Jobs For 18-Year-Olds
Now that you’ve turned 18, you’re an adult in the eyes of the law in the UK. You can get a job that must pay you the national minimum wage for your age bracket. However, as an 18-year-old, it’s likely that you’ll have little to no work experience. That’s absolutely fine. There are plenty of jobs for 18-year-olds that don’t require any experience.
We’ll take a look at some of the best jobs for 18-year-olds and where to get started.
How to Get Jobs for 18-Year-Olds
It’s important to get certain things organised before you begin your job search. Here’s what we recommend:
Student Job Boards
Job boards specifically aimed at students and graduates are one of the best places to find jobs for 18-year-olds. Since they are aimed at people within your age group, you can be confident that the employer is happy to hire candidates with little work experience.
Our dedicated student and graduate job board has a wide array of job vacancies for eighteen-year-olds. Be sure to check it regularly for fantastic job opportunities in your area.
Nowadays, job searching and recruiting are mainly done online so you’ll need to create a LinkedIn profile. Update it with the relevant information including job experience (if any), skills, and projects you’ve worked on. LinkedIn is not only great for finding jobs, but also for networking with people in the field you’re interested in working in.
While you’re working on your social media, we recommend ensuring that your other socials are presentable. With over 70% of employers using social media to screen candidates during the recruitment process, either make your profiles private or do a spring clean to remove anything that could be deemed unprofessional.
CV/Cover Letter
In order to complete your LinkedIn profile, you’ll need to upload your CV. If you don’t have a CV already, be sure to check out our dedicated page on CV writing tips. For every job you apply for, you’ll most likely need a cover letter as well as your CV. Your cover letter states why you’d be the perfect fit for the role and why you are passionate about working for that specific company. So, each cover letter should be unique to every job application. We don’t recommend writing one generic letter and sending it to a variety of employers; they’ll see right through it. Our cover letter writing tips have all the information you need.
Friends and Family
Be proactive in your search and speak to your friends and family. Explain to them that you’re looking for a job and tell them about your skills and experience. It’s very possible that they, or someone in their network, knows of a job opening that you might be suited to. Furthermore, coming recommended by someone who’s already an employee greatly increases your chances of getting the job. Keep this in mind moving forward as a strong network of business contacts can get you very far in the business world.
Student Jobs for 18-Year-Olds
We’ve compiled a list of some of the best jobs for 18-year-olds to give you an idea of what’s out there.
Bar & Wait Staff
Now that you’re 18, you can legally work behind a bar serving alcohol. Therefore, working as a bar or wait staff is very common among people in your age group. Shifts usually take place on evenings and weekends. You’ll gain valuable work experience that will benefit you throughout life. For this role, good communication, time management, and multitasking skills are a must.
Event Staff
As an event worker, you’ll assist in the logistics of corporate and public events. Event staff commonly work at sporting events, concerts, festivals, and business fairs or exhibitions. You’ll help set up venues, work as ushers, operate cash registers, and serve drinks among other tasks. It’s important to have good interpersonal skills and be able to adapt to different types of work environments.
One major advantage of event work is that you can often pick and choose the events you’re available for. Most events are on weekends or in the evenings so they fit around studying or university commitments.
Personal Tutor
If you excelled at a certain subject at school and would be confident teaching it, why not consider helping other students out? You’ll need to prove that you got excellent grades in the subject you’re planning to teach, be patient, and enjoy working with younger students. Working as a personal tutor is a great way to boost your CV. It’s also a job that can be done remotely and it pays very well compared to other part-time, minimum wage jobs.
Dog Walker
If you’re an animal lover and want to be your own boss, then maybe dog walking is the perfect job for you. It’s a great way to destress, get your daily exercise in, and get paid at the same time. Dog walking is commonly done during the week when owners need someone to walk their dogs while they’re at work. However, it is possible to find work in the evenings and at weekends too.
Finding Jobs for 18-Year-Olds
It’s never been easier to find some of the best jobs for eighteen-year-olds. Check out Developing a Student’s live jobs board for the latest job openings in your area.
We have loads of help and advice for 18-year-olds looking for work. Sign up for our newsletter below so we can keep you posted on new opportunities.