<p>To be honest with you I was really lucky with work-study this year. Not many Tisch Drama Freshman students were able to get work-study jobs because most of them are already filled up by current students because offices start to hire for the next school year before the current one is over.
Because of the Drama schedule it is also hard to have a schedule that allows for a work-study jobs, because many (not ALL but many) are for school offices that are only open 9am to 5 pm on weekdays, and because you will have studio three days a week, the only other days you have open are Mondays and Wednesdays, and half of those days are filled by WTE and ITP/ITS. So your hours are already limited compared to other applicants who might be able to work 15-20 hrs a week, etc. Also, some offices don’t want freshman.
But not getting a work-study job is not the end of the world, I know many people who have non work-study jobs working as babysitters, chaperones, working at movie theaters, and yes, some are waiters and waitresses. But I do have some tips to getting a work-study job.</p>
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<li><p>Schedule your academic classes back to back, with a 15 minute break. don’t schedule a class in the morning and one like 2 hrs later, it will make your schedule less attractive to employers. I had a class from 9:30 to 10:45 and 11-12:15, then worked 12:30 to 5:30 Mondays and Wednesdays. 2nd semester you have a lecture component added to writing the essay so I scheduled that from 12:30-1:45 on Mondays and then worked from 2-5:30.
Just so you know, there are classes that start at 8am but I knew if I did that I would never show up for class, lol.</p></li>
<li><p>In order to access NYU Career Net (NYU’s job search engine, which is the main way of finding and applying for a work-study job), you need to first activate it by going to the Wasserman Center for Career Development. This was not possible for me because I am from CA and could not fly to NYC until move-in day, but if possible for you then you should do it ASAP. It would give you an advantage in terms of searching for the limited number of work-study jobs still available in the fall.</p></li>
<li><p>The Tisch Career Development Office will probably send you an e-mail in the summer about its office and services, and if you surf the page you will find a document called Jobs at Tisch or something like that, basically it is a sheet with all of the Tisch offices hiring work-study students. Once again, most people will have already filled these positions, but it’s worth a try. I called every single office and all of them were already filled but one, and I managed to get hired for that.</p></li>
<li><p>The Residential assistants at the Residence Halls are supposed to work a certain number of hours at the resource center for each hall. once the school year starts they figure out their schedule, and since RAs only work a limited number of hours in the resource centers, they usually hire a couple of students to work there. This will probably be posted a couple weeks after school starts, but make sure you also go to other residence halls and go to their resource centers and ask about this, because it is not advertised in the e-mails, and they definitely hire students from other halls.
Some of these applications are also available during late summer on NYU Career Net, you just need to have activated your account.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep on the lookout during the regular school year by going on NYU Career Net every couple of weeks, some people leave their positions and then offices start to hire.
Also, many places have “Temp positions”. For example, the Wasserman Center was recently hiring people to work 4 hours a night for six nights to be phone surveyors, calling undergrads about their experience. Often times schools will need more people to staff their special events, and this will be posted on career net.</p></li>
<li><p>Check out the NYU Phone-A-Thon. It is NOT work-study but does have flexible hours. Google it and you can read more about it. Although they will send you an e-mail in the fall regarding applications. Basically you call NYU alumni and ask them to donate money to the school, lol. </p></li>
<li><p>This is not work-study, but I’ve seen quite a few small bookstores, cafes, etc with signs looking for cashiers. </p></li>
<li><p>Always send a cover letter, even if the employers don’t ask for it. I’m not sure what your previous work experiences are, but I had a very thin resume. And many upper classmen with much thicker resumes will also be applying for these jobs, and providing a cover letter is a valuable way for you to market yourself, and give more info about your skills that a resume would not. I specifically acknowledged in my cover letter my limited work experience, but also wrote about why I would be a good candidate for that position regarding skills, interest, personality, etc.</p></li>
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<p>You should try to take advantage of your freshman year when you have more time to get these jobs and make connections, and yes, money. I know that next year there is no way I have enough time for two jobs, so I will only be working one of them. But I know that these jobs provide awesome connections, and even if you won’t have enough time to work after your freshman year, these jobs will help your resume when you can and do need to work. For example, applying to be an RA, or you may be available to work during winter break and could call these people up. My employers have offered to write letters of recommendation for me, and I’ve found out about other job positions through them.</p>