Why You Should Have A Part-time Job in High School or College
Whether you are in high school or college, there are so many benefits to taking on a part-time job. Whether it is retail, food services, or administrative work, a part-time job during your college or high school years will provide the opportunity to develop skills that are crucial to professional growth.
The first skill you will develop (and probably one of the most important skills to have in life) is time management. Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. The ability to have good time management will help you work smarter in life and not harder. School is already a very big responsibility, especially if you have a very heavy/rigorous course load. You may be thinking it’s already a challenge to juggle school work/any extracurriculars you may have on your plate. However, having a part-time job in your schedule will allow you to plan ahead and decide when to get things done, especially if you work during the weekdays. The development of prioritizing school work based on level of importance, rigor, etc.. will come naturally and make you a time-managing pro! With a busy schedule, you will develop the mentality of working smarter and will get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressure is high.
The second skill you'll develop is customer service/communication. Customer service skills can be developed from almost any job. But since you’re a student, the first job you obtain will most likely require heavy customer service. In any work environment, you will deal with people who are friendly and people who are ferocious. You will learn how to be polite and deal with ferocious customers, clients, etc. Having customer service skills is going to be a huge benefit in any job overall because human interaction is guaranteed regardless of any job you obtain in the future.
The third skill you'll develop from a part-time job is teamwork. The ability to work in a team is very important. Sometimes, not just one individual can do everything. Think about it, let's talk about Starbucks. At Starbucks, you probably have never seen just one barista behind the bar. There are always multiple baristas behind the bar. One barista is in charge of taking orders and receiving payments, another barista is responsible for taking drive-thru orders, and other baristas are making multiple drinks together and warming up food. Imagine if just one individual had to do this every morning rush! That would be impossible- teamwork does make the dream work. This also applies to retail environments, office environments, etc.
The fourth skill you'll develop is stronger endurance. Sometimes there will be good days, and sometimes there will be bad days. There is honestly no escaping this. Sometimes mistakes will happen or things may just be going at a rough pace. However, being able to work through difficult times will help you grow your work performance overall, and make you a stronger individual in the workplace. This is critical to have in any job because regardless of what career you obtain in the future, not everything is going to be perfect and it’s better to realize this earlier rather than later on. It’s also better to get used to performing under pressure while you're young in your academic/professional years because you will overcome it and know how to power through pressured environments in the future.
The last skill you'll develop is growing your resume and network. Having a part-time job while you’re in high school or college will look impressive and be outstanding on your resume. The ability to show potential employers in the future that you worked while managing a full course load will definitely showcase yourself as a consistent and dedicated individual. These are traits that employers love to have in potential employees! Also, while in your part-time job, you will meet many other people and even have the opportunity to get close to your management. Having a good relationship with management is a great asset to have because they can provide you with letters of recommendations in the future and even present you with opportunities to grow if you are willing to in the company/workplace.