Quality Students

Getting a part time job while still in college can help plan for the future. Often college students are required to get a part time job as part of a work-study financial aid package. The student will work on or off campus and begin paying off student loans. This can be difficult to add to the normal college workload, but it looks great on a resume.

Employers like candidates who have worked in the past—especially those who have managed to both work and study at the same time. Even if you aren’t required to work your way through college, it is not a bad idea to get an outside part time job on or off campus. You should think about building up your resume very early on.

The problem with hiring students right out of college is that they may have limited work experience. Certainly, working towards completing a major takes an intensive amount of work, but this is not the same as true work experience. If an employer is looking at a resume of someone with hands-on work experience and one without, the first candidate has a much better chance.

While getting a part time job in a restaurant isn’t quite as impressive as an office job, it still exhibits a degree or diligence and resourcefulness. Ideally, you will find a job that has a direct correlation with your major. Some college programs will even have internships for academic credit.

Remember also that it’s not all about getting hired after you get out of college—though of course that’s a major consideration. It’s also about learning what it is you want to do. At an office job you’ll learn the ins and outs of a particular industry. You’ll get a sense of what a job entails day in, day out. While we all want to have something great to put on our resumes, part time work is also an important educational experience.

The idea is not just to get a job, but do it well. A part time job is like a second education. Once you have real office experience, you can then bring this knowledge into your job interviews at offices or job fairs. It looks very impressive if you can reference some real life experience, rather than books you read in Business 101.

While it’s still possible to get a job without part-time work experience, it is highly recommended. Keep in mind that you may have to apply for these jobs through the college, rather than through the traditional route of online job listings or classified ads. If you apply for a job and say that you can only work so many hours a week, due to classes, you might not get the job. When applying for part time work in college, you must find a job with a flexible schedule—one that can fit your normal college work schedule.