When I was 15 years old, I got my first summer job as a golf caddie. It meant early mornings and taxing work, but I knew that if I stuck with it, I would be rewarded for a job well done. Today, I credit this job with helping me develop a strong work ethic.
A summer job like mine should be a right of passage for kids, but at Northeastern — where co-ops are an integral part of our education — I’ve noticed that we’ve lost the charm of old school summer jobs. While internships can be highly beneficial, especially for those who know what field they want to pursue, working a service job at a young age is one of the best ways to learn valuable life skills.
As a caddie, I had to interact with plenty of challenging clients, and learning how to talk to angry, drunk golfers is now a life skill that I can translate to the many situations in which I am surrounded by unpleasant people.
I remember the first time I got screamed at by a golfer: It was my first year working, and we were only a couple of holes into the round. I don’t remember exactly why he got angry. He may have shanked a shot and was looking for someone to blame, but he screamed at me for what felt like hours. I was standing there, a pudgy freshman who had no idea why this 50-something-year-old-man was yelling at me.
The hardest part? I had to continue helping this guy for another three hours. In life, you are going to dislike a lot of people, but you will have to find ways to deal with them. Better to be prepared for these situations than to be taken by surprise.
You simply won’t gain the same type of people skills sitting in front of a screen at an investing internship, where you interact with few people or teams each day rather than a constantly changing variety of strangers.
In a traditional service job, you also encounter a more diverse group of people than you would in a summer internship at somewhere white-collar, where everyone likely earned a degree in a similar field. At the caddie shack, I had the privilege of encountering many different people: Many of my coworkers were from the Caribbean or South America and most came from far different financial situations than I did. You meet a colorful cast of characters in the caddie shack.
Traditional summer jobs also enable kids to start earning money from younger ages than internships. Once you become a teenager and start high school, having a part time job is an important step in learning how to be more self-reliant. After I got a job, I found that I wanted to be far more independent. I was proud that I was earning money, and I wanted to buy things for myself rather than relying on my parents. The sooner young kids start to think about financial independence, the better. Paying for yourself provides a sense of pride, and this value should be instilled as early as possible.
Yes, working as an intern during the summer can be very beneficial and help you make connections to further your career goals; however, the valuable skills gained from working in the service industry outweigh the opportunities of a desk job.
As Northeastern students, we often focus on internships and other ways of preparing for life in the white-collar workforce, but we could greatly benefit from remembering that sometimes, more can be learned at a golf course or restaurant than an office.
Robby Wolff is a second-year international affairs and journalism combined major. He can be reached at [email protected].
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