The pros and cons of summer jobs

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another video for the British Council’s LearnEnglish Teens website and their YouTube channel.

Now, today I wanted us to discuss the pros and the cons of having a summer job. As it is summer, and I actually have a summer job, I wanted to talk a little bit about my experience.

So, starting with the con. The first disadvantage is that, of course, you have to work. So, that means you’ll have less free time to enjoy those beautiful, warm summer days. I could have gone to the park, I could have gone bike riding, I could have had a picnic, could have gone swimming, could have gone to a music festival, could have met up with my friends ... the list really goes on and on and on. There’s so much I think I could have done if I wasn’t working, but here I am working.

So, the second disadvantage follows on from the first one, and that is you could have gone travelling instead of working. Last year when I was at university I had a part-time job and that meant that I could save enough money so that I could just travel during the summer and I didn’t have to work. Especially nowadays where, you know, the summer holidays are really short. I feel like they’re getting shorter every year. You know, you wanna make the most of your summer holiday and I feel like you have to really choose between travelling or working, which can really suck. Working is tiring, it really is. If you think that studying is hard, or waking up for school in the morning is a chore, well, working is exactly the same – if not even worse, because at school, you know, you’re usually sitting down in classes relaxing and all you really have to do is listen and just pay attention to what the teacher is saying. If you’re working in a shop or a café, you’ll usually be on your feet for the whole day and you don’t realise how tired you are until you go home and all you want to do is have a bath and then go to bed because, honestly, during the busy summer months, especially if you live in a city like London or just a tourist area, there are a lot more tourists and that means that you will have to work a lot harder than probably during other months of the year.

And my final con is that you have to wear a uniform. So, you’ve just finished your school, you’ve just finished wearing your uniform and you’re thinking about all the cool summer clothes that you wanna wear. But then you realise that you’re working for the whole summer, so actually you just have to wear a uniform.

Sometimes uniforms aren’t very comfortable and they’re also not suited to the weather, so it can be a hassle ... and it can be really annoying to have to put it on every morning.

Now, moving on to the pros. The first pro is, of course, the biggest one and that is that you will have extra cash in your pocket to spend on things that you like or things that you want to do and no one can really tell you how to spend that money because you earned it. Now, I personally really only took this summer job because I wanted to save up my own money to go travelling just before I go back to uni. And I think it’s nice to earn your own money and not always have to ask your parents for some pocket money when you go to the cinema.

The second advantage is that summer jobs are great for gaining experience. Whether you’re working in a shop or a café or you’re interning at a bank, you will gain a lot of practical experiences, which you can use in your future career, as well as write this experience down on your CV.

When you’re working, you’ll probably make new friends. Your colleagues are not just your colleagues but of course you’re working with them every day, you’re seeing them regularly, so you might actually realise you have a lot in common with someone and they might become a friend even after you’ve finished working there.

And my final pro is that a summer job is the perfect cure for summer boredom, and I know that it may seem like the summer holidays aren’t that long and they really aren’t. Going to school five days a week, eight hours every day or maybe even more, when you have complete freedom, you realise that actually you can get quite bored really easily because you have to think of ways to occupy your time, and I know that when I was in school, I always thought that the summer holidays would be filled with hanging out at the park and just seeing my friends every day, but that’s not always the reality because your friends have other things to do. They might be on holiday. They might have a summer job. So, really on my days off I do find myself just a little bit bored. So, this is the perfect cure if you are bored in the summer. You’ll definitely have something to do and just think about the money you’re earning from it. That will get you through.

Now I wanna hear from you guys, so comment below. Let me know what your pros and cons of having a summer job are, and if you do have a summer job, let me know how you’re finding it. I hope you’re having a great day. Don’t work too hard and I’ll see you in the next video. Bye bye!