I studied at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia from July 2022 to November 2022. I never originally planned to work during my exchange as I believed studying at a new university as well as moving to a different country, meeting new people, exploring the new culture, and adapting to a new life in Australia would already be a lot to juggle. I moved to my accommodation one week before term started to overcome jet lag and feel settled before beginning this new journey. During this week I was able to explore all the buildings, social hubs, and get a general bearing of the university- especially as it was a lot bigger than the university of Nottingham’s main campus. Whilst I was exploring the student’s union, I met another student who worked as a cashier for Monash University’s convenience store which is in the centre of the SU.

After asking thousands of questions about life at Monash and Melbourne overall, they told me I would be great as a cashier as it was a very social job and that I should bring in my CV the next day and speak to the manager. I thought this would be a great opportunity to meet new people and fully integrate myself into the university, so I revised my CV for the role and spoke with the manager the next day. I brought up my apprehension around my upcoming university workload as well as the work-life balance I wanted to maintain. My manager was extremely understanding and facilitating, they offered me to work for four hours every Thursday and it was one of the best decisions I made during my time on exchange. Four hours may not sound like a lot from a monetary perspective however, the average student wage in Melbourne is around $25 an hour which meant I was earning $100 a week. I used the Commonwealth Bank to open a bank account in Australia and it was an extremely quick and simple process. This also meant my wages were kept in a separate account from the spending money I had previously saved for the exchange. Thereby, at the end of the exchange in November, I was able to save enough money from this job to travel to Sydney, Cairns, Brisbane, Uluru, and New Zealand!

However, the wages were just one benefit from the job. Being a cashier in the centre of the SU meant I was able to speak to the most diverse range of people as well as establishing great relationships with my co-workers who were also students in a similar position. From this job, I made friends who I went out with socially, who taught me so much about Melbourne and Australian culture, and who showed me some of the most amazing spots I would never have found as a tourist. I continue to keep in touch with some of the people I met working at the SU, on top of the amazing people I met during my exchange overall. Although at first it may seem daunting to begin a new job on top of all the other things you have to balance whilst being on exchange, I would advise anyone to at least give it a try and see how it goes! Like me, it could be one of the best decisions you make.

Sophia studied at Monash University in Autumn Semester of the 2022/2023 academic year