Part-time employment can help students to better understand their preferences or to “test out” a possible career direction. For example, many university students work as part-time tutors. Subsequently, some of them may realize that they have an avid interest in teaching, and decide to pursue work in the education field upon graduation.
Having working experience while young adds to the process of growing up, and helps a young teen to mature in his outlook and behavior. By necessity, he or she will learn to interact with other adults besides his own parents and teachers.
The most obvious way that having a part-time job can adversely affect students’ studies is by becoming a drain on their time. Some jobs initially described as “part-time” may turn out to consume far more time than initially anticipated.
Another way that part-time employment can be detrimental to students is by reducing the perceived incentive to study. Students who invest signnificant time and effort in their part-time jobs may find that their ambition to excel in the workplace and earn money has supplanted the academic goals they once had.