5 Common Struggles of Working Students (and Fixes That Help)

Going back to school as a working adult is no easy feat.

When I first started this journey, I thought it would be easy to adjust. But, 3 weeks into taking college courses while still working full-time, I was crying my eyes out.

I’ve now stabilized my routine, and I’ve learned that there is a new set of challenges that come in addition to your job and regular adult responsibilities.

You can make it through!

In this post we’ll cover 5 common struggles of working students and practical fixes that will help make things easier.

Struggle 1: Time Management Chaos

It was a Saturday morning. I had two papers due on the same day that week, and I was scattered trying to figure out what to do first.

I thought that I could do everything at the last minute. And although I finished everything, keeping this schedule was unsustainable.

I asked myself “When could I make time for homework?”

The laundry baskets were already backed up, I still had to practice my songs for church on Sunday, and my hair was long overdue for a wash.

This is very common among working adults, especially if you’re already having a hard time balancing chores, work, and family.

Although I haven’t totally figured it out yet, here are some tips to help you manage your time to make sure your assignments get done, you stay employed, and you survive.

Wake Up or Stay Up.

Some days you’ll need to stay up late or get up extra early to make time to work on homework and assignments. Other days you’ll need to knock out required readings on your lunch break.

Each week you spend working and studying, you’ll start to find time to complete the tasks you need to.

Make Use of the Dead Space.

Use those 10–15-minute dead pockets of time to take care of smaller tasks and responsibilities. For example, the other day I took 10 minutes to exercise before bed.

Create protected blocks of time for rest.

This is so important to maintain sustainability. These protected blocks of time, try not to think about work or school. This will allow you to actually enjoy the rest of your life.

Some activity ideas for these rest periods are gaming, creative hobbies, or whatever else you like to do.

Struggle 2: Mental Exhaustion & Burnout

A couple weeks ago I found myself dragging when it came to work. Each day was a race to see when was the latest I could snooze my alarm and still make it to my job on time. I found myself nearly snapping at coworkers and my husband.

My brain was so fried, I could barely type a sentence for my Western Civilization class paper.

This is when I knew I had to hit the brakes. I couldn’t stop completely, but I had to tend to my mental and emotional health.

When you’re working while studying, you’re more than likely going to hit a point of mental exhaustion. But, I promise, it’s not the end of the world, it will just feel like it for a minute. Here are some tips to help you recover and sustain and protect your energy.

Sacrifice quality for quantity.

I know it probably sounds horrible but hear me out. Rather than giving 100% to both your job and school, give 60% effort instead. I had to give up my obsession of getting perfect scores on every assignment. I also had to come to grips with not being the highest profit producer at my recruiting job.

The priority is to do the bare minimum (even less, if that’s the best you can do) to somehow keep your job and complete your assignments on time.

Give yourself something to look forward to in regular intervals.

This could be going to your favorite restaurant, building a Lego set, or trying a dance class. This is a great way to nourish and replenish your mind.

Struggle 3: Guilt & Family Responsibilities

Sometimes I feel guilty when my husband wants to hang out, but I would rather be alone for the evening. I feel guilty when he has to be the one to throw the clothes in the washer because we’re out of socks. If you’re feeling guilty because you’re missing family date nights to stay on top of your homework, you’re not the only one.

Guilt is common for adult students like us, because we are compassionate, family-oriented individuals. We know how much our families want to be around us, but we often have to sacrifice to make sure that we’re still bringing in money and continuing to better ourselves.

Here are some tips to manage the guilt:

Take a day with your family.

Create non-negotiable days to be with your family at least 2 times a month. If you’ve been buried in your office and haven’t had a Pizza Night with your significant other or your kids in a couple weeks, make it a priority to show up for them in the next 1-2 weeks.

This may mean that you’ll have one less day to finish a college assignment, but it’s worth it. Not only will your family know that you’re still alive, it gives you a chance to rest, relax, and spend time with your favorite people.

It will be difficult but do your best not to ruminate about work or school during this time (I suck at this, but do as I say, not as I do haha).

Have open communication with your family about availability changes.

If you haven’t given your family the heads up that you’ll be burrowed away to get stuff done, it could be a good idea to share that with them. Set boundaries so they understand that you won’t be as available right now, but you still love and care for them.

And remember that this is a temporary period.

Involve your family in what you do.

Another idea is to involve your family in the process of non-detrimental responsibilities. Ask them to help you decorate your calendar for the month, plan meals for the week with them, or fold clothes with them.

Doing things together won’t only help you bond but will help you check off some tasks from your list…with some free labor 😉.

Struggle 4: Financial Stress

Everyone’s financial situation is different…you might be paying for college as you go, you may have taken student loans, you may be on scholarship, or a combination of the 3.

Regardless, since you may be more ahead in life compared to the average college student (age 18-22), you probably have additional expenses like daycare, mortgage or rent, credit card payments, light and gas bills, health insurance, and others.

This means that although you may have more income coming into your home, you also have more going out, which depending on if you’re super rich, living paycheck to paycheck, or in the middle, can determine if you feel financially cushy or ready to pull your hair out.

Here are some options that can help relieve some stress if you find yourself stretched too far:

Find a different job to hold you over.

Find a landing pad job that either offers tuition reimbursement or pays more. This can help reduce college costs and have some extra money in the bank.

Just make sure it doesn’t drain too much more energy. Bonus points if you’ll be gaining experience related to your career pivot!

Try a side hustle.

Start a low energy/time commitment side hustle. You can even try building one in the career field you’re looking to transition field to help build experience. It will probably take some front-end effort, but it can help put some extra cash in your pocket.

Look for and apply to scholarships.

If you’re willing to put in the effort filling out the applications, I highly recommend. You can check through your institution or online for different scholarship opportunities.

Pay off debt.

My husband and I followed the Dave Ramsey plan to pay off our cars and credit cards. We also maintain our debt-free lifestyle by living frugally.

This has provided us so much freedom and gives us peace of mind if either of us lose our jobs.

Build an Emergency Fund.

Build a 3–6-month emergency fund in case of, well, emergencies. This has saved our butt when unexpected repairs come up. If you’re already dishing out money for college, these unexpected costs can drain your bank account.

Struggle 5: Doubt & Imposter Syndrome

The last struggle I want to talk about in this post is doubt and imposter syndrome as a working adult. When I first started transitioning to an analyst career, I was very confident in my ability to learn and apply the technical skills needed.

As a result, I grinded through online courses in half the expected time. And about 2 months later, I thought I was ready to apply for jobs.

However, when reading the descriptions, my perception of my ability plummeted. I started doubting my ability to provide value to an organization and felt like I didn’t belong in the field yet.

What is Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter Syndrome is when you think you don’t deserve to be in a position. Sometimes, the imposter syndrome is based on a false feeling of not being good enough, or there is a legitimate skill gap you need to address.

Somehow, though, you still have the opportunity, but you still believe it should go to someone more ‘deserving’ than you. This can lead to procrastination and self-sabotage of the opportunities you have.

How to relieve Imposter Syndrome as a working student.

Based on what I’ve researched and experienced so far, the best way to relieve doubt as a working student and career changer is to build confidence in yourself. You do this by proving to yourself that you can do what’s required, because you’ve done it in the past.

So how do you build this experience if you have none?

An option is to volunteer to do a project in the field you want to go into. Another way is to do personal projects about a mock situation in your field. It’s one thing to learn something from a course, but another thing to put into practice.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to transition to a career in accounting, but you have no real life experience.

Doing work like balancing your own books or balancing an online ledger set will help you build that confidence.

I need to be more intentional about putting my own advice into practice haha, but I’m sure it will help you.

Conclusion

In this post we covered 5 common struggles of working adults looking to change careers and how to fix them:

1: Time Management Chaos
2: Mental Exhaustion & Burnout
3: Guilt & Family Responsibilities
4: Financial Stress
5: Doubt & Imposter Syndrome

If you’re working and studying, make sure you’re giving yourself grace. You’re not only trying to better yourself and your family, but you’re also trying to keep afloat of your adult responsibilities and relationships. You’re human, and using these tips will help you to sustain this journey until you reach your goals.

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