How many hours of work should I be able to manage?

[archcommus]

Here's the thing, though: NO SATURDAYS. Saturdays I drive home to work another job. So, between Sunday and Friday, with 17 credit hours of C++, engineering physics, diff. eq., a history course, and an intro engineering course, how many hours of work do you think is reasonable to squeeze in? I thought I'd be able to last my whole freshman year without getting a job, but...no.

 

[iamme]

depends what kind of job it is. if you can get a job where you can get some school work done (like at the library), you might be able to work more hours.

 

[kranky]

Can you get a night security guard job somewhere? A lot of times you can do your schoolwork while sitting at a desk. You have to figure out when/how to sleep sometime, though.

 

[mwtgg]

25/wk

 

[archcommus]

25 sounds kind of high given it's only for the weekdays and Sunday, but perhaps. All security on campus is done by the staff, and there's no where to do that off campus for sure.

I suppose an on-campus job would make more sense but, bah, I want to use this opportunity to acutally do something in the real world.

 

[Evadman]

Depends. I did 30-40 while I was going to ISU and taking 25 credit hours. Granted it was freshman year and the classes were a breeze.

It all depends on you. Start low, increase it if you want.

<edit>
oh, and that was all 7 days except friday @ sat nights. I didn' have another job to drive to on sat like you.

 

[Adica]

It really depends on you. How much can you handle? How much ambition do you have? How much money do you need to make? How many hours can you work without interfering with your studies? Seems you can answer this better than any of us.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Originally posted by: archcommus
25 sounds kind of high given it's only for the weekdays and Sunday, but perhaps.

Kinda high? That's only 4 hour shifts for those 6 days. 4 hours is nothing man. You should be able to manage that, even with 17 units.

Personally, I would shoot for anything between 20-25 hours, unless you're hard up for cash.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

I'd try and stay around 20.

I commute to ASU main campus, a 27.5 mile, 30-50 minute drive (depending on how clogged the freeway is) and I take 15 credit hours. I was working 30-35, for a month or two, but finally got a manager that knew what they were doing and hired more people to drop me back down to what I wanted. 30 is really pushing it. If you work 2 or 3 8 hour shifts, a week, it's pretty decent with that kind of load.

A lot of it really depends on your teachers, and your ability to balance your schedule well enough to make sure that everything is still getting done.

 

[archcommus]

I probably need at least $125/week or so before taxes. Pay is crappy in this area, I might get $6.50 or so an hour, so I guess 20 hours should be sufficient. Maybe I can work Saturday mornings before driving home that day. So, maybe 6 hours Friday, 4 hours Saturday, another 6 Sunday, then I'd only need one four hour shift during the week. Sounds doable if my manager could set up those kinds of hours for me.

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: archcommus
25 sounds kind of high given it's only for the weekdays and Sunday, but perhaps. All security on campus is done by the staff, and there's no where to do that off campus for sure.

I suppose an on-campus job would make more sense but, bah, I want to use this opportunity to acutally do something in the real world.

Look for some upscale retirement homes, they hire security guards; and trust me, the work is extremely minimal.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: archcommus
25 sounds kind of high given it's only for the weekdays and Sunday, but perhaps. All security on campus is done by the staff, and there's no where to do that off campus for sure.

I suppose an on-campus job would make more sense but, bah, I want to use this opportunity to acutally do something in the real world.

Look for some upscale retirement homes, they hire security guards; and trust me, the work is extremely minimal.

Heh, I don't think there's much in the way of "upscale" in this area.

I guess, in reality, a campus job would make much more sense, because a) it'd save me about 40 miles a week, b) it would save me time not having to commute, and c) if something ever happened to my car, I'd still be able to work. But it feels like it'd feel really good to get off campus and do something in a normal work/customer environment. So I don't know what's best.