<p>Hello there, next semester I will be starting my freshman year at a community college. My question is how realistic is it to work a part time job and go to college? I know with changing classes every semester it will be a very changing schedule from morning to afternoon to night classes. If I get say a 20 hr job first semester would any employer be willing to work with my schedule for second semester when it changes? Post any experiences and jobs I should look for that would be helpful. Also if I take 16 credits and work 20 hr work weeks with lengthy commutes (20 mins ea way) what would my free time/social life be ? Would I have time to relax ?
Thank you all</p>
<p>It all depends on if you’re organized and a real go-getter or if you have a more relaxed personality. When I was in college I found that employers were quite willing to accommodate student schedules, although sometimes they appreciated it if you grouped your classes fairly close together, e.g., all in the morning or all in the afternoon. I could handle working 20 hours per week although that was pushing things a bit. If I was more organized and spent less time procrastinating things would have worked out better. Still I was able to get mostly A’s and I still had time for a fairly decent social life. The only real problem was that I worked a lot of weekends, and I wasn’t able to join my friends when they went skiing or off to the beach etc.</p>
<p>I worked mostly in retail in a college town, so employers knew what they could realistically expect from students. I’ve also heard that fast food places are good at accommodating student schedules. Over the years I’ve worked in a lot of offices that hired colleges students to come in whenever they could to answer phones, do filing, and perform other basic administrative tasks. I’m sure there are a lot of opportunities for blue collar work but I don’t have any first-hand experience with that. I’ve found that with a lot of jobs for college students (outside of retail and fast food) you need to already know someone who works there before you can get the job, so don’t be afraid to network. Also, does your community college hire a lot of students? Colleges are naturally quite good at allowing students to work around their class schedules.</p>
<p>There’s this girl in one of the school club’s I’m in that works two jobs and is able to balance both those and college, along with being one of the officers of said club.</p>
<p>I worked 20 hours a week during my first two years school. It depends on the employer, but if you fill out applications, they usually ask for your work availability. Put that down. If they see you’re a college student, they’ll know your schedule is dependent upon the classes you’re taking each semester.</p>
<p>It helps if you can get your schedule to look nicely. (IE: If you can have a whole day free, or you can get all morning/all afternoon classes.) For me, my first semester, I had all morning classes, so everyone afternoon was free to work. Other semesters, I had almost no classes on Wednesdays. It changed around, but my boss never had a problem switching every six months.</p>
<p>Check for jobs around campus and any other jobs you would normally take as a summer job. Even working at fast-food joints, grocery stores, and retail stores are usually fine for working around student schedules.</p>
<p>I work as a medical scribe in the emergency department 30+ hours per week with two night shifts (7PM - 4AM) per week. I take a full load of courses (18 hrs) and it’s been quite doable. I work hard, and still manage to have time for several clubs, leadership positions, a social life, and volunteering. It really depends on you and your personality though. I know personally, I manage my time best when I’m on a tight, loaded schedule. When I didn’t work and had very few ECs, it was extremely hard for me to not procrastinate and study instead. Some people work best under pressure, others work best without…it really depends.</p>