#working while studying

I know the deal. Student loans and tight budget can make a part-time job necessary to ease the financial burden. Or maybe you’re on a gap year and want money to travel. The problem is, the kind of work available to students is generally quite dull, not well paid, and painful hours. It can be hard on you mentally when you’re used to studying all the time and you’re doing a job wiping up other peoples’ crap without feeling like you’re achieving anything. To be honest, my favourite student job is definitely being a tutor, but tutoring can be a sketchy and unreliable source of income until you have a steady set of students, which means it’s not feasible straight away, but it’s something to consider getting into if you’re really struggling.

Tip 1) Give yourself little goals to work for - ie. if you’re a barista, work on perfecting that latte art, google youtube videos how to do it, give yourself lil things to get excited about. Or just simpler things, “today I want to improve x customers day” by giving them an extra biscuit with their coffee, or offering to carry their tray if they have a pram or aren’t mobile. Your manager may even notice and think “damn that girl/guy is flourishing their customer service”.

Tip 2) Think of the reasons you’re doing it - is it so you can pay your rent? work out if you take that overtime you’re offered, how much percentage of your rent it’ll be. If it’s so you don’t have to fret about money so much, think about how many coffees you can buy if you bear with work for another hour. If it’s so you can go travelling, work out what percentage of your plane ticket the next 3 hours will grant you.

Tip 3) If it gets too much, consider dropping your hours. This isn’t always possible but your boss won’t fire you just because you want less hours. Nothing is more important than your health and wellbeing so think of where you can cut things out. Be that, the extra credits your taking for uni, or the cover shifts for your hungover colleague, be kind to yourself.

Hi! I didn’t work in my first year. Throughout my second and third year, I did a lot of tutoring -music theory, piano and NCEA biology. I also volunteered at StarJam every month or so. Tutoring is really great because you can be relatively more flexible with the hours you work, compared to other part-time jobs. 

In my fourth (honours) year, I was a graduate teaching assistant (university tutor) for a first year POPLHLTH paper. This was a fantastic job because I loved teaching and it paid really well. I also got to know the faculty staff a lot better, and they got to know me- essentially a really good networking opportunity. (Unfortunately, these positions aren’t usually open to undergraduate students).

I did at one point and it didn’t work out because of the actual job I was in, so I quit the job and studied full time. Now I’m working and going to school full time and my best advice is that you should stay ahead of your readings as much as possible and PLAN, PLAN, PLAN your time. Time management is absolutely essential in this scenario, you should plan out your entire week and allocate study time, time with friends/family, time for work, and take commute time into consideration (e.g sometimes I do readings on the bus/subway), you have to maximize every minute so you don’t fall behind. You always have to plan ahead of schedule when you’re working and managing school at the same time, (this is very crucial for me because of the type of work I’m in, where planning is everything and last minute plans can really throw you off).

I’ll give you an example, two of my profs have already updated my courses on Moodle, so I’m already looking through the course outline and reading up on what they’ve uploaded, so I can plan my course of action prior to the course starting, and maybe do some readings before classes start so I’m already ahead of the game. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed when you’re working and studying, it takes a little getting used to, and by trial and error you will figure out what works best for you. It also helps if you’re in courses that you enjoy, makes things a lot less stressful.

This depression should have something to do with my hormones. I don’t know if I’m in denial and just trying to find something to consider the cause of the depression because-being-depressed-for-no-reason-makes-absolutely-no-sense-to-me or if the two really are related.

Anyway yea I have a theory. And I’ll run it past the doc to see if this has nothing to do with my hormones and menstrual cycle cos then that is what we should be addressing. I have been googling and it appears the meds for such a disorder and depression are the same. 😏🙃

That aside. I slept for most of today. Again. I have a theory. Something about that acupuncture yesterday unlocked my sleeping something. I hadn’t slept like that in a while. I went to the gym to try and get my energy levels up. Running saves lives. It saves my life ❤️

I’m trying to get back to the swing of things. I’ve read of people saying depression stole their motivation. I get it. So I’ve been writing to myself to remind myself of all the things I hold dear. My hopes and dreams I can’t afford to not be motivated to work towards. This will pass and if I have not worked hard for the things I want regret will kill me. I do not want that.

So help me God. I have two big goals for the year. One academic the other career wise. The career one depends on the academic one. So really Sane, get your shit together. You cannot drop the ball.

Oh work is great hey. That’s a huuuuuuge bonus for me. I’m in love with my employer. Not an actual person, silly. Just the company. Yea I’m even considering taking this company home to meet my parents. THAT serious. That’s a ray of sunshine for me.