Over time I have heard pros and cons on this subject, but still, what is the right solution? To enjoy your college years to the fullest, or to start working and become a more responsible person?
Personally, I started working at the age of 19, almost 20 years old. Since the end of high school, I can’t wait to finish my first year of college and get a job in the field, of course. I simply had a great desire to work, to have the experience of a job, to see as soon as possible what it is like to work in the field I was curious about.
I always had a decent material situation I could say, had no shortcomings and my parents always took care to fulfill my wishes as much as possible. So, I was not pushed to work by the financial situation and even less by my parents. It was simply desire, curiosity and probably passion.
I got hired at 19, almost 20. Although it was quite difficult when I started college to juggle both responsibilities, I liked working, and I couldn’t see the meaning of college if I didn’t have a job. To be honest, without putting into practice what you learn as little as possible, without having some experience in the field of work, college subjects are quite useless and boring if you have nothing to correlate them with. For me, some subjects were interesting, I can say, because I associated them with work situations.
I enjoyed working and I am proud of myself for these years in which I had to divide between work, college, family, friends, homework, projects, sessions and bachelor’s thesis. 😀 There were pretty hard times, but I never wanted to give up one of them, even though my parents kept telling me that maybe it’s not a good idea to work, and maybe it would be better to focus on school. I didn’t feel like that, that’s why I wanted to continue, to have my purpose, to feel that I’m doing something especially for myself and my future and of course to start offering myself financial stability and security.
By doing this, working from a fairly young age, I came to be much more mature, to see life differently, people, situations, almost everything has changed for me and my visions, and I think for the better. Besides, I ended up having a pretty good work experience at the age of 23 and being able to choose quite easily where I want to work, while, unfortunately, some ex colleagues from college, maybe still looking for a job.
This is where the problem comes in. Companies/organizations are always looking for experienced people. Fresh students coming out of college are outraged because they have no way to have experience if they just finished school, but, unfortunately, employers compare what already exists on the market. For example, I am 22 years old and I have only been to college and I have not worked until now, instead you are still 22 years old, you have been to college and you worked until now for one year. Now I ask you, as an employer, who would you call for an interview for the first time? Who would you choose to hire?
I know quite a few people who wanted to focus only on college and to enjoy the student experience, go out, spend a lot of time with friends and things like that. There is absolutely nothing wrong to that! It’s great when people know what they want, and everyone has to do what they want. 🙂
On the other hand, there are people who start working at a younger age and this can cause difficulties later for those who did not work during college.
I’ve liked my journey so far, I’m sometimes proud of myself (I’m not always and not fully, as you just know, you could always do something better), but even I have moments when I sometimes wonder if not I was wrong to start working early. Sometimes I still doubt the decisions I made, which is true, this only happens when I am very tired and that may be the cause.
In the end, I personally think that there is no right and wrong choice. Everyone chooses their path and chooses how to work for the life they want. 😊
My advice: consider each option but also their advantages and disadvantages and see what is most important to you. 😊
I also leave you a nice video that is on this subject and from which maybe we can learn something 😊