Although your future may not be clear in your mind when you’re studying for your A Levels, it is important to have some kind of an idea over how much you want to approach work in the future. More specifically, do you want to work to fund a particular lifestyle, or do you want a job that you can pour most of your time and energy to? What is the best approach to take, and how can you balance these approaches as new opportunities come up?
Working for a lifestyle can become an easy habit to fall into when you go from your A Levels into University - most of your free time will be available for you to enjoy with going out, and any part time work you do will fund it. However, viewing work just as a means to an end can change after you leave education, and when you have to work full time; this transition can be quite a shock, even if you have a lot of experience of working part time - you have to make some tougher choices about what you can do, and can struggle to keep on top of work.
Some of the problems associated with working for a lifestyle involve finding it difficult to balance the two - you may want to have a lifestyle where you have a car, a nice flat, or lots of spending money for going out and holidays; however, if you can’t match up your earnings with what you’re spending, it can be easy to get into serious debt. In this way, it’s always important to think about whether you neglected finding the right job in order to take temporary jobs that can give you lots of free time, but without much of an actual career.
Alternatively, you might have a strong idea of what sort of career you want from an early age, and will continue to chase that career through University; however, putting all your energy into getting that ideal job can be risk, as you can be living for a job. Doing so means that you lack stability and regular money, or have to spend longer in education to get the right qualifications. Of course, if you’re doing something you genuinely enjoy, this isn’t a problem; what can be a problem, though, is letting a job dominate your life.
As with anything, you need to be able to recognise when you’re stretching yourself too far, and when you’re getting into debt; balancing out the two approaches, where you want to keep flexibility and maintain a lifestyle, but also need to settle down into one career, is important. You may find that the lifestyle you enjoy in your late teens and early twenties is less attractive by your mid twenties, and that you’ve closed off some options. Thinking about the future can be tough when you’re studying for your A Levels, and most people don’t really know what they’ll end up doing. It is important, though, to not put it out of your mind completely, and to have some kind of schedule for what you want to achieve.