Time to get a job?
With a new year, for many, comes New Year’s resolutions. Whether you’re looking to live a more healthy lifestyle, do better in school or manage your time more effectively, the key to New Year’s resolutions is to consider them more as personal goals than just as your mandatory annual look into the things you’d like to change about yourself. Take action and create a long-term plan to achieve your goals.
For students, keeping your budget on track can often be a struggle when you rely on your parents, OSAP, or other student loans as a primary income. A part-time job with just a few hours a week can truly be the difference between racking up credit card bills during school or paying them off – and believe me, you should be paying them off.
If you haven’t created a budget yet, now is the time to do it. Figure out how much extra money you could use each month; consider even talking to a financial advisor and then job search accordingly. Of course make sure that your job won’t be cutting in to your studies too much, as your grades are of the utmost importance.
When job searching, keep in mind that you want to get job experience as closely related to your desired career as possible. For many students, this is not possible without the degree they are working towards, so consider jobs that will provide you with the skills necessary for your dream career. When it comes to making money in university, it’s 50 per cent about what the job can do for you now and 50 per cent about what it will do for you when you’re done. If you have to take a lower wage for a job that may pay off in the long run, it might be worth considering.
Ultimately, you’re the only one who knows about your financial situation, so you’re the only one who can decide whether a part-time job while you’re in school is the right move for you as you continue to be perpetually poor.