I got my first job during the summer before college at a juicing company. It was one of the most rewarding experiences ever with many highs and lows. Naturally, I wanted to continue this experience in college, because it comes with the bonus of having disposable income to spend on my trips to Boston and other expenses. Here, I compiled my top reasons of why everyone should have a job during college (in no particular order):
1. Work/School Balance:
This teaches you to develop time management skills. For me personally, I thrive when I’m busy because there is a lot to do and little time to do it. Before getting a job, I wasted so much time on social media and still put the same amount of effort into my school work. This built a foundation of unproductivity for the beginning of the school year. However, this changed when I finally got a part-time job at a similar juicing company on the East Coast. I worked 12 hours on the same days every week. This allowed me to build a routine into my schedule of when I had time to go to class, study, hang out with friends, and etc.
2. Meeting New People:
Especially coming from such a small school like Babson, you see the same people every day. Although this allows you to build stronger relationships with these people, sometimes change is good. Through work, I am able to meet a variety of different people and make new friends. I met older people that work it in kitchen, high schoolers and college students, not at Babson, that work in the front with me. One of the biggest principles of business is networking. When you branch out of the comfort zone of your school, you are networking with other people. You never know, one day one of your ex-coworkers can become the CEO of the next Amazon.
3. INCOME!!!
This is self-explanatory. At college, you never realize how much money you need after paying tuition especially if you are dorming. You can no longer go downstairs to get more shampoo when you run out, but instead, you have to use your own money to buy these necessary products. Also, this money can be spent in other ways like entertainment or even investing. During my Quantitative Methods class, we learned the power of compound interest so you might as well start early by investing in your retirement.
All in all, these are my main three reasons why having a part-time job is such a rewarding and valuable part of the college experience. In addition, if you take a job in the customer service industry, it is the most humbling experience that teaches you how to interact with people. Valuable life lesson: Treat others the way you want to be treated (literally)!