How To Know If You’re Ready To Start Working

Chances are, if you’re reading this article you are already considering starting work and want to know if you will be able to balance everything else on your plate.

I'm going to let you in on a secret that nobody told me: Whether this is your first job or you’re simply seeking inspiration to change jobs, you are both as unprepared and prepared as you will ever be.

“How can I be both prepared and unprepared?” you ask. Well, though you have probably never had a job before, balancing it with your other obligations should be a cinch if you have already learned to balance, say, study and social life.

Sure, you will need to make changes to your current time management, but that's no different to adding anything else now or in the future (like, for example, a partner or children).

Managing a lifestyle is all about prioritising what you want. You can overcome the challenges students face all the time by planning to be both effective and efficient. I have spent the majority of my university life juggling a full-time job as a manager, a long-term girlfriend, more than full-time university and a social life. I was able to do this by following a very simple set of rules and guidelines which enabled me to fit so many commitments into a short space of time.

Everyone has the same amount of time to spare: 168 hours per week. Assuming you have eight hours sleep per night, this leaves 112 hours in the week to do other things with. Here is the secret of how to sort out the other 112 hours so you can fit everything in.

1. Make a list of what you absolutely have to do on a daily or weekly basis. (Hint: You do not absolutely have to check Facebook every hour. Spending just five minutes every waking hour equates to 80 minutes lost on social media a day.)

2. Allocate certain periods of time to required tasks, such as study periods, or potential work shifts, and make sure you stick to them.

3. If there is a more efficient way to do something, make sure you do it. Travelling to university took me a little under an hour by car or a full hour by bus. Now, a lot of people see that and think driving is faster, but if all I can do is drive then it’s a wasted hour. If I catch the bus, I can do a full hour of study, thus increasing the amount of time I have for other tasks later on.

4. Reward yourself when you compete a task or assignment. This will encourage you to work as quickly as possible to fit other things you like more in.

Once you organise your time, fitting a job into the mix will be easy. It will enable you to become more independent and improve your student experience. I have several lifelong friends that I have met through the workforce. You would be surprised what you can find without looking.

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