My DS is studying engineering. He has been looking for a job opportunity all summer long. Finally he had an interview with a psychology professor for a job in his lab. The job isn’t related to his field of study.
Would you recommend to take the job? It may mean to change his class schedule for next semester.
Of course he should take it if he is interested. He’s got plenty of time to be educated. Carpe diem. What’s a schedule change compared to an opportunity?
That is kind of a long way from his major. What year is he? How long is he committing to the lab? All lab opportunities are not equal, and once he starts in the prof’s lab and gets trained up, he should stay for a while. I would think that at least a STEM related or CS lab would be better, unless he is just doing it for the money. It won’t advance him career-wise or for grad school applications.
My student’s first campus job was in food service. Not related to her major or career goals at all.
But, the hours didn’t require rescheduling the classes she needed to take for her own goals.
A couple of things to consider:
–Engineering schedules are often very rigid as the material needs to be studied sequentially. I’d be wary of rearranging a schedule for a job. Only reschedule if your S is absolutely certain it will have no long-term impact on his ability to complete the engineering program in 4 years.
–What would the job entail (meaningful research work or just grunt work)? Jobs don’t have to be in the area of a student’s major, but is psychology an area of interest for your S? Would psychology majors be given the better/more interesting work?
–Might there be any similar opportunities in the engineering dept.?
–At this point the summer is almost over.
He hasn’t gotten an offer yet. He is waiting to hear from the professor. He wants a job really bad (but not food service ). He will be a 2nd year college student.
He will be doing some data modeling and analysis in area of cognitive science and psychology and linguistics. So it might be science related.
He has to moved 2 classes for it to happen. I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Maybe he will change his major to psyc. He likes linguistics as well.