Good evening,
This is my first post on this site, but I’ve been reading threads from time to time.
Last semester, my duties as an officer compelled me to take necessary time off my 9-5 job to participate in fundraising events, meetings, and volunteering projects. At the end of the 90 period, I was not hired full-time because “I was not dedicated to perform the job tasks as required”, and they cited the number of times I was in unavailable.
My original plan was to run for chapter president, but an analysis of my chapter revealed systemic issues–attendance, low budgets, lackluster advisors, outdated bylaws, etc. I concluded the returns of spending my time and effort in reorganizing the chapter was far too little compared to gaining work experience and income. I’m a business major and plan on transferring to McCombs, so I intend to work full-time while taking online classes.
There’s a meeting coming up soon, so I’m going to express my unavailability during class times. I can’t risk losing my new job by spending 25+ hours helping out my chapter.
It’s a shame this has to happen because I love participating in my chapter, but I can’t risk losing my job again for the same reasons. During my interview, the three interviewers strongly expressed consistent attendance.
Have any of you been in this situation before? I know the new officers are going to ask a lot of me since I’m still enrolled at the college.
You really need to get your priorities straight. School & work (the serious stuff) come before ECs (play).
It seems like you are doing the EC for experience, not resume, which is the right answer. I was an officer of a. Business EC at college and it was a huge commitment with a huge return in knowledge, experience, and connections. But it doesn’t pay the bills and again it is much better for the leadership experience than a line on the resume easily replaced by whatever job you looking at.
Do you need to work full-time while in undergrad or just want to? That’s where I would say consider 20 hours per week while you give school proper focus if you can pay the bills on 20 hours wages.
@GMTplus7, yeah I decided to make this decision. I have a feeling they will believe I abandoned them… The new officers will be gone next semester, so I may be president in the spring semester (as long as I have supportive members and advisors plus and an accommodating schedule).
If I had my own place by that time, I would like to invite everyone to my place, and we can discuss meetings after work. I would even carpool if members weren’t available. As mentioned, the 9-5 schedule pretty much kills all possibilities for ECs on campus.
@Sportsman88, I wish there was a business or IBanking club at my school! I would at least put more effort into opening up my schedule. Since this is an honor society where merit primarily factors into the chapter’s success, the problems I mentioned above would require a lot of time, effort, and cooperation from more than just a few people. For example, we can’t use Square as a method to process payments for remittance, and there are no ATMs on campus. This greatly cuts into our profits because 1) students may not carry money on their person 2) if there is any interest in purchasing our products, they can’t!
Anyways, many of the members aren’t active because of many reasons left unsaid (except for the resume and transcript indention). To me, it’s just lipstick on a pig–it doesn’t do anything to increase a candidate’s status… especially when it comes to the top programs.
Unfortunately, I need to work full-time as I desire to live on my own and pay off the car. Right now, I’m paying off my debts and eliminating as any fixed expenses as I can. I might not even transfer to McCombs until the car is paid off. Working part-time is a negative for me unless if financial aid and scholarships covers my tuition as well as my expenses in the future.
I appreciate your answers and consideration.
Best,
Darnell