Being a teenager in school opens a wide variety of extracurricular activities. One of the more common activities among teens nowadays is picking up a job on the side while attending school. Whether working at a local supermarket or one of the major fast-food restaurants, there are many job opportunities for teens looking to get an early start in the workforce. But, what are some things you can lose or gain while working in school?
Working a job while in school comes with a wide variety of benefits. One key benefit is that working a job as a teen can help build a resume and lead to higher-paying jobs in the future. It also allows teens to gain valuable skills and confidence in their abilities.
Another benefit of an after-school job is that it can also help teens better understand money management and gain financial literacy. They can learn and expand on important life skills like budgeting, opening bank accounts, and saving for future goals.
Holding an after-school job can also help teens develop better communication skills. These include dealing with conflicts and problem-solving, compromising, learning to work with others, and making brand-new connections like friendships or networking.
However, even with all of the benefits, there are still a few downsides to working a job while in school. One of the major downsides is that it can hinder and have a negative impact on academic performance. According to Walden University, researchers learned that “students who work more than 20 hours in a school week can suffer from reduced academic performance, leading to a negative impact on their grades.”
Working a job while in school can also put additional stress on students. High school is already a very stressful environment with students trying to focus on maintaining good grades, passing exams, and other things down the line like filling out college applications. Adding the responsibilities of a job on top of that could make this environment even more stressful, especially without the proper scheduling and time management.
However, even with the noted downsides and benefits, it mainly comes down to the student’s mindsets and opinions. Some students may be able to find and work a job that can fit their schedule and does not make it to where they feel any added stress or exhaustion from working.
For example, when asking Ralf Cercado, a student at Woodhaven High School and currently working as a cashier at Ace Hardware, he says, “My schedule is tailored to the point where I don’t have that many assignments and I can balance my work and school pretty well. My job is very easy to the point where I don’t have to stress about performance and I can focus on school at the same time.”
Like Ralf, some students might be able to endure and overcome the challenges they face while working. Ultimately, they would make a sacrifice for a trade-off that they would find more beneficial to themselves.
Darius Barker, another student at Woodhaven High School who is currently working at McDonald’s, says, “Working late can make me tired for school, but I don’t mind as long as the money is good and I can keep my grades up.”
Others may not be able to handle the additional workload at all, leading them not to want to work in the first place or making them quit a job they were working at. It could also lead to them ultimately prioritizing one or the other, causing them to underperform in the field they chose not to focus on.
Derrik St James, another student at Woodhaven High School who is currently not working, said, “I don’t think it would fit my schedule. I feel I would be trying to prioritize work, causing my grades to slump. And if I tried to prioritize school, I would just end up slacking off while on the job.”
So, if you are questioning getting a job, just give it a chance. Make sure you do some prior research about the job and that it can fit properly into your schedule. That way, you do not have to worry about any additional stress and can also balance working with your school work so your grades.
You may enjoy working and meeting new people. Or, you may not enjoy it all and be dissatisfied, causing you to want to focus on school and worry about work after high school, which is still okay.
