Thoughts of late release in mid June

manwich
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:57:10 +0000

I just graduated on Sunday…my feeling throughout my time at Union was that I preferred to be at Union than at home later into the summer. I never had a problem finding a summer job—most places are pretty forgiving with start dates, and you can certainly find and interview for a summer job over spring break if you’re at home. Most of the anxiety about the system seems to come from people who are concerned that it’s different than that of other schools—I can’t remember a single time when someone I knew had a negative outcome from getting out in June instead of May.

The winter break can be very long and boring if you’re not creative—but it does provide the opportunity to actually do something with your time. I know a lot of people whose summer jobs have asked them back over winter break to work for 6 weeks (restaurants especially). Union also offers ‘mini terms’ abroad led by professors. I’ve also taken trips to visit friends and family, ski vacations and other fun things.

Also—I didn’t discover this until senior year, but UPS hires lots of people around Christmas time as helpers—you ride shotgun in the UPS trucks and run packages to the houses while the truck driver finds packages for the next stop. I worked for two weeks before Christmas this past year and made about $600. Apparently Union students are popular for this job because they’re out early from school, don’t have criminal records and are more reliable than the average temp worker! I loved the job and wish I could have done it for every break—it’s invigorating to ride around in the big rumbling trucks on a cold winter day bringing people their Christmas presents, doing something physical that gets you out of the house when you might otherwise be stuck inside. If you live in a more populated area you can start working almost immediately after Union lets out and really make some good money.