How to combine work and studies

Posted by Charli Donnithorne on November 5th, 2018

     It is OK to earn money while studying. The reasons for this may be very different, but the work should not distract from school or university.

     Generally, whatever the motives (or their complex) would be, if a student works, this is good. Everyone knows the anecdote about young specialists who have graduated from the university: “Now get out of your head all the rubbish that you were taught and listen to how you should work.” Indeed, a young man with no work experience is much less interesting for an enterprise, since it will have to be “taught to work” for quite a long time (to learn not only to perform certain operations, but to learn to do its assigned tasks on time, to teach teamwork on a project, to teach in a usable form to present the result of their work, to teach responsibility for their work) From this point of view, it is much more profitable to hire a specialist with experience (even if it is 1-2 years, and even not quite in the field).

     However you should not forget that the main task of the student is to learn. If the work of this goal interferes, then everything loses its meaning. That is why it is not recommended to look for work before the delivery of the first session. Then, if you make sure that studying is easy, and that you have enough time and effort to work (perhaps it will be in the second or third year), you can start looking for work.

     In general, when looking for a job you can be guided by the following criteria:

     1. Work at the department (best of all, it is at yours) of your university - secretary, laboratory assistant, programmer, even a cleaner .This is very useful in the sense of study. Yes, and at work in the session, for example, they will enter your position and reduce the load.

    Establishing relations "employees" with teachers working at the department, you get a significant odds when taking exams and tests. And if you suddenly have problems, your problems with the support of the department will be much easier to solve. In addition, such work is geographically close located and can occur during free time from studies.

     2. Work as a freelancer: freelance writing is one of the options. I thought about this when I was a student myself, since it gives the opportunity to develop your creativity and doesn’t take much time.

     3. Work in the urban information structure. This is the work with information and people. Useful in terms of information flows and connections that you can get there. This may be useful for you when looking for a job in a specialty in a serious office

     Pay special attention to the location of the place of work (how long you will get to it), to the possibility of a free schedule (especially during the exam season), to benefit from such work for you and, of course, to pay.