My Part-Time Job Experience at University of Liverpool

Posted on: 20 June 2023 by Aditi Gupta in Student experiences

Khilan Santoki is an international student from India who alongside his studies has a part-time job as a Lab Demonstrator at the University of Liverpool’s Computer Science Department.

What are some of your responsibilities in your role as a Lab Demonstrator?

My role primarily involves helping and guiding students during their on-campus lab sessions. Typically, every first-year module will consist of lab sessions that are designed for students to apply their theoretical knowledge to example problems, helping them to understand their student material in a better way.

In the first semester, I demonstrated for a module which was focused on functional programming. It is a distinct type of programming language where we think about programs as mathematical functions. Learning a functional language is a very enriching experience and teaching one just adds to its appeal!

I am also currently involved in a module that teaches fundamental data structures and algorithms in computer science. My role involves helping students that are stuck with solving a problem and/or are facing technical difficulties implementing a solution. Towards the semester’s end, I also assisted the module coordinator in grading the assignments.

How did you find out about this opportunity? 

I managed to score very well in my first year, which led to a professor approaching me with an offer to work as a demonstrator in the upcoming iteration of the module. Building upon my prior experience as an online teaching assistant, I felt motivated to reach out to the module coordinator of another first-year module that I particularly enjoyed. I expressed my interest in exploring potential job opportunities, ultimately resulting in my successful appointment as a lab demonstrator for both modules.

Khilan will soon join a cybersecurity company located in Cambridge for a Year in Industry placement, with an ultimate aim of becoming a Software Engineer after graduation.