Vo Ngoc Dan Thanh - 20128970

English Logic and Essays

Professor James Nelson

April 5, 2013

Learning while Working: What You Can not Learn in School

78 percent of undergraduate students have a part – time job besides going to

school and one third of them claimed that their working purpose is not about the money,

but rather the experience. It cannot be denied that courses in schools are designed to

provide students with case studies and practical situations in order to make them as

close to the reality as possible. However, nothing can compare to hands – on

experience. It is not until I started my first part – time job that I realized how important it

is in changing my life. Even though being a salesclerk in a convenient store is not a

fancy job, the experience that I gained from it is invaluable. I have become more

confident, independent and learnt how to appreciate the value of working.

The very first thing that I got to learned is communication skills. Working in the

store gave me a lot of chances to meet different types of customers with different

backgrounds. From a quiet student in school, I saw myself gradually being better and

better in communicating with people and get them to understand me. After 2 months of

working, I started to feel confident when exchanging conversations with customers.

Moreover, I became more controlled in emotions. Even though there was certain days

of the weeks that I got out of school rushing to work with stressful mood, I still managed

to smile and did the best I could to help customers. That is one of the things that I could

never learned when I am in school.

Being employed, even just a part – time job, somehow helped me feel a little bit

of being financially independent. I found myself become more and more responsible for

my own life. I realized how hard my parents have worked to provide me with good

education and make ends meet at the same time. So I started to keep track on my

spendings every month. I refrained myself from making any unnecessary purchases in

order to save money for any contingencies that might happen later. I would never do

such a thing when I was merely a student going to school 5 days a week and the library

on the weekends. Now I feel independent, responsible and being prepared for whatever

lies ahead.

The last lesson that I learned from the job is to appreciate the value of working in

life. People all need a purpose to live. Life is not about getting the fame and fortune then

sit back and enjoy. People must work for something meaningful and contribute more or

less to the society that they are living in. I realized this when an old customer asked me

whether I felt happy with my work or not. I hesitated for a while and the word “yes”

came out. I do feel happy knowing that I am being a helpful piece of the community,

being able to live on my own striving for my goals.

Now sometimes when I hear my friends complained that they could not learn

anything from school, I would say it is partially true. Unlike them, I do not want to refuse

what school have taught me. In contrast, I think school does help us build a basic

foundation of knowledge in order to be prepared for our future. However, if a student

does not push him or herself to the outside world and learn how apply the knowledge,

he or she will never grow up and schooling life would be for nothing. I have grown out of

being a school girl student with positive changes in my self – cofidence, my spending

habits and also my view of life. Now whenever someone asks me what made me myself

today, I would say it is 40% of learning from school and 60% from my working

experience.