Part time job during studies: how did that end up for you?

[norgos]

I'm just curious to know some of your experiences back when you were studying (or presently), whether you guys had a part time job and what advice you'd give to someone who is considering it?

how many hours did you work?
What did you do?
Did you generally do worse in school or has it actually helped you stay sharp on your toes?
Has the part time job helped you in getting jobs in the field you studied in?

[lookingforstufffff]

Everyone is different, some people can work... some people can't.

10-20
In an office doing "paperwork"
It's the same in terms of how "sharp" I've gotten, without the job I would have just made no money doing something that didn't involve studying -- mind you I'm an "A" student.

[Mulder and Scully]

When I was in school I couldn't do it :P

For 3 out of my 4 years I had classes from Mo-Fr (it was a pretty awful schedule with a lot of 2-3 hour breaks), and the only time I was available to work was 6pm onwards. So from 6pm to 12am I'd be working part-time, but then that didn't give me enough time to write my papers. The breaks during the day allowed me to study, but without a laptop I couldn't do much else. I was in school about the time the www became huge, but still before universities had multiple computer labs -- and USB memory drives didn't exist back then so we couldn't save anything on the school's computers. Those were dark times :P

But if you have a good schedule then it's very much doable.

[rharor]

I'm going into my last year of uni. For the first 3 years I worked full time. I was laid off in April 2009, however am looking for full time work going into my last year. I was working at Capital One Financial and they were really flexible with there scheduling which really helped. I'm not an A student but I do it because I need the money to cover my expenses.

[Prinsesa]

Worked approx 16-20 hours a week with full-time school, it can be done ! Haha. You just have to sacrifice a lot of social events :/ But its worth it because you have something to put on your resume when you graduate.

[IceBlueShoes12]

I worked upwards of 30hrs/week during my last of school. During 2nd and 3rd yr I was working 30+hrs/week.

I don't understand how someone can't work. Let's be honest, NO ONE studies, every minute of everyday. Plus their are no classes on weekends so working 10hrs/week (5hrs on the weekend) is really not out of the realm of possibility. Obviously you'd have to find a job that would allow you to do that though. From my experience, I don't buy the excuse that theirs "no time" to work, and in many cases these are the same people that complain that tuition is "unaffordable".

I admit though that I am lucky because 20/30hrs were working on campus where I was able to read or do work if I needed. While I may be on the crazier end of things, working 10hrs/week is easily doable.

Sure I didn't get the greatest grades (I'm not an A student) and to be quite honest, never really cared about grades much, but I graduated with no debt. Besides theirs are other things in life besides grades.
Just my 2cents.

[matradley]

how many hours did you work? 15-30 hours a week
What did you do? Team Leader at McDonald's
Did you generally do worse in school or has it actually helped you stay sharp on your toes? It made sure I stayed sharp and helped me keep my priorities straight. Lots of transferable skills were learned while at McDonald's.

[shannn]

They've done a couple studies that showed most students perform optimally when they work ~10hours/week at a job/volunteering.

Personally, I usually worked 15 - 20 hours per week plus 5 hours per week volunteering during school.
I found that it forced me to keep up with my studies and get myself organized.
Plus, it gave me liberty to go out with friends, buy stuff, and to afford a girlfriend :lol:

Personally, I made enough in the summer working full time to pay off school/books/car insurance, but working during school gave me the liberty to spend money during the year, afford car insurnace and save money for the future (well...future education >:( )

Plus, I was still able to maintain a A / A+ average in school.

[coriolis]

how many hours did you work? 20-30 hours a week
What did you do? Cashier/Barista at Second Cup, then Cashier/Sales at IKEA
Did you generally do worse in school or has it actually helped you stay sharp on your toes? Considering I've always worked while at school(during highschool, even grade school!), I would believe I do a great job organizing my time. Following it is another factor though :p

[malecoke]

With part time job: (year 1-2)
I got kicked outta program and got placed on warning. GPA 3.1 out of 9 >:(

Quitted part time job, only worked full time in summer: (year 3-4)
Graduating with an Honours degree in Oct. 2009 :D

[angekfire]

Highschool: I got my first job, just working Saturday & Sunday's, for anywhere from 8 hours/day to 13 hours/day (So between 8 & 26 hours/week). During school breaks like spring break, I would work for the full week, so 9 days straight at 8-13 hours/day. Did that for about a year.

Then I got a job at zellers and worked between 8 & 16 hours/week on average.

College: I continued to work at Zellers, but my hours changed based on work load & days off. In one semester, I only had class 3 days a week (But, they were almost 12 hour days), so I was able to work a bit more. But in another semester, I had class 4 days a week, so I could give them a bit less. I generally didn't work on days I had class, or Sundays so I could keep up on my studies. So generally, I worked 4-12 hours/week, depending. Then they started trying to make me work when I had class, or work when I needed time to do my final projects and such. Eventually it got so bad I just straight up quit, at the start of my last semester. I figured in my last semester, I had class + work placement, so it would have been class + 2 jobs, and too much to focus. Plus our coordinator told us holding a job in last semester would probably be too intense, and advised we either severely cut our hours, or quit. So I quit.


I felt that in highschool, I was working more hours, and I found it did take a toll on my studies a bit. My grades in highschool were fairly average, nothing fantastic, not even close to honour role. I ended up not having enough time to study or do projects because I was working.

In college, I don't feel it made a huge difference for the first year. First year was fine, I was able to balance, but in my second last semester, the workload got obscene, and I had to severely cut down my work hours, since school was my first priority. They got pissed at this and tried to make my life miserable, which basically added to the stress of having over a dozen projects for less than a dozen classes due at the same time. At this point, I felt it hindered me because I was so stressed with the work situation + school, that everything was screwed up. Once I quit, everyone was better except my money situation.

[cassandraj]

In my first and second year, I worked at Old Navy as a sales associate (floor, fitting rooms and cash) anywhere from 10-40+ hours per week. However, when I worked any more than 25 hours per week, I had to start skipping electives to finish important assignments (as a journalism student, our interview sources aren't awake and available to be interviewed at 2 a.m. on a weekday).

Eventually, I realized how important relevant experience is and asked my dad to start helping me pay for school so I could volunteer my time for unpaid work relevant to my field. Then I had time to do my school work for the most part, but I could also write for school newspapers, be an editor at one of the magazines produced on-campus and write for the company I'm currently employed by.

I would definitely recommend finding meaningful, relate-able work (even if it's unpaid) instead of settling for folding clothes, serving coffee or preparing burgers. Unless you want to go into food service or retail, of course!

[BananaHunter]

It works differently for different people. Some people can hold down a full time job and full time studies at the same time. Rare but they exist. Some people can study all day and still end up with a crap GPA.

Some people like to give you a false impression of being busy all the time. In reality, a good chunk of people are just sitting at home doing nothing. So don't let peer pressue get to you. You want to be someone that actually IS doing something all the time.

I worked about 10-30 hrs a week during my uni years. All office jobs. I made my schedule so that I have no classes on Fridays...ever. I tried my best to minimize gaps in between classes because I don't like to idle around waiting for the next class. I was in commerce. We don't have labs/practicals so it's typically 5-6 lectures a week. I skipped nearly all tutorials. It worked well. There was a semester where I crammed all classes in 2 days.

I worked less in 3rd year and my grades actually dropped that year.

Yes these experiences helped me get a job after graduation for sure, since these experiences comprise of 80% of my resume. Education is like 3 lines on my resume. There wouldn't be much to talk about at a job interview if all you have are grades.

Does working affect social life? Definitely. Sometimes there's an event and you can't make it. But it's worth it. In some ways, it helps with your social life because you don't feel like a loser when you have a job. Plus, a lot of the experiences can make for good conversation topics.

[Exas]

In my second year of engineering, I had about 30-32 hours per week of class. I am a part-time reservist, which required me to put in about 20 hours a week. Let me tell you, that I have never learned how to manage stress better than that year. It was the first time in my life I have ever kept an agenda, and it was generally brutal. I don't regret it though, because all I sacrificed was a bit of free-time and alot of sleep.

[Mayoo]

Actually McMaster had this sweet job called UTS Consultant .. basically you sit and take care of the IT Computer lab. People with password, email, course site questions will come to you and the best is you work in 1hr shifts ( maximum 20hr/week and 8hr weekend ) and you choose your shifts every Friday according to your semester time table. they paid 10/hr and later 12/hr. I never felt that as a job as most of the time i was getting paid to do my home work. Also its inside the campus next to your class rooms :)

[smolek]

In my second year of engineering, I had about 30-32 hours per week of class. I am a part-time reservist, which required me to put in about 20 hours a week. Let me tell you, that I have never learned how to manage stress better than that year. It was the first time in my life I have ever kept an agenda, and it was generally brutal. I don't regret it though, because all I sacrificed was a bit of free-time and alot of sleep.Part time reservist putting in 20 hours a week?

I was looking into this and my friend told me its only 3 hrs a week, and one weekend a month, is he bs'ing me?

[airodus]

I did part time my first few years and then eventually ended up doing 40 hours 8-5 in my last 2 years. I ended up missing a lot of classes (almost all of them), but I did manage to graduate hahah. I did a tech support job for the gov't and had a lot of downtime to study or do homework, so it wasn't a bad job for a student. But a lot of days would get really busy and I'd end up sacrificing my sleep to keep on top of school.

But I made a lot of money and was able to pay my way thru school (room/board/tuition) which was really nice. Ended up with a nice chunk of savings too. In retrospect, it was kind of a wasted effort for me cause it was a lot of agony for not a lot of money (I make more in a quarter now than I did in those 5 years of working). But maybe it's the experience that was more valuable. I don't really know.

[dubjk]

i pretty much devoted my weekends to working at a retail job. i'd be working during the day, and did whatever studying at night, or when i got home from school on weekdays.

I actually think that it forces you to manage your time better. and as someone earlier mentioned, you kinda lose a bit of your social life, but you do make some money and gain experience.

[Gmail1]

I dont know how it is in every program, but I'll tell you this: in microbiology and immunology (which I was in), most people who worked part time had lower grades. I guess its normal considering you just have less time. I worked for about half of my undergrad and when I quit my job my GPA jumped significantly. I can honestly say that if I hadn't quit I wouldn't have been accepted into the program I'm in now and I'd have a whole different life ahead of me (worse, if that wasn't implied).

However, there was one guy who worked and had a 4.0. He was probably an extreme example though, but the point is if you have less time chances are your marks will be worse and you may not get into what you want to. This might not matter in other fields though (probably does in some and doesn't in others) but it SURE AS HELL matters in health science undergrad studies.

[Bleys007]

I worked 10-15 hours a week, got a job in the student union's used book room and its print shop. It was really nice, since they worked around our schedules. One semester I had 6 hours inbetween classes; having that job was really helpful in filling the time. I ended up with a cumulative GPA of 3.31 (B+) in Journalism at Ryerson, though without the electives it would have been an A-

No student debt from graduating, though I was saving for it with my summer jobs since 16, and commuted 90 minutes to/from school while living at home. Working really didn't affect my average.

[geronimo]

I've been working the same part-time job as a CSR in retail for the past 5 years and 8 months.

I first got the job at the beginning of grade 11, and back then I used to work Fridays and Saturdays, usually 5-8 hour shifts. I never had problems with finishing my school work, as that always came first and I've always let my supervisors/managers know that. Throughought the years its fluctuated, but I've generally worked anywhere from 8 to 16 hours per week. The key though is that I only ever work on weekends, so that I have the weekdays to focus on my school work. Of course ever since I started university, I've taken time off when needed to study extra hard for midterms, finals, major projects, etc.

As others have stated, I really don't think it's that big of a deal and I don't think it's affected my academic performance (both in high school and university) at all. It's not like I'd be studying 24/7 if I weren't working. The truth is, we all get lazy and procrastinate and slack off sometimes, but that is not the fault of our part-times jobs. If anything, juggling multiple things at once has helped me to develop better time management skills. I think it's a good thing to have to suffer a little and learn the value of hard work as a teen/young adult.

[jjasond]

I worked about 10 hours a week, give or take. Doing private tutoring, tutorials paid by the university, and as a teaching assistant. I was very lucky that this was all on campus, flexible, and was in subjects that were the foundations of my studies anyway so it probably helped me do better in school. This basically gave me beer money. I worked 70-90 hours a week in the summers which gave me enough to pay for food/housing during school

[Tesla]

how many hours did you work? 40
What did you do? Electrician/Electrician Appurtenance
Did you generally do worse in school or has it actually helped you stay sharp on your toes? SInce I was in college for electricial based things I'd say yes
Has the part time job helped you in getting jobs in the field you studied in? Yes considering its my full time job.

Overall I worked the night shift and went to classes during the days and now I have 4 college dilpomas and I'm working on getting my electrical engineering degree part time starting in Sept. Grades are also meaningless. Also it hurt my social life a bit but not really that much as I still went out on weekends ect, I just didn't have free time to myself which is meh.