Summer jobs for students are life-changing

After over 6 years of failed attempts to get into my over-protective parents’ brains and convince them I needed to take a summer jobs, I wont die of overwork and they wont pay me “for resting” at home as they joke (yeah..they were like ‘just please dont work’ !!); I somehow did the previous summer, and got a job in an attractions park in my hometown. The experience was beyond description ! But I’ll try to sum it up here, along with my other experiences, and make you live through it  because I am more than sure this will change your mind about summer work!

You’ll know you!

On top of the list, and before telling you how serious, responsible, confident and tired (yeah! ..) the job will make you; I would tell you how I came to ‘discover my self and my preferences’ and how is that related to my future career in IT (yeah, we’re getting serious now !): I already know I often go through alot of indecision when it comes to career choices, as I always.often.ever have a new idea poppoing into my head. And working as a game operator in an amusement park might not had helped me know byheart I should take mobile development and avoid financial IT and buisiness intelligence as a speacialization (as I am much of a doer than a planner), but it certainly had helped me find out whether I can work quickly and efficiently under pressure, wether I have really good re-engineering skills, or I am always dependent on only what I have been trained on.. All this synthetized, would make you know intutively, or by induction whether you’re meant to be a hardcore developer, a designer, a system architect, an IT consultant, a data analyst, or..an entrepreneur.  And there is no way you can ‘conclude’ this passing your summer in pools and coffeshops.

Personal finance, you said ?

The job was a  great way for me to test out some financial management skills like having a bank account or debit card, or learning to budget earnings toward important goals. By the end of the season I was able to see my financial goals increasingly take shape and it was a form of motivation for me to work more. I went thinking about a part time job (which is almost an impossibility for college students in our country), or some freelance work online. I was like “keep going, you’re almost rich! ” . You’ll find yourself learning how to keep a log of both your expenditure and your savings so you know you’re on track with your budget, how to create a ‘financial calender’ and that was one of my top discoveries after this experience, and how to say no when you must (actually summer jobs teach you say no when need to, with everything, not just budgeting! ).

The ‘everything-management’ thing

Work teaches you how to manage your time, your money, your effort, your relationships and even your neighbour’s complaining about you playing rock music all the time! Here is how: If you have loads of free time, you’ll never have to flex your time-management muscles. If you dont have loads of money for your own, you’ll never have to flex your budget-management muscles. If you have to work from 4pm to 2am 7 days a week, you’ll never have to skip your healthy diet otherwise you’ll burnout. If you dont know how to deal with a mean coworker, you’ll never know how to deal with the cool one. And if you have to live through all of these ‘something-management’ experiences, there’s no way you wont manage your neighbour, like a boss, and listen to metal music out.loud whenever you want!

Responsible, confident and hard worker..

A summer job is a good training ground for what the “real world” will be like: having to show up on time, fulfill expectations, follow orders, and serve others with courtesy and respect even when it’s hard. You’ll find yourself ‘transforming’ into a more responsible person. And even a more confident one, as in order to build true confidence, you have to put yourself into unfamiliar territory and learn how to survive and thrive there. And no matter how simple your summer job may seem, rest assured there will be a confidence-boosting challenges to overcome, whether it’s learning a new skill, surviving a stressful work environment or learning to deal with a hard-driving boss or a nasty coworker.
You’ll also re-think whether you know what hard work is or not! Even if you have easy job tasks, being there in itself is hard work. Having to be there for 8 or more hours during a hot summer day, or a fun summer night as was my case, where I could have been having real fun with friends or family, is real hard work no matter what the task in your hands is.

Learners out there.. You’ll love it !

As a college student, chances are, you spend a lot of time with people your own age. In a job, you are likely to be working with a range of very different people. This isn’t only good for your social skills development, but you’ll also have alot to learn from it, whether personally or technically on your job field. And speaking about the job field, if your summer work is in the same domain as your studies, you’re fortunate you’ll have chance to enhace your technical skills. If not, you’re far more fortunate. Only leanrers will get this ! Being one, I couldnt help seeing my job day as a discovery trip ! I learnt about running, checking and ‘maintaining’ those giant machines; about communicating with non-tunisian or tourist clients and knowing about their cultures and mindset; about kids! and there’s alot to learn about kids and how to manage them and about team work, pre-job briefings and team management as I’ve witnessed my manager’s efforts to control a relatively small team serving 1500 to 2000 person a day.

Wrapping up

As a conclusion I would advise you not to think twice if you had a chance for a summer work. The worst thing that can happen is you’ll miss out on some summer fun. The experience you’ll have, both good and bad, from a summer job will help you become better-rounded as an individual.