Coursework as Employer Work

By Alex Bolten

There are only two weeks left in the semester! Last week was Thanksgiving break, and after dead week we’ll be heading home to celebrate the holidays with our friends and family. Two weeks doesn’t seem like a lot of time, and it really isn’t. You’ve got finals, papers, group projects, and more between now and when you get to go home for break. While this can seem daunting and you may not want to do the things you have to, it’s important to remember that you’re almost done.

It’s crunch time for everyone, and you need to make sure that you’re putting forth your best effort. Now is when most classes have their “big” assignments due and you don’t want to slack and get a bad grade just because you’re really want to go home.

You may think it’s ok to slack a bit, but it isn’t. When you have a career after graduation, you won’t be able to slack just because it’s the holidays (you’d probably lose your job).

My advice to you is to treat your schoolwork like you’re doing work for an employer. In the work environment, you’ll want to provide your employer with your best work possible so that you not only keep your job, you also move up within the company. If you give incomplete or “slack” work, you’ll get nowhere in the corporate world.

If you get into the habit now of treating your coursework like it’s a project for the company you’re working for, you can avoid being lazy and doing subpar work. Not to mention, this can help improve your grades. The better you do in the classroom, the more prepared and ready you’ll be for work after graduation.

This is a good habit to get into, and the sooner you can do it, the better. I know it’s hard to do it at this time of year, what with everything due and all. However, the earlier you can set up good habits, the harder it will be to break them once you’re in the corporate world. The more prepared, too, you'll be to tackle whatever the company throws at you. You'll be ready to get the job done if you're used to getting the job done, instead of taking the lazy way out and underperforming (and possibly getting fired).