Campus Employment

jeke
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:12:00 +0000

The best jobs are the ones where you can study on the job, effectively getting paid to do what you would have done anyway. The library jobs are great for that, but I understand they’re also highly sought after. I worked at OIT last year, and I think it’s almost the perfect campus job if you’re somewhat computer literate: often no one will come in and you can just study, and when people do come in your work is more interesting than the library jobs (also, we get paid slightly more). The computer literacy of kids working at OIT varies hugely, but anything more complex than a virus/spyware scan can usually be passed off to the in-house techs, so it doesn’t matter that much. Also on the list of cushy jobs is the Paresky Center information window attendant; the job requires no skills and very little actual work.

I don’t know much about the departmental jobs. The news office job would probably be stuff like writing press releases. I would personally go for a job with steady, scheduled hours (like the library or OIT) over a more variable position like press work; my roommate last year worked with sports information and he never work enough hours to actually make money; his job involved going to random games every week or two and then writing a report on them. Meanwhile, I was being paid $70/week to sit at a desk and do my homework. But, people do work those jobs and enjoy them, so I guess it’s all a matter of preference.

Also, it’s not a big deal to switch jobs midyear if you really don’t like the one you chose; you just have to find another office/department on campus who’ll hire you. There’s also the possibility of becoming a TA starting with your second semester, although obviously that requires you to have done well in whatever subject you’re TAing. It’s more common for upperclassmen to TA, but second-semester freshmen can definitely do it.