There are plenty of ways to spend free time in college but some students believe the most productive is to work.

Morningside students are lucky to have the opportunity to work a variety of jobs on campus. These jobs can be anything from making phone calls to managing equipment for a department or even working at the campus coffee shop, the Spoonholder.

But off campus jobs can be a little harder to find since companies aren’t specifically looking for students to fill these positions. There are jobs available though. Places like McDonalds and Dairy Queen are almost always hiring while other companies such as Target or FedEx hire seasonal help during the holidays for those aren’t looking for a year long commitment.

Joining the workforce early can be beneficial for students. Joining the workforce gives a person the real life experience and skills a lot of potential employers look for. Some of these key skills are communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving, reliability, and teamwork.

Tom Schoenecker of Odds & Ends Handyman, LLC has had some issues hiring people recently. He gives people a chance to work with him but he has found that the last couple of people he hired have been unreliable and as a result he hasn’t kept them on his crew. He has also had issues with employees being able to solve problems on their own has made him reluctant to have them continue to work for him.

These skills can be attained from even the simplest of jobs. Take a Dairy Queen employee for example. They must interact with the customers then relay that information to the other employees. Then the employees work together to complete an order efficiently for the customer. If anything goes wrong they must react quickly and move past the problem.

These basic skills are exactly what the next employer for that Dairy Queen employee might be looking for. The longer that employee is there will also help them get hired for their next job.

One example is Bradley Davis, a junior at Morningside College, who recently quit his job at Pizza Ranch and has taken a job at FedEx Ground where he will start on October 23rd. Davis is looking forward to a new job that not only pays better but also provides tuition reimbursement for college students.

So while finding a job might seem like a waste of time while you’re working on your studies one must remember that even an ordinary job can be a learning experience.