Are summer jobs worth the trouble?

Summer jobs are becoming more and more popular. The question is, are they good for students and do they really help you, as a student, prepare for the upcoming school year? Mr. Barone thinks the benefits of a summer job were dependent on the individual.

“Summer work is a good thing financially and is a good preview of the adult world. It is good for colleges to see that the student has some experience in that environment and it is good for the student to experiment in interests.”

Overall, students have fun at their jobs. Otherwise they wouldn’t keep them. But is it really a good thing to do over the summer?
Some students believe that summer jobs do nothing to help prepare them for school others think that summer work prepares them for different things.

Sophomore Kiyomi Doty, who had worked at a daycare center, said, “My work didn’t prepare me academic-wise, but I feel it prepared me to make better decisions, to be more responsible, and to watch my actions.”

Senior Natalie Aguilar worked as a lifeguard at a hospital and as an all around helper. She said that one of the most exciting moments over the summer was when a little kid came into the emergency room with lots of stuff packed into his nose, “Like it was a marble or something.”

Other students found different elements of excitement in their jobs. Senior Frances Ho, who worked and still works as a retail agent at 5 Little Monkeys had fun just helping people, “It’s so interesting talking to all these different people and helping them find gifts and toys that they wanted. There were lots of tourists: people from New York, Israel, France, England, and Japan just to name a few.”
Most people don’t seem to keep summer jobs throughout the rest of the year unless they started the summer with them. However, Mr. Barone feels that even if people don’t keep the jobs it’s always a good start and that, “summer jobs teach a degree of responsibility where you get paid for being responsible, which is a nice incentive.”

But that puts forth another question all on it’s own. Is it good for students to spend their time over the summer working instead of just relaxing? Mr. Barone had this to say, “There is no single answer, and each student has different personalities, interests, and needs. If economically a student can travel, then it is an amazing experience.”

But that doesn’t really answer my question. Other students had thought that relaxing was the way to go but when put to thought they decided that getting a job had given them something to do over the summer. Even if they used it as an outlet for complaints, they still enjoyed it.

2 Responses

1. 1:11 PM on October 8th, 2007retail store associate:

   haha ya, after getting your paycheck (even tho it might be minimum wage), the best part of work is complaining about it

2. 2:37 PM on October 15th, 2007your boss:

   What about your experience?

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