Student Job Link's Resources

If you try to make the most of your working experience, you will soon realize that having a job while studying has great benefits, besides the financial compensation of course.

 

A benefit that immediately comes to mind is that you will be meeting new people who are older than you and if you’re working off-campus have nothing to do with your college or university.  This will enable you to broaden your perspective on life.  You don’t want to get out of college with no idea of what has been going on in the world while you were studying. College and university are just “temporary”, the world outside of that is not.

Studies indicate that students who decide not to work while studying often tend to procrastinate because they obviously have lots more time on their hands then others.  Getting a job need not interfere with your studies if you get the work-study balance right.

Balance is the key to success.  In most countries, it is usually recommended that students do not work more than 20 hours a week.  This is said to be a good number of hours to get decent pay while still having time to study and enjoy leisure activities.

No matter what job you end up taking, it will help you later on in life when you’re drafting your C.V. It doesn’t really matter if the jobs you’ve done had nothing to do with your area of study because you would undoubtedly have learnt new and valuable skills. It would also mean to prospective employers that you are responsible enough to hold down a job and therefore someone who can be trusted.

Having a job will force you to develop new skills of how to deal with different types of people i.e. employers, customers and work collegues and also different situations.  You basically get to learn life skills that will be valuable to you for the future.

Time management is crucial to successfully juggle study and work. Never miss classes because of work and if you feel that you’re having setbacks in your studying patterns then clearly you have to co-ordinate your time better.  Having a diary with all your assignment deadlines written in will help you organise yourself better.   

Before accepting a job, take into consideration the traveling time required to get to your workplace.  The ideal job would be near your campus or home because traveling costs both time and money.  

Students often find it useful to cut down work when exams are due.  This will give you a bit of a breather for those stressful pre-exam times.

Sustaining a job while at college or university can be challenging but with a bit of planning and co-ordination it will not interfere with your studies and it can also be fun, beneficial and highly rewarding.