Psycholgy students and student jobs: Descriptive analysis and work satisfaction

Ajda Makar, Nina Strelec, Saša Gorišek

 Full article (pdf)  |   Written in Slovene  |  Published: 7. September 2020 |  Reads: 654

Abstract

In our research, we examined different types of student jobs psychology students apply for and their reasoning behind it. Student work is a flexible type of work that young people between the ages of 15 and 26 can apply for during their schooling. We were interested in what causes a sense of work satisfaction with student jobs. Work satisfaction can be generalized as experiencing positive emotions towards different aspects of work – evaluating workspace, work experiences and work itself. There were 209 students of psychology from Slovenia who participated in our research. Their average age was M = 21,2 (SD = 1,8). In the analysis, we included 180 participants who have already taken part in student work. As a measuring accessory, we used Job satisfaction scale (Pogačnik, 2000), which measures satisfaction with work situations. We also added questions of our own design for descriptive analysis of student work. A lot of students engage in this type of work, and that‘s what we have also confirmed with our research (86 % have applied for student jobs before). Students are mostly looking for jobs in the catering business and sales, which is in accordance with reports from student employment agencies. Reasons behind it are financial, personal interest and gaining experience. We found out students find the most satisfaction in relations with co-workers and job security. On the other hand, the least satisfaction is found in the chance of promotion, professional growth and the chance of co-making decisions in the workplace.

Keywords

student work, work satisfaction, psychology students

Cite

Makar, A., Strelec, N. in Gorišek, S. (2020). Študentje psihologije in študentsko delo: opisna analiza in zadovoljstvo z delom [Psycholgy students and student jobs: Descriptive analysis and work satisfaction]. Eksperimentator, 4, 21–32.