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Blog Entry: #114

Part Time Jobs for College Students:
How to put School and Work into Perspective!
by Joe DePalma

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If most employers could hire robots, they would.
But since they can't, they believe college students are the next best thing.
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When it comes time for you to get a college job, the old saying, “You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't” never rings more true. Most students need a part-time job so they can pay some bills and afford to partake in social college activities. However, any job you get is almost certainly going to cut into and directly interfere with your college social life. This is where the college student's endless struggle for money and fun begins.

One of the best aspects of living the college life is that each student has the opportunity to engage in a variety of activities that are all designed specifically for college students. However, the majority of these activities cost money. Now, I realize that money is a big issue, but the bigger and more important issue that all students must burn into their brain is that once the window of their college years has closed, they will never be able to recreate the campus fun or all-around early adulthood joy no matter how much money they obtain. That is why every college activity must be treated as if it were a limited-time offer.

For some reason, most students believe that getting a college job will not interfere with their social life or college activities. This is a popular misconception that eventually fades and drives students to make important choices between working and fully experiencing college. These choices eventually lead all students to the Big Revelation which is, “Holy Crap… I'm going to have to work for the next 45 years of my life!”

Shortly after being resuscitated from the Big Revelation, most students ask themselves, “Why am I in a hurry to get a 25- to 35-hour-a-week job and start that 45 year timeline any sooner than I have to?” Maybe you need to pay for car insurance and repairs, credit card or cell phone bills, or possibly you need to pay part of your tuition. I understand that these are all legitimate reasons to have a college job, but not one of them is a good enough excuse to work through your college years and miss out on all the events that make college special, such as university semi-formals, college game-day parties, spring break, Greek festivities, parades, etc, etc, etc.

If working part-time is a necessity for you, the most effective way to make sure you miss as little college fun as possible is to work very hard on the days when there are no big campus activities planned. By working hard, you should make a good impression on your boss, which will make it easier to schedule your job around any big college fun that pops up. If your boss is grumpy with old brown socks and a bad comb-over and will not let you off work when the big college fun comes around, simply explain the entire situation to him in a cooperative manner. Then politely ask him again if you can rearrange your schedule. If your boss is uncooperative and says you will be fired if you do not come in, you are going to have a decision to make. You may have a hard time deciding whether to go to work or skip it for the big college fun. If you do, flip a coin and let fate decide it for you. If you want to flip the coin more than once, you already know your decision and just have to act on it.

If you do skip work and your boss does end up firing you, do not get too upset because most part-time college jobs are a dime-a-dozen. If you really want the job back, say you are sorry for missing work and explain your situation to him again. If he still refuses to meet you half way in the conversation, that means it was probably terrible working for him anyway and you can move on to the next job that much easier without the slightest regret. The reality in most cases is that in five years you will not be looking back and reminiscing about how much you miss your nearly minimum wage college job. Instead, you will be remembering the great times you had attending your college activities.

Finally, if your boss is really bad he may give you the Miserable Boss Man Lecture.
Beware of this at all costs…

* Part Time Jobs For College Students -
Miserable Boss Man Lecture *

This is when your (stale and bored to tears with his career) boss tries to tell you where you should be and what you should do when it applies to missing work at your college job. Your boss may even say that it is a student's duty and responsibility to be at work. However, most college job bosses only want to get through another wretched workday without any reminder that they cannot leave their thankless job as easily as you can. Never let your college job boss intimidate you. You have control over your choice of whether or not to work and miss college activities. Your boss more than likely hates his job more than you do and doesn't know how to handle that fact, so he takes it out on his employees in the form of the “Miserable Boss Man Lecture.”

Jobs, money, college, and producing life-long experiences merge together like oil and water. It is up to you to decide for yourself exactly how much of each you are willing to sacrifice for the other. I believe all students should focus on the college thrills that dwell within a day and not on the monetary value of an hour at a college job. Once you graduate, you will be spending most of the next 40 years working hard and making sacrifices. Why start making those sacrifices now if it is at all avoidable? The cost of missing a college experience for any reason is priceless. Do whatever you must do to get as much as you can out of your college adventure!

* Part Time Jobs For College Students - ACTION STEP *

List the three absolute basic needs for extra money that you currently have in your life.

1)_______________________________________________________

2)_______________________________________________________

3)_______________________________________________________

Now ask yourself if these items are worth missing college experiences that are only available to you during this short period of your life. This will help you understand the balance between your college job and your college experiences. It is a balance and needs to be treated that way.
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