Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore university students' perceptions about career development in relation to their part-time working and to examine whether students maximise opportunities arising in their part-time job in order to enhance their personal profile and career aspirations. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were held with 20 degree students at a UK university. The interview was based around 19 questions, split into three sections: general; career and the part-time job. Findings: The findings indicate that while students are aware that part-time work helps in developing personal skills, there is a lack of awareness on how part-time work can provide differentiation in the graduate jobs market and support long-term graduate careers. The conclusion discusses the implications of the findings suggesting greater awareness among students of how part-time work can drive work readiness and long-term career aspirations. It also recommends greater involvement of career advisors and university teaching colleagues in supporting this endeavour. Originality/value: While other papers on student working have included a small element regarding careers, this paper offers originality by focussing solely on the relationship between students' part-time work and career aspirations. Moreover, most works in this area have been quantitative studies, whereas this study is qualitatively-based.