lacrosse or work???

[Towelie]

the experience from the job he gets will not help him later :-/

Uh, yes it will...

I doubt whatever job he gets now will be anything like his job when he gets out of college

[BigAznDaddy]

I doubt whatever job he gets now will be anything like his job when he gets out of college

true i plan on being a cop
but working at the hospital will help me with my social skills.
pluse i will get paid like 10-12 bucks an hour
and as i see it "money is fun"

[trust]

Well it looks like you have your mind made up, so why are you asking us?

[Sidoh]

I doubt whatever job he gets now will be anything like his job when he gets out of college

If you truely believe that, I think you're naive.

[Towelie]

I doubt whatever job he gets now will be anything like his job when he gets out of college

If you truely believe that, I think you're naive.

What I am thinking is if he got a job washing dishes, I don't see how that skill will help him if he becomes a cop.

[Sidoh]

What I am thinking is if he got a job washing dishes, I don't see how that skill will help him if he becomes a cop.

That's not the experience I'm talking about.  Washing dishes obviously isn't a very useful skill when you're a cop, but the knowledge and experience in a working environment is.  You have a boss, you have orders, you have expectations and you're doing it because you have to, not because you'll have to run laps!

[Towelie]

What I am thinking is if he got a job washing dishes, I don't see how that skill will help him if he becomes a cop.

That's not the experience I'm talking about.  Washing dishes obviously isn't a very useful skill when you're a cop, but the knowledge and experience in a working environment is.  You have a boss, you have orders, you have expectations and you're doing it because you have to, not because you'll have to run laps!

I understand taht, but I was talking skills learned from the proffesion, not environment.

[Sidoh]

I understand taht, but I was talking skills learned from the proffesion, not environment.

...

[Towelie]

I understand taht, but I was talking skills learned from the proffesion, not environment.

...

God damnit, I just suck at explaining things

[Newby]

God damnit, I just suck at explaining things

No. Sidoh covered that. Noob.

That's not the experience I'm talking about.  Washing dishes obviously isn't a very useful skill when you're a cop, but the knowledge and experience in a working environment is.  You have a boss, you have orders, you have expectations and you're doing it because you have to, not because you'll have to run laps!

[Quik]

Unless you have no other sports, work experience will be infintely better. You cannot go through your life without ANYTHING to put on a resume, that's just a bad idea. You have other sports (football?), so work would be much better for you. Colleges and future employers care about valuable experience more than they do fun in sports, especially if it's an option betwen 1 or 2 school sports. The more diverse activities, the better.

[trust]

You have a boss, you have orders, you have expectations and you're doing it because you have to, not because you'll have to run laps!

It's still not any different, not getting paid or getting fired is the equivilant of the punishment of full field suicides.

[Sidoh]

It's still not any different, not getting paid or getting fired is the equivilant of the punishment of full field suicides.

You can think of it that way, but it's far different.  I was in sports.  Working was a much different (and far more useful) experience.

[Rule]

Unless you have no other sports, work experience will be infintely better. You cannot go through your life without ANYTHING to put on a resume, that's just a bad idea. You have other sports (football?), so work would be much better for you. Colleges and future employers care about valuable experience more than they do fun in sports, especially if it's an option betwen 1 or 2 school sports. The more diverse activities, the better.

I disagree.  In everything I've applied to, having been on a varsity lacrosse team would have been so much more helpful than having held a crappy job.  The only way having a mediocre job is going to be helpful is if you plan on applying to yet another similar job that is also crappy, but perhaps slightly less crappy.  And this slightly-less crappy job might help you get a slightly-less slightly-less crappy job eventually.  And if we continue this for another 20 years, if you're lucky you might end up assistant manager at McDonalds, or "ship's captain" at a seafood buffet, making a "steady" 29.95k /year.

I'd rather take another route that is more challenging / ambitious but will likely get me much further, much more quickly.  Also, I could do without the "wholesome" and developmental experience of being "happy to be of use" for the most tedious and insignificant tasks. 

[iago]

Ok, both are good decisions.

Work: the more work experience you get when you're younger, the better.  I've met some of my best friends from working, which is a plus.  Experience in a working environment and having a job is a plus.  And money is always good, money may not buy happiness but it'll buy you cool stuff. 

Lacrosse: work experience is valuable on a resume, but so are interests.  I think I said this somewhere else here, but I'll repeat for the benefit of people who haven't heard this rant:

When I was choosing people to interview for a job, I didn't care about a high GPA or a lot of experience, because I knew the job entailed work that they've never seen before, so those didn't matter.  What impressed me more were diverse interests.  I would look at the University transcript to see which interesting courses somebody's taken, and at the "Hobbies/ Interests" section of their resume to see what interests them.  By seeing what a person takes/does, you get a lot of insight into them.  For example, we interviewed somebody with a minor in criminology, but not somebody with a minor in math, and we interviewed more people with a GPA of 3.5 - 4.0 than 4.0 - 4.5 (4.5 is max here). 

My point is, having something like Lacrosse, Debating, Chess Club, Gymnastics, Ukranian Dance, Cooking, etc. on your resume makes you seem like more than a piece of paper, it makes you seem interesting.  So take diverse interests, and don't assume that nobody notices.  I did. 


But I still think having a job is better