Metro and Vincom these days, once can see university students in uniforms introducing different products, from mobile phones, cosmetics to wooden furniture.

In general, the job is not too hard, while students can choose either to work from 6 am to 2 pm, or from 2 pm to 8 pm, and earn 2.5-3 million dong a month.

LT Thuy, a marketing officer of Pond’s cosmetics company said that the company does not require much experience, but requires good appearance and good communication skills.

Not only receiving monthly wages, salesmen at Big C also expect to get Tet bonuses, possibly equal to one-month pay, about 3 million dong. However, a lot of students have to refuse the job, because they will have to work until the December 29th of the Lunar Year, just two days before Tet, and return to work after Tet on the third day of the New Lunar Year.

Le Trung Duc, a fourth year student of the Open University, said that he has been working as salesman for a supermarket for one year already. Dung feels satisfactory with the job, because it brings relatively high income for a student. However, Dung said the job is time consuming, and he sometimes has to play truant to work at the supermarket. “If you have too many days-off, you will be dismissed,” Duc explained.

Many other students, who cannot get job as salesmen at supermarkets, can take the jobs of delivering leaflets at the entrance doors to markets or schools. The job fits students very well, because they can arrange their time. Though they have to walk a long distance they can earn big money, about 200,000 dong per three hours.

Students also may fall into traps

It is clear that working is very useful for students. This not only can bring money, but also brings experiences and live skills. However, a lot of students have reportedly caught in a trap and become miserable.

Tuan Tu, a first year student of the Hanoi National University, said that he came to a job center to look for a part time job. He was told to work as an operator, for which he would get 2 million dong a month. However, he was asked to pay 200,000 dong as the fee for job introduction. After that, he was asked to pay another 500,000 dong and fill in the documents for which he needed to pay 100,000 dong.

Finally, Tu decided to quit the job, but he failed to claim back 200,000 dong.

Vu Van Thai, a first year student of the Trade University, said that he feels regret for bogging down in a job at a multi-level sale company. He once wished to become rich quickly; therefore, he borrowed 3 million dong from friends to join the network of the company. However, just after several months, Thai decided to quit the job, on which he had to spend too much time. As he was too busy with the job, he could not pass some exams.

The miserable thing for Thai is that he now needs to earn money to pay the 3 million dong he borrowed from friends.

Source: Tien phong