5 answers
Giovanna
Student
Ridgewood, NY
1
Question
Asked
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How do you manage college and a job?
I need to figure how to balance them both while still giving 100% to both things. #college-advice #job
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5 answers
Joel Schnee
Sr. Director of Software Engineering
7
Answers
Purcellville, Virginia
Updated
Joel’s Answer
Great question as its been a while since I did attend college, but while attending I was regularly working 2 - 3 jobs at a given time (combos of part and full time) to pay for school and the bills. Its tricky, but you have some great answers provided already. Echoing most of those, its planning your time and depending on your situation that will mean managing social time outside of school and work. For this period of your life, set your priorities accordingly (finishing school, getting into a good routine with work to cover the bill being the top). With that said, give yourself some time to unwind, be it a day on the weekend or some time in the evening or morning that can be yours to decompress and I know physical activity was also a way to help me with this personally, trying to regularly incorporate that helps with stress and your mental state also.
Emitom Hillsman
Global HR Strategy
10
Answers
Dallas, Texas
Updated
Emitom’s Answer
Hi Giovanna!
This is a great question. While balancing college and a job can be difficult, it is a great learning experience and will prepare you well for the future. I have a few tips below:
- Choose your job wisely: Is there a job you can do on your college campus? This will help save on commute time and typically jobs on campus understand the commitments of college students so they can provide more flexibility. Is there a department or organization you are passionate about that could hire you (e.g. a department lab, the admissions office, RA)? Is there a job that requires you to be present but allows you to use any downtime to study (e.g. working the front desk of the college gym)?
- Optimize your schedule: Reflect on when you prefer to work vs. study vs. go to class. Is it better for you to only have class a few days a week so you can have more time to work and study on the other days or do you like to spread out all these activities throughout the week? Also reflect on how much of your weekends you want to work, if any.
- Plan ahead: Oftentimes, college classes consist of a few large assignments throughout the semester, rather than daily homework. If you plan ahead and study or work on projects or papers in advance, that will help you manage your school workload along with your job.
I hope this helps. Please reach out if you have further questions.
This is a great question. While balancing college and a job can be difficult, it is a great learning experience and will prepare you well for the future. I have a few tips below:
- Choose your job wisely: Is there a job you can do on your college campus? This will help save on commute time and typically jobs on campus understand the commitments of college students so they can provide more flexibility. Is there a department or organization you are passionate about that could hire you (e.g. a department lab, the admissions office, RA)? Is there a job that requires you to be present but allows you to use any downtime to study (e.g. working the front desk of the college gym)?
- Optimize your schedule: Reflect on when you prefer to work vs. study vs. go to class. Is it better for you to only have class a few days a week so you can have more time to work and study on the other days or do you like to spread out all these activities throughout the week? Also reflect on how much of your weekends you want to work, if any.
- Plan ahead: Oftentimes, college classes consist of a few large assignments throughout the semester, rather than daily homework. If you plan ahead and study or work on projects or papers in advance, that will help you manage your school workload along with your job.
I hope this helps. Please reach out if you have further questions.
A Puri
Software Engineer
1
Answer
San Mateo, California
Updated
A’s Answer
Hi Giovanna,
This is an excellent question. I echo all the advice you have already received. To give your 100% to college and job, you should have your priorities clear. I'm sharing my tips that would help you planning and execution.
1. Planning:
When you are planning to pick a job in addition to time management and college schedule management. Look at what you really want to achieve in that semester like if your job would help you have healthy discussions about your course work with colleagues. This in turn could help you learn the subjects in more depth. You could also pick up a job that would help you enhance your personal skills like public speaking or thinking on your toes.
This kind of planning and self evaluation would help you track your own progress. Also, the network you build in college would stay with you life-long. So focus on enjoying that time.
2. Execution or the time when you are managing college and job:
Always always have a to-do list! All the work you need to finish for college needs to be in one list similarly for job. Make sure you check off all items planned for that day before you go to bed or 1st thing next day in the morning.
Don't ever compare yourself with others and feel sad. It's good to have healthy competition but enjoy your time you would never get these days back.
Have a journal try to make notes once a week as everyday could be difficult.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Use your time productively, remember you are working with college so college should be your priority. Try to learn as much as you can, take advantage of all the available resources in addition to classes like podcasts, youtube videos, etc. All online sources have discounted rates for students use them.
Wishing you all the best! Hope it helps, feel free to reach out.
This is an excellent question. I echo all the advice you have already received. To give your 100% to college and job, you should have your priorities clear. I'm sharing my tips that would help you planning and execution.
1. Planning:
When you are planning to pick a job in addition to time management and college schedule management. Look at what you really want to achieve in that semester like if your job would help you have healthy discussions about your course work with colleagues. This in turn could help you learn the subjects in more depth. You could also pick up a job that would help you enhance your personal skills like public speaking or thinking on your toes.
This kind of planning and self evaluation would help you track your own progress. Also, the network you build in college would stay with you life-long. So focus on enjoying that time.
2. Execution or the time when you are managing college and job:
Always always have a to-do list! All the work you need to finish for college needs to be in one list similarly for job. Make sure you check off all items planned for that day before you go to bed or 1st thing next day in the morning.
Don't ever compare yourself with others and feel sad. It's good to have healthy competition but enjoy your time you would never get these days back.
Have a journal try to make notes once a week as everyday could be difficult.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Use your time productively, remember you are working with college so college should be your priority. Try to learn as much as you can, take advantage of all the available resources in addition to classes like podcasts, youtube videos, etc. All online sources have discounted rates for students use them.
Wishing you all the best! Hope it helps, feel free to reach out.
Brayden Reiland
119
Answers
Corvallis, Oregon
Updated
Brayden’s Answer
Hello!
You ask a question I think a lot of students ask themselves as working while going to college is a common thing. The biggest factor for success is going to be time management. I think people neglect the fact that there is a lot of time in a day and a lot of people waist a lot of time that they could be doing something thats going towards their overall goals. You first want to figure out how much time you are going to need to put into each. If you are working full or part time, what time do you work, what time are classes, how far is your commute are all things you need to ask yourself and begin creating a schedule of your day. Even putting in things like, eating lunch and dinner, going for a run etc. are all things that you will want to put into this schedule so you can really begin to understand how much time you can put into each. Also finding good ways to do 2 things at once. An example of this is maybe while driving to work you are listening to a textbook on tape, or listening to a recorded lecture. Just trying to find ways to manage your time in a way that you can still keep yourself mentally and physically healthy while working and attending class.
Hopefully this helps! Good luck!
You ask a question I think a lot of students ask themselves as working while going to college is a common thing. The biggest factor for success is going to be time management. I think people neglect the fact that there is a lot of time in a day and a lot of people waist a lot of time that they could be doing something thats going towards their overall goals. You first want to figure out how much time you are going to need to put into each. If you are working full or part time, what time do you work, what time are classes, how far is your commute are all things you need to ask yourself and begin creating a schedule of your day. Even putting in things like, eating lunch and dinner, going for a run etc. are all things that you will want to put into this schedule so you can really begin to understand how much time you can put into each. Also finding good ways to do 2 things at once. An example of this is maybe while driving to work you are listening to a textbook on tape, or listening to a recorded lecture. Just trying to find ways to manage your time in a way that you can still keep yourself mentally and physically healthy while working and attending class.
Hopefully this helps! Good luck!
C J
President Asia Pacific
4
Answers
Singapore
Updated
C’s Answer
I think it's pretty straight forward and the reality is that it's not just college and the job you need to balance, but also your social life, family and sporting/recreational interests. Life is all about juggling a lot of things at one time and the more experience we have with life the more we find that we have so many of these things happening at once. We can never put 100% of our focus or time on any one thing and it all becomes a question of balance and priority. There's no way we have 40-50 contact hours a week at college - in many full time courses its as low as 10-12, leaving plenty of time for part time work and other activities. But of course it's different if you're a full time worker and doing college part time or going to night school - that's when we have to make choices about prioritising study over social life and recreational pursuits. Given that's short term pain for long term gain, it's ultimately worth it.