Isabel: Hello, and welcome back to ED Going Digital. I am your host and today. I have one of our Juniors Ben to discuss school and work life balance. Now you’re actually on holidays which is exciting but on the day to day you attend school and also work part-time here and Englander Davis, don’t you? 

Ben: Yes. 

Isabel: Firstly I’d love to know what your favorite thing is so far about working in the digital marketing industry?

Ben: I would say probably just the experience I have gotten out of it so far and like can get because it’s quite different to what other people I know are doing. It translates a bit better to what people have planned for what they want to do after school and this helps me with that. I know what to expect a bit more. I think that it can set me up for trying a bunch of different things because I never thought I’d be in this sort of job and I am so it’s yeah. It’s expanded what I think I might do.

Isabel: Perfect and do you do anything like this at school?

Ben: I did but I don’t anymore. I had taken some business classes up until Grade 11 it just wasn’t really my focus. At least I thought that. I probably would’ve kept doing it if I knew I would be here. 

Isabel: So what have you learned from working here as part of our team?

Ben:  Just how to go about an actual office job. I thought it would be fairly simple and I guess it is but there’s like a few things that you sort of pick up as you go and I think those sort of ideas will be really helpful, moving forward, when I finish school. 

Isabel: Oh, yeah, and I think as far as office jobs go as a pretty busy one hey.

Ben: A little bit. Yeah, there’s always something to do. 

Isabel: All right, who do you look to for inspiration? 

Ben: A lot of my inspiration comes from bands, which isn’t really the same as a lot of people who look up to celebrities or like social activists or those sort of people. Mine aligns with my hobbies and I just get a lot of ideas from just listening to music and hearing what they have to say. 

Isabel: And do you think it’s the creativity? It Sparks creativity within you listening to music, watching music videos? 

Ben: Yeah, it absolutely can. So I enjoy drawing and I will actually just get the ideas based on like an image that pops into my head from listening to a song and so that’s sort of like that drives a lot of things I do. 

Isabel: Wow. Yeah, that’s great. So I’ve seen some of your work and you are quite the video maker. What skills have you personally brought to the team here at Englander Davis? 

Ben: There’s a bit of variation to what I do. So I feel like in terms of skills. It’s sort of just general knowledge. I guess like I can just do more creative stuff or just basic writing like analytics and I think that’s probably the most significant thing that I’ve got. 

Isabel:  Yeah, definitely. You already have quite a broad range of skills. 

Ben: Yeah. It happened very quickly. 

Isabel:  So are some of the things that you do here, are they some of your hobbies outside as well?

Ben: Yes, all the creative stuff. Creating videos including any sort of design and illustration extends to my hobbies. My hobbies are largely creative such as music, art.

Isabel: Oh, that’s great and is there anything that you would like to do more of this year or focus on?

Ben: Anything creative. That’s my ideal. I guess it’s fairly broad which can help 

Isabel: But that’s what you really enjoy doing. 

Ben: Yeah, is it just because it aligns with my hobbies and it works quite. Well, I enjoy it.

Isabel: Yeah, I really like to do the creative things as well here. 

Ben: Yes just sort of shakes things up a bit and it’s a nice change of pace.

Isabel: Okay, so you are able to swap out a little bit of your schooling to come here normally, when you’re not on school holidays. Would you be able to explain a little bit about that process 

Ben: Okay, so at the end of Mondays and Wednesdays I have an empty block in my timetable for study time and I’ve basically been able to take that time and come here and work because it is beneficial to what I do and it works quite well for me. So that was approved and now I’m able to come in the afternoons here to work. 

Isabel: That’s perfect. And what would you usually be doing? If you didn’t come to Englander Davis?

Ben: I would likely just be studying or working in silence. 

Isabel: Do you have any tips to keep yourself organised whilst attending school and working part-time?

Ben: It’s quite helpful to treat them as two different areas. I try and focus on one thing at a time, so when I’m here and I have assignments, I’ll just sort of block them because it’s not relevant to my focus. I just like to focus on where I am at the time and I feel like that helps me get more done in whatever I need to do. 

Isabel: Yeah, definitely. That’s a really good way to look at it. Isn’t it? Focusing on what you have in front of you at the time? 

Ben: Yeah, rather than having a million things running through your head all at one time. Yeah. I mean, it can’t get like that sometimes but if I can avoid that yeah. 

Isabel: So what advice would you give to someone your age who wants to do some part-time work? 

Ben: I would just say see what you’re into and then once you have a look down that path and then find something. You will need to accept that you won’t have as much time and you did before doing both but that’s for me at least a bit of a smaller thing. I know for some people that it cuts into other times a bit more but just like have that prepared. I guess allocating an amount of time you’re happy to put towards something like part-time work so that you’re not taking away from other aspects like your schooling or your social or any other hobbies that you might like to do as well. Yeah, just finding a good balance really helps. 

Isabel: Perfect. So that was amazing getting to know what drives you to attend school as well as work. Your work ethic is something that we can all admire here and thank you so much for joining us today for this episode. That was great. Thank you.