Balancing Part-Time Work and Academics

Hi everyone! My name is Brian and I am currently a senior in Dietrich College studying statistics and machine learning with a computer science minor. Throughout my time at Carnegie Mellon, I have picked up a couple of part time jobs, such as being a Tartan Ambassador, where I give campus tours and speak at student panels, and working as a part-time remote software engineer at a local company. Balancing part-time work with school can sometimes be tough, especially in times like midterm/finals season. But, I think it is important to treat part-time jobs as another class, to make sure that you do not put too much on your plate. I like to treat the blocks of work that I have to work in a day as another lecture period. Prioritizing your health and well-being is the most important thing!

Luckily, both of these part time jobs are pretty flexible, so I can select the majority of the hours that I work throughout the week, and both let me lighten the load over weeks where I have a lot of coursework and increase the load when I do not. For the Tartan Ambassador job, I explicitly block out the hours I am free biweekly, and in emergencies I can ask another ambassador to cover my shift. Even when staying organized, school can be unpredictable, some weeks I might have an assignment that takes longer than normal, extra club commitments, etc. This is why this flexibility is an important aspect of a part- time job as a student, and this is definitely something to consider when looking at part-time jobs. For example, I know that every Tuesday I have three 80 minute lectures, and the CMU tricking club goes to a local gymnastics center for practice, so I try to lighten my load for both of my part-time jobs on Tuesdays. However, on Wednesdays and Fridays I have no classes, so I try to take on more shifts then.

Above all, it is important to stay organized! I like to put all the shifts that I am working into my school calendar, so I can see which parts of the day I have reserved for school work and fun activities. I don’t know what I would do without my Google Calendar. Also, communication is key. I make it a habit to share my calendar with my manager, so my manager is always in the know when I may have a week where I cannot work as much.

I believe that working a part-time job is a great opportunity as a student, not only for making extra money, but also for learning to find balance. Ultimately, balancing part‑time jobs with a demanding academic load has taught me more than just time management — it’s taught me self‑advocacy. Learning to set boundaries around my calendar, to ask for help when I need it and to carve out moments for rest means I can deliver my best work everywhere: in the classroom, on the tricking mat and behind the tour microphone. This holistic approach — treating every commitment, including self‑care, as its own “course” — is what keeps me thriving at CMU and beyond.