What I Learned From My 5 Part-Time Jobs In College
As an undergraduate science major, I was heavily cautioned by friends and family to avoid demanding jobs. Ironically, I worked a variety of positions throughout college. Although some were time-extensive, each position allowed me to form opinions about future career paths and proved to be learning opportunities for understanding myself and my aspirations.
My first job in college was as a Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leader for a notoriously challenging introductory chemistry class (CHEM 200) at SDSU. For those who may be unaware, SI is a free, peer-led additional resource for students in high-failure classes. For six semesters I attended lectures, planned lessons, and held two one-hour sessions a week.
The creative freedom I had in this job was incredibly liberating yet utterly overwhelming when I first started. I had to decide what content to cover from the lectures and how to do so in a fun and engaging way. Not to mention, I was by no means a chemistry pro — I had labored through the course the previous semester and eeked by with a B+. This struggle, however, was pivotal in allowing me to do my job effectively. I had created study strategies and worked with material extensively to understand complex topics . From my past experience in the class, I easily related to current students who were struggling to grasp concepts. I made up games, created mnemonics, broke down problems into steps, and most importantly I created an atmosphere where mistakes were viewed as learning experiences, not shameful misunderstandings.
The number one thing this job allowed me to practice was my leadership skills. I was essentially giving two-and-a-half hours’ worth of presentations a week to unfamiliar people while also delegating tasks, mitigating confusion, and fostering collaboration completely by myself. Over time, I grew to enjoy taking the lead rather than cowering from the intense limelight. I still possess this quality and owe all the thanks to Supplemental Instruction for shaping me into a confident and competent leader.
I found myself unemployed the first and second summers of college because SI was only conducted during spring and fall semesters at that time. At the start of both of those summers, I was also coming down from gnarly breakups and needed to fill my time productively. A new Nothing Bundt Cakes opened down the road from my house and was only a five-minute walk away. I applied and was hired within the week!
The duties of this job were in stark contrast with my chemistry SI job: No longer was I being paid for the information I possessed, but rather for how quickly I could assemble cakes and appease frustrated customers. Working a customer service job taught me to smile despite being frustrated, to work with a team, and to ask for help when a situation surpassed my pay grade. Additionally, I ascertained that I wanted a career related to science and problem solving, although it was nice to be surrounded by cake all the time. I was a customer service representative at Nothing Bundt Cakes for a collective six months over two summers.
For a brief period of time during my junior year of college, I thought I wanted to be a botanist and took a break from my SI job in order to focus on my new botany lab assistant position. For the sake of brevity, I had more time on my hands than I had anticipated. I got word of an opportunity to grade chemistry essays for CHEM 200, and I promptly applied. I was hired and tasked with grading 80 anonymous essays at four points throughout the semester. Although this job provided me with the utmost flexibility I had ever experienced in a paid position, I struggled to carve out time for work. On several occasions I was grading more than 20 essays a day in order to hit the deadline. Overall, this job taught me that I disliked working completely on my own and instead would thrive best in team-oriented positions.
In that same semester, I also worked at a local San Diego high school as a science tutor/classroom aid through the Math and Science Teacher Initiative (MSTI). I spent one day each week in a classroom helping out the students with their science homework. This job provided me with a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of high school teachers and how to most effectively engage teenagers with science content. At the time, I was leaning towards pursuing a career as a high school science teacher so this opportunity was vital in helping me make an informed decision about whether or not this was a good fit for me.
During the summer of 2019 I was hired as a marine science summer camp instructor for the Mission Bay Aquatic Center (MBAC), an SDSU affiliated water sports facility. I spent that summer waking up before the sun, facilitating science experiments, learning to sail, driving a boat, catching fish, and working with elementary school children every weekday for the entire summer. I had never been so completely wiped out at the end of each day in my entire life! In those four months, I learned how awesome it was to work outside as well as how challenging yet rewarding it was to work with kids. This also provided me with a glimpse of marine science work, and although I found it wildly interesting I knew that this was not my calling.
Last but not least, I am currently a mentor for this semester’s CHEM 200 SI leaders With the knowledge I gleaned from my previous four jobs and my experience as an SI leader, I felt that I was the right candidate for this job. Being a “leader of leaders” has been a rewarding, challenging, and amazing experience. I have learned to be a quick problem solver, a supportive role model, and a provider of constructive feedback. This is the first job I have had that has required me to be “on-call” in order to put out fires when needed, but managing a team of like-minded young professionals has been so gratifying and the perfect job to finish off my undergraduate working career. I have found through working this job that I quite like administrative-based tasks and would likely enjoy a future job that embodies some of these characteristics.
Each position brought about its own challenges and learning opportunities, and I do not regret working any of the jobs I have had in college. My biggest piece of advice is to cast a wide net when applying to positions as an undergraduate in order to best figure out the type of job you would enjoy most after graduating. If you also held a plethora of part-time jobs during your undergraduate career or a singular job that similarly taught you an important lesson, please feel free to share your experience in the comment section below!
