The way you use your time determines who you are, what you’ll accomplish and ultimately how you spend the rest of your life because time is an irreplaceable asset. Although prioritising university education helps to strengthen academic focus, combining work and studies will even help you find equilibrium between your career life, financial support and academic excellence to live a cheerful work-life balance.

Working can help you explore career directions and will ultimately train you about commitment, time management, responsibility and handling money. Today with such tight competition for jobs, employers are looking for workers who understand the work environment and are accustomed to the professional world. Gaining such important introductory work-experience will boost your CV and draw you closer to your future potential employers.

Job experience shows future hiring managers that a person has the willingness to work and that you can balance a full load of integrated activities to accomplish twice as much with a great effort. This will groom you into a better adult and enrich you with wide range knowledge, skills and competencies that will put you at a competitive advantage on the future labour market.

You’re faced with various options of taking evening or weekend lessons at the University and use the rest of your downtime to pursue employment.  Track those accomplishments, and leverage them exceptionally. This can be very important in shaping your future professional life. Make sure the job that you get enables you to demonstrate your abilities so that when you finish school, you’ve established a strong academic ground as well as a positive reference for future job connections.

Talk about your schedule with your family. Balancing school and work is easier with the support of your family to make the transition much easier. No matter how simple your job may seem, rest assured there will be a confidence-boosting challenge to overcome, whether it’s learning a new skill, surviving a stressful work environment or learning to deal with a hard-driving boss or a nasty coworker.

Keep in mind that your job search is about more than earning some extra cash – it could give you the competitive edge you need to get more and better jobs in the future. And once you’ve worked for minimum wage, you’ll be ready to appreciate just how much a better job is worth after completing your studies. So just get organised and determine your own standards to set priorities and work smarter as a student-employee. You’ll reap big.