Many college students are surprised at the number of jobs available on campus.
All too often, college students tend to look off campus at the many jobs waiting tables, providing night security or working at fast food restaurants. While those jobs are available and they do earn money, they also incur the added expense of time and travel. Also, off-campus employers are far less understanding about your class schedule or the need for extra study time for midterms and finals.
Working on campus eliminates these hassles, and there are many different ways to find a job on campus.
Proper Preparation
Very few employers will consider hiring you until you are clear about what you have to offer. Whether you have worked or not is secondary to creating a resume that sells you to potential employers.
You can use club and sport activities, social club memberships, personal computer experience, and any other skills or experience you might have to make yourself appear valuable.
Look The Part
Your appearance is another way you can increase your odds of getting hired. No matter how cool that concert T-shirt is to you and your friends, it probably isn’t a good choice for an interview unless you are applying to work at the school radio station.
Prepare yourself by looking, acting and sounding the way a reliable, enthusiastic employee looks, acts, and sounds.
At all costs, delete the word “like” from your vocabulary, unless you are expressing your affection for some aspect of a job.
Bulletin Boards
Check bulletin boards everywhere you go on campus. Very often, there are jobs available doing things such as tutoring, teacher assistant positions, and seasonal work.
If you look carefully, you will see plenty of job offer notices with the telltale phone number flags clipped at the bottom of the page. When taking these numbers, it is a good idea to note some information on the slip about the job to help you sound more professional and on the ball when you call about the job opening.
Campus Website
Your campus website is an excellent place to look for an on-campus job. Positions are normally available for everything from seasonal landscaping work to dormitory resident leaders, tutors, teachers’ aides, office help, cafeteria work, janitorial jobs, and positions at the school bookstore, in the accounting department and the admissions office.
Career Office
In addition to the campus website, your college may offer a career office that exists specifically to help students find work. They also generally offer free classes on how to write an effective resume and how to perform well in an interview – both very valuable skills in today’s job market, both on and off campus.
Ask Your Professors
Very often, your instructors will need help or know of someone who does. They frequently employ reliable students to help grade papers, gather research data or some menial task on campus. They are also on the inside track for on-campus jobs that may not be advertised.
Spread The Word
Sometimes jobs appear from unexpected sources. If you spread the word among friends, classmates, roommates, and dorm neighbors that you are actively looking for an on-campus job, your chances of getting hired increase.
Working on campus is an excellent way to control your expenses while earning an income that also helps you gain valuable work experience and job references.