Balancing school and work can be extremely difficult. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of working while in school.
For a bit of background, I’m on my third college degree. I worked for almost all of the 7 years I was in school, both on and off-campus. I was able to maintain relatively high grades despite my busy schedule, but I often found myself reflecting on my choices and felt stressed. However, I am extremely privileged to have been able to choose whether or not I would work and to have had my own transportation to and from my job and school. I also have very supportive parents who were willing to help me when I started to stumble a lot. There’s a lot that goes into a decision to work while in school.
That being said, let’s dive into the pros and cons.
Pros
After college, when you apply for a job, experience is factored into whether or not you get hired. The more experience you have – especially relevant experience – the more likely you are to stand out from the crowd of other recent graduates. Having experience also can help you decide what direction to take your academics. For example, you may be majoring in biology, but after working part-time at a clinic, you may find you want to go into pre-med instead. Your experiences out of the classroom define your experiences in the classroom.
Making money is helpful, especially when attending an institution that likes to charge students as much money as possible. Plus, having a positive bank account balance feels good. With the money you earn, you can also invest it so it grows over time. Consider looking into a Roth IRA, a saving account, stocks, or bonds. There are also tons of other ways of investing money, but these tend to be the most traditional ways.
Networking outside of school can help make you a more rounded person. Colleges are very unique ecosystems. Once you graduate, the systems you’ve worked so hard to uphold and fit into will suddenly disappear, and you’ll be expected to learn an entirely new system – the working life. Starting a job while still in school helps reduce the culture shock after graduation and allows you to learn more about how the world works. You can also meet many different kinds of people you wouldn’t otherwise meet if you only focused on school!
Cons
Sometimes, trying to balance too many things leads to you being crushed under their weight. Unlike school, where you can simply choose not to attend classes, a job is a contractual obligation. You have to show up for your shift or contribute to a project. In the end, the job can negatively impact your ability to attend school or complete assignments. It can also dig into the social life that college often facilitates.
If your work isn’t on campus, you may end up spending more on transportation fees than you actually get paid for your job. The emotional labor put into working, especially in service or retail, may outweigh your paycheck.
Having a job takes time. This can cause you to fall behind in your schoolwork which in turn takes a hit on your grades. These grades can even affect your ability to get into your major or graduate, and sometimes, those grades are important for financial aid or future jobs. For those able to keep up with both a job and school, they often get burnt out because they sacrifice much-needed personal time or sleep in order to maintain their high performance.
Concluding Thoughts
Only you can make a decision for yourself. You know what your needs are. However, I want to encourage those who do want to work during college to heavily consider how they balance their time and how much effort they’re willing to put into a job and school. It’s easy to not realize how burnt out you’re getting. Please be careful and remember to take care of yourself.