10 Ways Summer Jobs Can Change Your Life
Richard A. Moran
Venture partner, author, speaker, advisor, radio personality. Lending perspective, prescriptions and personality to the workplace.
Everyone has some kind of a summer job ranging from working in a restaurant to being an intern at Apple. Summer jobs don’t just fill the time between semesters; they can have an impact on one’s life and career in ways you don’t know at the time. Never underestimate what those days as a cashier, waitress or lifeguard can have on your future. What you learn and who you are with stick with you and influence your decisions for years. Here are some lessons, from simple to complicated; one can glean from that summer job…
1. Show up and don’t be late – yep, simple lessons but important. Punching a time clock and having a tough boss are good teachers.
2. Do what it takes – “Not my job” is not usually part of the summer job lexicon. “Special projects” are now on your resume.
3. Make friends/ build relationships – summer friends can be ones that last a lifetime and those types of friendships may never happen again.
4. Stay in shape – whether the activity is reading, exercising or thinking, a summer job can show you that it’s easy to get out of shape.
5. Be observant – looking around at what other’s do, who is happy in their work and who is not and who makes a difference is easy to spot, even in a summer job.
6. Think of closure and what’s next – summer jobs end and the closure is a good feeling but you have to plan about to do in September. Planning is a key skill to develop.
7. Builds character- doing things that you may not want to do can make you more disciplined and appreciative.
8. Make life long career decisions – summer jobs are the best way to decide what you don’t want to do for a career.
9. Save money – budgeting during the summer so that you have some money for the rest of the year is a skill you won’t forget.
10. Be on your own – some jobs require you to be out from under the safety net of college or the parents.
11. Discover yourself - you will learn who you want to be-it can be that time when you see others and say, “I want to be that person.”
Even though temporary, that summer job may be the best job you will ever have.
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Richard is the author of the new book The Thing About Work: Showing Up and Other Important Matters [A Worker’s Manual]. You can follow his writing on Twitter, Facebook, or at his website at richardmoran.com.
Richard is a noted San Francisco based business leader, workplace pundit, bestselling author and venture capitalist.
Lecturer at Al Qassim University, Saudi arabia
5 年I think these lessons should apply to almost every job out there. Great lessons thank you!
Music theory teacher at Roots IVY Riverview
5 年If any one has a job which can pay up to 30,000 PKR I'll so it in the summers
S.document controller at PSC
5 年I see that there is no difference between summer and winter, as the hard work continues and gives no opportunity to think about any other hobbies. At the end of the day, I feel that all the cells of the body are very exhausted from sitting in front of the computer screen. I do not like this work, but I can not change the profession at this time. I am responsible for his family and many needs
deputy director at PT. Duta Sarana Perkasa (DUSASPUN)
5 年when i was young i won't think of what type or sort of summer job it is, any kind of work will do. important is getting bit money to buy some needs or additionallies. but the things you'll learn is how to adapt yourself with the job, then learn some practical habits they have at the environment, and learn how to communicate, coordinate and socialize with other co-workers. at last it is a kind of job that can't give you any stress or fear of beint fired, the end of the job is always a nice end...
Hybrid Cloud Enterprise/Client Architect at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
5 年Summer jobs enabled me to hang out with people that I had nothing in common with.? You get to realize that even in your city, people can be very different;? and that's kinda cool!