Entering to the workforce for your first time marks just the beginning into the world of adulthood. Despite the fact that it is an exciting thing to be able to make your own money and learn to be more self-dependent, it is challenging at first to balance between work and school and still have a social life. For many, this may not be the case and balancing a job, school and life smooth process. But, this is an experience that's different for everyone, making it easier for some rather than others. Being that my first part-time job is a work study position, my experience may not be relatable compared to those who work outside of school. However, it is worthy to note that the transition process was not easy as I had hoped. Read on to learn more about my experiences as my first part-time job, a work study position working in my campus’s student lounge.
Prior to this, I had only worked as a seasonal employee at Edible Arrangements during the Christmas holiday season. That being said, this was a completely different work environment than what I had previously worked in. Starting work at the lounge was challenging at times because I had to get used to doing the hourly tasks and answering questions individuals had that I was not familiar with. However, this has improved overtime as I worked more often. At the student lounge, my ultimate role is to manage the lounge and ensure that whoever walks whether being students, faculty or guest visiting the campus, overall feel welcome. During the week, myself or other staff members host events to students that our student programming office holds or by other offices/clubs. The majority of my role is to monitor the lounge to ensure that it is clean and that students are respecting everything in it. When working, I am allowed to work on homework and study as long as I am working on school work. This is definitely helpful because as a college freshman, in the beginning as I was learning to adjust to the heavy work load this took an ease off the stress. The student programming office, which runs the student lounge, is understanding with ensuring that the students working put school first and they do not fall behind. All who work at the lounge are split up among the four managers and every month they follow up with us on what we need to improve on, how they can help us and any concerns we may have. Although this is a work study position, I enjoy that the office ensures that everything is going well for the student workers. Along with this, every month the entire student lounge staff meets to discuss any future events that will be happening at the lounge. Topics such as improvements that need to be made, or any suggestions some may have are discussed among the staff to incorporate everyone’s say in what is going on. Personally, my experience with working a part-time job is very different compared to that of someone who works outside of school. However, with this job, I have further developed the skills that will be needed for any job position.