I got a part-time job: What do I do and what is next

I began working at the Research Center of the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá.

As an academic student, I got a part-time job to help me cover some expenses of my today's life, but also gain some experience before graduating.

My job involves a lot of things

• Managing a web application,
• Discuss with stakeholders about the current platform and improvements of the new one
• Talk with other faculties about the platform,
• Start a new project that will replace the current one, this will put me in a full-stack web development position.
• I am working with databases, full-stack PHP framework Laravel, frontend, backend, deployment, and all the software development cycles.
• As a director, I am involved in documenting the platform for making it easier for others to maintain. These will involve creating diagrams in UML

Thinking about it

It is a part-time position, not remote and I have an office in the building.

The office seems pretty nice and I will need to set up the machine with all the software.

Also, there is a good environment, I could get to know more people on the place, also they could help me with my thesis and make me more involved in research projects.

All of that could help me to get better positions in the future, finish my career faster, and overall improve my experience.

The pay is low but it helps cover expenses on transportation, especially now that I will come back to the classroom.

It is true that I feel I could have more skills elsewhere but my options by now aren´t clear.

I have found that getting benefited from opportunities is better than waiting for the perfect thing.

What I am trying to say is I will take lead roles on web projects and then make the switch to data science and AI.

I will improve my marketing skills and market myself in other places in order to get better opportunities.

I am planning on getting a new job soon, so this is temporary and will be another time to prove my skills and improve my experience.