Summer vacations are often a time of much needed enjoyment and relaxation for college students. However, while leisure is important, there are many benefits to starting an internship or job for a college student during their free time.
Here are 10 reasons why everyone should start working in their college years:
Practical Skills And Knowledge
By working in a real-life work setup, college students can expand upon their theoretical knowledge by seeing its practical functioning in the work environment, and learn new skills that would be really helpful for them throughout their careers. Working in a job can greatly enhance classroom learning, as one can correlate the content taught in class with their experiences at work.
Work Experience
By starting to work from your college years, you can gain valuable work experience that would not only enhance your CV, but also help you acquire new knowledge and skills in the working environment. Over the years, the India job markets will only get more competitive due to digitization, automation and increasing number of educated graduates, which will increase the importance of having work experience to help you stand out from other candidates.
Deciding Your Career Path
Often it happens that college students must decide very early on their college courses and career path, without having much practical work experience or knowledge in the field. However, starting work in your field of interest during your college years can help you better decide which career path to choose, and avoid the higher cost of changing careers later on.
Extra Pocket Money
In college life it is not uncommon to run out of money early in the semester, and the wait for a parent’s allowance can sometimes become long. By earning money in college years, one can save up more money for college expenses and not just be limited to the pocket money given by parents.
Making New Connections
While college friends become our closest friends for lifetime, making friends at the workplace can help expand your network which will benefit you in the long run. In many industries “who-knows-who” can have a great impact in getting a job opening, and hence its necessary to start networking as early as possible for college students.
Develop Soft Skills
By starting an internship in college, students can also develop important soft skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership and empathy, which will help them throughout life. By working in a good corporate culture, college students can understand professionalism better and behave more appropriately in a work setting.
Develop & Maintain A Routine
During the summer break, it is common for students to develop strange sleep schedules, lose motivation and live in an extremely unorganized manner out of boredom. Even by working part-time, college students can retain some semblance of routine in their life, and not lose their ability to be organized, disciplined and work consistently.
Appreciate The Value Of Money
College students who have never worked in their lives may find that work involves a lot of effort even for small amounts of money, which can help them develop a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the value of money. It is much easier to spend someone else’s money than one’s own hard-earned money, which can help college students develop better financial habits as a result of earning by themselves.
Get Feedback From Professionals
Although it is easy to get feedback on projects from college professors, friends and seniors, the feedback received by someone who regularly works in a professional setting can be invaluable to any college student. Professional feedback and mentoring can help in the overall development of a college student, and hence it’s highly important to start earning and working in one’s college years.
Gain Awareness Of Your Strengths And Weaknesses
Always thought of yourself as organized, but found yourself lagging behind in work? Starting work early can help you gain more awareness of your strengths and weaknesses and help you work on them from an early stage. Solving challenges and problems at the workplace can give you great insight about yourself as a person, which cannot be bought anywhere.
To conclude, these are the 10 reasons why college students should start earning in their college years. We hope we inspired you to take up work this summer! If you liked this article, please like, share and let us know in the comments below.
