<p>Hi guys, i am an incoming freshman with no work experience in high school. I wanted to ask if its easy enough to work for like 7-10 hours per week your 1st semester? Can you please share your opinion/experience with me? Thanks.
And lets say i have no classes or homework to do on 3 days of the week. Can i work all 7-10(or maybe more) hours on those particular days?
I got a job at Gordon, if that helps.
Thanks. </p>
<p>Good for you, getting the job at Gordon’s! At the same time, I would not recommend working more than about 10 hours a week. Even if you only have class 3 days a week – which is unlikely because you will have discussion sections which often are on different days than classes – you will still have lots of work to do to prepare for class. A good working estimate is that it takes 2-3 hours of work outside of class, per week, for every credit hour of class you have. A 15 credit schedule means you have 30+ hours of homework outside of class per week. It is not realistic to think you can work 7-10 hours on a single day, and you are very unlikely to get a shift from Gordon’s that would be that long. Most shifts are tied to meal times and, as I recall from my son as a freshman, were at most about 4-5 hours. Maybe someone else knows more current information. </p>
<p>Good luck, and congrats. </p>
<p>Res Halls is good at matching work schedules to class schedules- academics always come first- remember that. If finances permit I would not work in college. Instead I would find time for fun clubs et al. However, I worked in Res Halls food service eons ago (Lakeshore) end junior-senior year. The jobs are not glamorous but close to home and work around your schedule. They likely wouldn’t schedule you for more than a 4 hour shift, with that they are required by law to give you a break. Longer hours could put you into a lunch break situation per OSHA rules so it may work out that you do two divided shifts if that works best for all student workers’ schedules.</p>
<p>I started on the scrape line- we got yelled at for singing Christmas carols too loudly once. I advanced to the clean dish line and then was a cashier. I was happy to not have to clean grills on the closing shift at the snack bar but did plenty of other tasks that are not glamorous. One winter assignment was collecting trays from the hill outside Liz (Waters)- and trays and dishes were not allowed out of the place back then. Many future doctors and lawyers have held those jobs. We used to joke about it being broom pushing 101 and such when we were doing that. A good work environment for students. btw- work study students get jobs cleaning bathrooms so be nice and neat…</p>
<p>Thank you so much @wis75 and @Midwestmomofboys :)</p>
<p>For what is is worth – and if it is the same as a couple of years ago when my son was a freshman – as a student working in the dining halls, you move in a couple days early in order to get your job training before the dining halls open for everyone when they arrive. One advantage of that is it is not nearly as crazy a move in as when all the rest of the freshman arrive. UW does a really good job of managing the traffic flow, but it is a busy day all around.</p>
<p>You then have about 2 days of general training on different stations at Gordons, and then get your work schedule which is built around your class schedule. Good luck, it is a fabulous school!</p>
<p>@Badger101 is an international student so will be moving in early anyway, I believe, for SOAR purposes. It is nice to get a chance to move in early (dining hall employees, Badger Move-In Buddies, international students) before the crazy move-in days!</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I’m a current UW Student and a current student employee. My freshman year of school, I worked at Four Lakes Dining Hall. The first month of the job was the hardest – due to the fact that they don’t really train you, so a lot of it is confusing at first. If you stick around past then (which a lot of students don’t), it is an incredibly rewarding experience. By the end of the year, all of my student supervisors and I were friends. Work became less about the food service (though I still kept an eye to the customer), and more about hanging out with my friends and happening to get paid for it. I loved the break in the day that being able to go sit on the cash register and chit chat for two hours provided, and the enduring bonds I’ve made with coworkers are invaluable. I worked 8-12 hours a week, and it was completely manageable with my 15/16 credit workload each semester. You can pick up extra shifts if you’d like, which I often did.</p>
<p>I’ve now moved into the housing IT Department on campus, and I have no doubt that the customer service skills I learned in dining helped me get that job. I also have a student volunteer position in res life next semester as a peer mentor. I like to joke that I will have been employed by every department in University Housing before I graduate.</p>
<p>It’s a heck of a lot of fun. I HIGHLY recommend it. Let me know if I can answer anything else or help in any way.</p>
<p>Thanks @adamr41
So its final. I am taking this job. Its going to be tough as i have never done anything like this before, but lets explore more horizons is what i say. ;-)</p>
<p>It won’t be that tough- a lot of the things your mom wished you would do at home… The hard part is learning what they need and building speed, the tasks aren’t that difficult, especially for anyone with enough brains to be a UW student. They have regular fulltime staff in charge of the real cooking, students get to clean, serve and cashier mainly. I think it helps privileged students get an understanding of life for “the other half”- some people do those jobs for life. There is a lot of learning in college outside the classroom. The peer group makes it fun.</p>