What did you do while studying at university?

i don't think anyone in my social group has ever worked at uni, oh maybe one guy who did pizza delivery.  Only a few worked outside of uni terms too.

i believe it is quite common though that students get jobs to help pay their tabs.

I worked every break but not during term time.

Christmas was usually working for the Post Office or if you couldn't get in there Alfred Marks bureau which meant turning up at 6am every day to be first in line for whatever work was available. Spent most of my breaks working on a canning factory (soft drinks) line, but also as a dustman.

Looking back I'm glad I did it, but truth is I had no choice - parents charged me rent and I needed money to pay for stuff other than rent during term time.

If nothing else it was a good way of seeing what other people who didn't go through the university system had to put up with to earn a living.

I read Channel9 and webcomics mostly, even when at University.

emm i don't know about that at least where i'm from the only people who get the lowest of the low jobs are teenagers and students and they're exploited to (I need to watch my language) it's an absolute disgrace, i worked during term time & the summer at various jobs for absolute pittance and i know a lot of people who didn't go to uni and have a higher pay/standard of living than me now, the only differance is i like my job (which is admitably nice, but what about the countless people who come out of uni & don't get a decent job)although on the topic of the people who goto uni and don't do anything & just leach of thier parents, i personally knew a lot of them, some of my best friends at uni done it but i look down on them because of it, they're lazy.

I was dumb and took Maths with Computer Science and therefore had not a great deal of time on my hands. This was compounded in the second year when it turned out that one of the problems I was working on required a lot of chemistry and biology and so had to complete about two thirds of both of their courses respectively (bye bye summer).

In the last year of my degree I got to work on some startup thing that someguy said was the "new DOS", and so I helped work on the backend of what was eventually to be known as Linux.

And there you have it, the deep dark secrets of what I did in my yoof.

Played Unreal Tournament...

Which may explain a few things.

Played Dark Forces and Decent

Worked during Easter and Summer breaks only, not during term time, might have studied a little but no paid work  

I was lucky -- when I was at University, the government still paid for education, so I didn't have to work (didn't have much spare money, but I could live with that).

I didn't even work through summers -- I lived with my parents who let me live rent-free and I held some of my grant money back to see me through.

I read a lot.

Herbie

I worked 3 jobs while at University.

1) I worked as a 'Lab Assistant', meaning I manned one of the computer labs, checking people into and out of computers, providing basic technical assistance (mostly for email, as those were the Tn3270 days), and fixing printer jams.

2) Worked for the University as part of the Maintenence crew. That doesn't mean janitor. We responded to things such as broken pipes, broken doors, paint requests, installing fiber to the dorms, etc.

3) I worked in construction as a house framer and roofer to make extra cash during the summers.

I just graduated and I did some tech support and volunteering while at school. Almost everyone I know did something major outside of classes. It was socially unacceptable to laze around.

Most of my friends worked in labs or research groups.

littleguru wrote:

I really start to think that only studying is the way to go... but on the other hand if you do only that they tell you at the end of the studying that you have no "real life experience". It's a little bit confusing for me.

I mean I had a discussion with my gf a few days ago. She said that when she tells me that she learned the whole day that meant that she learned for 4-5 hours - then she told me that after a few days of "learning the whole day" she needs a few days of relax - means she does nothing for a few days!

For me learning (or doing other stuff) the whole day means 10+ hours - also I never have periods of relax (= doing really nothing) after having worked for days...

It seems to me that I'm doing something wrong - am I?

yes, studying a hard subject.

You should have chosen something like philosophy. Because for that you can stare into space for days and pretend that you're just thinking really really hard about whether Descartes was right about the meaning of existance.

Also, you get to say things like: "If an ant drew the mona-lisa on the ground, would it still be art?" (NB: This is not a joke, I wanted to take a philosophy module, so went to a few lectures... In the end I wasn't allowed to as it exceeded my credit allowance...)

But still, however hard you work, there'll always be a medical student working much harder.

In all seriousness though, if you find yourself reading endlessly and not remembering then you're doing something wrong. People (tend to) learn better by doing, or by explaining things to other people. Learning in a group can help here. It can also help you feel better when you discover that no-one else understands X subject either.

I worked in Radio as a DJ and went out to listen to live music almost every night.

My life today is much the same when I go to a conference party till 1am and then get-up for the next days Keynote at 7am.

I worked 2-3 days a week during term time and 5 days a week during holidays.

I did nothing. Pissed around with code, and work.

Should I have done anything else?

littleguru wrote:


For me learning (or doing other stuff) the whole day means 10+ hours - also I never have periods of relax (= doing really nothing) after having worked for days...

Studying for 10+ hours meaning decreased concentration and reduced time efficiency. So you could be wrong for that part...

But relaxing doesn't actually meaning do absolutely nothing. Just use the different part of your brain. Maybe you could go out for a walk or even do some sport.

littleguru wrote:


It seems to me that I'm doing something wrong - am I?

For the work part, I can tell you that we value graduate that have freelance programming experience over those who did no real job in school.