Four students describe how they put their skills to use to earn money

Working as a medical secretary

Navtej Chahal finds that audiotyping and pleading ignorance come in handy

In all walks of life there are endless abbreviations and acronyms flying around, meaning quite a lot to very few people. Even medical students can make money from the knowledge that a good bit of public relations will not make the sun shine out of your proverbial.

Armed with a medical dictionary and a cheesy smile you too can experience the cut and thrust world of medical secretarial work and make quite a bit of money from it as well. Obviously, an element of computer literacy (Microsoft Word for Windows will do) and moderate typing ability are required, but there is great demand for temps in hospital offices, especially during the holidays. Most work offered by agencies entails typing up a backlog of correspondences that are recorded onto cassette, which you can listen to and re-re-re-rewind at your convenience. Occasionally you may have to answer the phone and plead ignorance, but there are always other secretaries around who you can divert calls to.

The main low of this line of work is the tedium and being stuck behind a desk for the greater part of the day. Even if there are other people in the office, you can be treated sceptically (as a fly by night mercenary who can't type to save their life), and it can be difficult as a stranger, especially for men, to work in a tight knit female secretarial enclave. Most work is for a short time only, often two or three days, but during the summer holidays you may be asked to stay on for as long as possible, if you can bear it. All that aside, the money is good, and most agencies pay in the region of £8-10 per hour, which often increases the longer your work for them. The agency will try to allocate you to a hospital or even department that you have been happy working in before. If the work and surroundings are becoming too familiar, then you can always take a few days off and then start afresh with new work.

The great advantage of working as a temp is the flexibility, which allows you to earn money and enjoy any holidays that you might have. You are not contractually obliged to work for a certain length of time, and even if after two days it is getting you down, just tell the agency and it will hopefully find work more suitable for your sleeping pattern.