Washington Post column on “OMG: Official Money Guide for College Students” says they recommend against having a job (I haven’t read the book). In contrast, “Debt-Free U,” which I did read, makes a case for having a job. In brief, that college students have a lot of free time, and that showing you worked during the school year will look good to potential post-grad employers. Your experiences?
Talking from the perspective of hiring them after they graduate, and dealing with my own son, I recommend not working the first year or so to make sure they can handle the workload and the transition, but they definitely need experience to get a job after school. It could be internships, but very important to get involved in clubs at the school at least. For instance, if he was majoring in marketing, advertising or business, get involved with the school’s radio station, website, etc… those are as important as internships.
I don’t know that an on-campus job would matter much to post-grad employers compared to relevant experience and internships. I’d say a job is more practical for the present than the future. Some people don’t really have a choice and need to get a job to help pay for tuition through work-study or to buy textbooks, or they just want spending money for college. As to whether it cuts into party time or study time, it depends on the hours you work, the type of job, and the person. If you’re good at time management and don’t work a crazy number of hours each week, it really doesn’t cut much time from anything. And I work in a library, which means that when it’s slow I get to just study and do work at the circulation desk, so my job really serves as part of my study time rather than taking away from anything.
My kids had the usual teen jobs during hs, knew how to work those into their schedules. What helps with the first resume are the sorts of experiences that can show the ability to handle responsibilities somewhat independently and some decision-making.
My godsons did campus jobs that did make sense on their first resumes. One now works in the arena of his campus work study, not related to his major. Mine did a form of community service work study and this directly led to opportunities. (For one, it specifically supported the job field she’s now in. For the other, it supported her app for a post-grad grant.)
You’ve got to realize these are usually ten hours/week, not hard (not real world jobs,) and offer a lot of flexibility during exam periods or when meeting research or writing deadlines.
Both my kids have had/have campus jobs that directly connect to career interests and have helped them obtain career focused internships and post-grad jobs.