When I completed secondary school, I was at a loss as to what I wanted my next step to be. I was not sure of the career path that I wanted to pursue so I started looking for a job. After the August vacation passed without luck, I decided to attend a tertiary institute to eventually obtain a degree. As time went on, the school did not offer full time classes for certain levels so I was attending school on certain days or sometimes evenings and weekends only. This left me with much free time daily which I primarily used for revision and studying but I soon became exhausted of this and I also knew that I was exhausting my parents’ pockets. Although tertiary education is “free” in Trinidad, it only pertains to tuition, thus the fees that have to be paid and numerous books that have to be purchased can sum up to a very hefty amount.
I decided to investigate the choices of part time employment available that would coincide with my school schedule. I quickly learned that this was easier said than done as most businesses required you to be a certain age and others did not have flexible time frames. My choices were very limited as I was either “too qualified” for certain jobs and not qualified at all for others. I scanned the Classifieds sections of newspapers and even search online to no avail. I eventually gave up as the stress of not finding anything began affecting my studies.
As time progressed however, the burden of the costs of school started to affect my social life as my allowance had to go towards purchasing school books that became more expensive at each level. I know what you’re thinking, “I should not be concerned with having a social life”, education should be a priority, but for me, having gone to school for more than three quarters of my twenty two year life with no REAL sense of vacation (as these were consumed by extra lessons that I didn’t think I needed but helped nonetheless) started to make me resent school.
I started working in a family friend’s business as a cashier on weekends. I was happy at first because I was finally making my own money and it was not affecting my study schedule but I became bored. I worked there for about five months til the semester finished. During that time however I had been searching for a normal 9-5 job which I eventually got. I worked for a year as a CSR until I decided to return my focus to my studies and pursue my Bachelor's Degree.
After time it seemed like the cycle was once again repeating itself. I had used the money I saved from my job to pay my registration and course fees as well as most of my books. However, because I live in south Trinidad, and school was in the north, travelling expenses from home to school were taking most of the little money I had remaining. I know, I know it seems like all I'm thinking about is money but lets be real here, if I don't go to class I'll have to refund GATE all the money they spent to pay my tuition so either way money at that time was more than a necessity to me! My parents didn't mind giving me money and even if they did, they never voiced it to me, but although I'm a bit spoilt, I felt bad having to run to them every week for "allowance".
I decided to look to Facebook on the advice of a friend who did modelling and promotions. Her advice proved to be useful as I eventually started working as a promoter/ merchandiser to introduce consumers to a new product. I went to the initial meeting and it sounding feasible so I decided it was the best I could get at that time. Basically, I had to go to different stores where the product was sold and speak to customers, informing them of the benefits of the product and also encourage them to make a purchase. It was an enjoyable experience as I viewed it as a way to develop my interpersonal skills as well as dealing with people in awkward situations (the product was for personal hygiene). Some people welcomed the information, others were either rude and downright disrespectful, as I had a not too pleasant encounter with a woman who I guess assumed that I was insulting her by talking to her about the product. That was not my main problem though, what irked me most was the poor communication and last minute changes to agreements which not only had me all over the country like a headless chicken but I ended up sick for a week due to the stress.
Anyways what I'm getting at is that is that although the choices of part time jobs are slim, if you are successful in getting a part time job that suits your schedule etc, there's no telling what you'll have to endure until you are actually doing it. You should take precautions to ensure that you are not being taken advantage and always ensure that you get something in writing with regard to payment and your work schedule. Some businesses may have impeccable reputations in their respective industries but on the operational level, portray poor business ethics.
