• Question: Did you gain anything from the Saturday jobs that you have had that has been useful in your current job?

    Asked by danrumford to Pamela, Holly, Cat on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Holly Shelton

      Holly Shelton answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Dan
      Yes I learnt teamwork which is very important in science, also how to communicate with people another vital skill as a scientist to get your ideas and opinnions across to people. I did not learn any scientific techniques but it made use of my maths skills when I worked in a shop and I use maths everyday in my job, from calculating how much virus I have to applying statistics to a result I have generated.

      Thanks for the question

      Holly

    • Photo: Pamela Lithgow

      Pamela Lithgow answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Dan,
      I would say I did learn a few things from my Saturday jobs that are useful in my job now. One thing is teamwork, most of my Saturday/part time jobs I had involved working in teams, I think I work well with others and it is really good to be able to work with other people when you are trying to sort out an idea or get something done. I also thing I learnt about working hard, I actually really enjoy working hard and getting a good result, in my Saturday jobs I realised I could get good results from hard work and that I liked that. You can’t go wrong with hard work so that is definitely helpful.
      Hope that helps
      Pam

    • Photo: Cat O'Connor

      Cat O'Connor answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Dan,

      So you’ve obviously you know that i’ve had a lot of jobs, and it would be a waste if I hadn’t learned anything….but saying that I’m not sure stocking shelves in a christmas shop has helped me very much! Like Holly, i’ve always worked in a team and you wouldn’t believe how important good team skills are for pretty much any job you do! One thing that always helps with working in a team is knowing how to make a great cup of tea, so I would get practicing!

      Another great thing I learned from a very early age from working with horses and babysitting is responsibility. If you go for a job interview and you can show that you’re a mature, responsible young person, that really helps!

      In my job now, apart from team work, being able to be self motivated is a great attibute to have. And i think you can gain this not through just working hard at your saturday job but also through school. There is no greater display of self motivation than studying for exams!

      What do you think?

      Cat

Comments

  • Photo: danrumford

    danrumford commented on :

    Thanks for your answers, which Saturday job did you learn the most from/enjoy the most?

  • Photo: Cat

    Cat commented on :

    Well I’m going to say working with horses, which invovled everything from exercising them, to feeding them to taking care of sick ones and I was also invovled in a stud, which was pretty cool to see how that was done. Like I said, this taught me how to be very responsible, very early on! And I also was learning everyday, all about what horses need from us to be successful breeders or athletes. So it really was quite sciency as I think back on it! With horses, you also have to work really hard, long hours, in awful weather and quite often things don’t go according to plan. So from when I was quite young I learned to be determined, work hard and also problem solve, a very important quality for scientists too. And obviously it was the most enjoyable because my hobby became my job (though I wasn’t paid very much) and I got to be around horses all the time 😀