To be completely honest, I only want a job to satisfy myself and make me feel like an adult. I’m an only child with pretty much everything I want given to me, and my parents aren’t requiring it. But I don’t feel good about this, so I’m searching. I’m a senior in high school yet. What do people typically do?
Do they have a job at home that they return to for breaks, and then nothing during the actual school year?
Both school year and breaks? How does the job juggle with studies, which must come first?
School year, but not breaks?
Any advice is welcome! I have decent ideas of where I’d want to work in my hometown and on campus.
I have a job right now, working in the Finance Department of my Uni’s Medical Center. I work Tues and Thurs, when I only have one class (recitation on Tuesdays for 50 mins) that doesn’t require a lot of work. So for me, working isn’t a struggle at all. My job is very understanding with its student workers, not really caring how many hours you work as long as you do them consistently. When stuff comes up, I just tell my boss and she oks it. So for me, my job doesn’t interfere with my studies at all.
That said, since it’s a job here, I don’t have one for breaks, so I’ll have to do something else during the summer. A lot of it is what job you have and your time management skills. Mine suck, but a lot of my job is down time while a machine does work, so I can get some homework (okay, let’s get real. I can zone out to my music) done in that time.
It all depends on what you want and what you can find. Working on campus is often the easiest option, since you on campus employers are often good about working with students. I worked in the library on campus, and many students also worked during the breaks (I only worked over the summer because I went home during winter and spring breaks). Many students work in the dining hall, student center, bookstore, departmental offices/administration, tutoring center, etc. I’ve also worked as a teaching assistant and a note-taker. There are often tons of jobs on a school campus, but you can also work off-campus, perhaps as a tutor or babysitter. I knew people who worked at labs on- and off-campus, and some who worked at off-campus restaurants and stores.
Many students work part time during the school year, and many also work over the summer. Some prefer not to work during the school year, but instead, work full-time over the summer. I knew one student who would work at his old high school job when he went home during school breaks. Just take a look at what’s out there, and see what will work with your schedule. Since you’re not doing it for the money, you have a bit more of a cushion to find something that fits into your schedule.
Remember, you’re always a student first. School has to come before your job (especially if you don’t need the money). If you find that you’re studies or your sanity is suffering because of your job, then it’s time to stop working or find a new job that fits your schedule better.
There’s no set formula for working. I have a part-time job (12-15 hrs/week) at a retail store during the school year and a full-time job at a state park during the summer. I do it this way because the retail job can’t give me full time hours during the summer, which I want/need. Both employers take me back every school year/summer. Works pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Be careful where you apply/accept a position. Many employers are well known for treating employees terribly, such as Walmart. I have been very lucky with my jobs. I don’t love the retail job, but I have come to tolerate it and the managers are excellent when it comes to working with my schedule and giving me the days off that I need. I love my job in the summer. It’s fun and I get along with everyone that works there - managers and fellow employees.
If you don’t like a job or it isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to quit it. I tried starting a job at a restaurant on campus last semester and it didn’t go over well. Their franchise had just been taken over by the corporation and everything was changing. The managers were terrible, and I wasn’t being trained at all. They just expected me to know how to make the food and understand how the restaurant worked. That’s probably because they were very short staffed, but it’s still no excuse not to train someone. I quit after two days, without a two weeks notice. Normally a two weeks notice is a good idea, but in this case they hadn’t scheduled me yet and I didn’t feel like I owed them much of anything.
As far as juggling studies with school, it gets easier with experience. It’s definitely easier in college versus high school because your hours and structure of the day is more fluid in college. I used to resent my job during the school year in high school because it took away from my chance to study for exams and do homework. Now it’s much easier. As baktrax said, put school first because you don’t need the money. If it turns out to be too hard to work during the school year, try just working during the summer, or find a different job with different hours.
In case you’re looking for more ideas for jobs, here are some that I’ve thought about or applied to (but not necessarily worked):
library clerk
retail associate
state park employee
lifeguard
babysitter or tutor (self-employed)
restaurants
office assistant on campus
painting crew on campus
petting zoo guide/employee
stable hand
All of the above. I worked part-time during the school year and full-time during the summers, but some students do summer work only, and others only work during the academic year. I started off as an office assistant on campus. Then I worked as a resident assistant (resident assistants on campus got paid a stipend). Then I worked as a research assistant for professors (these positions usually are not paid, but I was in a special undergraduate fellowship grant that paid for it).
It’s difficult to look for a job before you even arrive to campus - they won’t have the work-study and/or general students positions posted yet, so you don’t really know what kinds of opportunities there are on campus yet.
Graduate on time instead of working and if you do work totally work on campus. My older brother is a lab monitor and he got off all the holidays and all the breaks and they completely worked around his schedule to make sure it never conflicted with courses or exams and he basically just got paid to study. And clear paper jams out of the printer.
I stayed home for college, as did almost all my friends.
We worked together in a local seafood restaurant. We carpooled to CC, then to a local university. We rented a ski house upstate, and a summer house in the Hamptons. We attended concerts together, went camping together, went away on summer vacations together.
We worked 4 nights a week, from roughly 4 pm to midnight most nights.
EVERYONE in our crowd made Dean’s list. My GPA was a 3.8, and several of the people in my crowd had 4.0.
If you don’t need a job for living expenses and just want to have one to have one I have two suggestions:
First, get a job on-campus your first two years. This will allow you to meet a lot of other students, both fellow employees and “customers” depending where you work. Making friends with other students that work is a plus because you share a common responsibility.
Second, once you know your major, take paid OR unpaid internships as a junior and senior. Depending on your field, some of the best experience to be had will be from an unpaid internship. Since you don’t need the money these will be super beneficial as they’ll offer experience that you can’t find elsewhere. Also look at them as networking opportunities as some internships turn into jobs after graduation.