Get a job while you're in school

Don’t focus solely on school. You heard that, right?! That last sentence was a question and a statement! It is integral that you do something else while you spend countless hours in the library, and you really should be spending time in the library, but one of the best things you can do for yourself is get a job. There are so many benefits to having a job while you’re in school. In this post I'll share with you how my job came to be, and how it helped my education.

In high school I worked for a superstore like Wal-Mart. My job consisted of pushing carts all day and bringing them back into the store. It was about as much fun as it sounds. So I was not eager to get a new job right before college started. Like many of you, I had this mindset of “I’m finally an adult and I’m going to have some freedom. I don’t wanna work” My freedom that summer meant sitting on my couch all day and playing video games. But, I had recently had a conversation with a friend, and in passing, I may have stated how I needed a job. There was no sustenance behind that statement. It was just small talk, and the next thing I knew she was giving me a call letting me know a busser was fired, and they needed a replacement ASAP! I showed up, interviewed, and got the job. It was, and still is, one of the best decisions of my life. 

A study done back in 2017 showed that 45% of full-time college students have a job. That’s almost half of us! In this study, Dr. Laura Pern found that students who do work are more likely to succeed than students who don’t. I have been a full-time manager at the restaurant I started bussing at, these past two years while I’ve finished my undergrad, and one of the ways it’s helped me is it’s guided me in structuring my day. When I have the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want, I’m less likely to find time to study, because I’ll tell myself “I can do that later today.” Knowing that I have to be at work by 5:00 on a certain night forces me to study and get homework done between 3-5 when my classes are done for the day. 

Another reason it helped me pertaining to school, was the number of people I worked with who were also attending UNC that I could use as helpful references. I would run into people in my classes who were my co-workers, often. As you can imagine it’s a lot easier to start a conversation and ask for help with an assignment when it’s someone you already know, even if just a little, more than a complete stranger. 

Here is how my day was structured for the past 2 years. I would wake up at 5:00, go to the gym, I’d be back home by seven fifteen-ish, stare at myself in the mirror for about 10 minutes, get ready, I would get to class by 9:00, sit through my classes, study, and then be to work anytime between 4-6. I highly recommend getting a job at a restaurant while you’re in school, and I’ll talk about why in a later blog. 

Remember this is me working full-time, most of you will only have a part-time job that schedules you 15-20 hours, if that. Obviously, money is the main reason you would want a job, and textbooks aren’t cheap! There are also many more benign reasons to work while you school, so feel free to ask about them in the comments below! 

References

Patrick Henry College. (2017). Retrieved from  https://www.phc.edu/learnphc/083017-should-i-get-a-job-while-in-college