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Time management is one of the hardest things for most of us students and simultaneously one of the most important skills for your future career. After graduating from High School, I was clueless about what I wanted to do in my future. I would also have never thought I would like to pursue a career in the field of Finance. This led to my decision to go to the USA and live abroad. Some might say I should‘ve started studying right away or that I should‘ve only done one gap year, but maybe these two years are the reason that I‘m now able to organise my student life at FS pretty well.
As I mentioned before, I didn’t know I wanted to work in Finance, so I decided to work as an AuPair in the USA. What I learned weren‘t hard skills about Banking, but rather Soft skills like responsibility, flexibility, communication (especially with new people from different cultures), looking after myself, leadership and especially time management. When looking after four children, you need to be perfectly organised and always on time since the parents trust you as a caretaker. I have always been an engaged and active person, so it was obvious for me to do something besides studying at Frankfurt School because I think it is important as a student to not just learn the theoretical part at university but also know how to translate it into practice.
During my first week at FS, I went to multiple events of FS Career Services and got to know which jobs, companies and fields there are in Finance. Being overwhelmed by the selection of industries, I didn‘t choose a specific job category and started to work at an IT-Consulting and Software Development Company in the Marketing Team. I got a lot of responsibility from the first day on since I had to develop a whole campaign plan myself for their app. For me, a job wasn‘t enough activity since I like to engage in social activities. So, I decided to join an FS Student Initiative to get more insights into the different industries and jobs. Being an active member of Corporate Relations is not only improving my organisational skills but also a great achievement as a student; since we organise an event entirely by ourselves, it also helped me become better at Teamwork. In my first exam phase, I started to realise that working around 10-15 hours per week, organising the FS Business Forum, which was supposed to take place in one month. Studying intensively for my first two exams at Frankfurt school and still taking time to hang out with my friends is stressful as a first-semester student. But as I learned in my time as an Aupair, in these situations, it is important to prioritise and plan those two or three weeks before the exams as good as you can, rather than stress out and end up not achieving your goals.
Finding this balance of work-, student- and private life can be tricky in the beginning and still is for me during exam phases, but by getting more and more experience and trying out as many things as I can, it gets easier and easier. Last semester I worked as a working student as well, and, in addition to that, I decided it is important to also take time off during the exam phases and that even going to the gym for an hour can help you a lot in focusing better and studying more efficiently.
I think it is important to know that there are and will be so many more stressful and hard situations during and after our studies, so having good time management is a highly significant skill in these situations.
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