Campus Employment

Colleges and Universities A-Z Williams College
1

<p>I just got my campus employment questionnaire. Any suggestions as to what's good and what isn't?</p>

<p>I was thinking "Public Affairs/News Office" sounded nice. Of course, the Sawyer Library also sounded like a fairly typical, not-too-hard campus job. How about Information Technology - how much computer literacy does this require? And one more struck my interest - Economics Dept.? Is this for future economics majors only (I'm not)? What would a first year student do in the Economics Dept. for a campus job?</p>

<p>Any other suggestions of good campus jobs would be appreciated! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>One of my friends worked in the Econ dept fall semester. Mostly did photocopying, faxing, and organizing course material...not much. He later switched to Sawyer, though.</p>

3

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

4

<p>if you work at sawyer library...dont work in the reserve. The supervisor there is infamously nasty..but quite an interesting woman. More nasty than interesting though..actually interesting due to her nastiness.</p>

5

<p>Okay, while it's a great thing to have a job where you can study, it will not always happen. The important thing for me is making money, and ENJOYING the job, but of course, in real life, enjoying the job is not always the case. Also, it could be pretty rough first semester trying to get a job.</p>

<p>I'm not on fin aid, so it was really tough getting a job first semester because I certainly needed extra cash. Applied for a number of positions without success. I finally got a job at the music dept as an event manager, which was sometimes labor-intensive, but I enjoyed the activity, however, it wasn't a steady, scheduled thing. Last spring, I worked for a total of 88hrs. In a way, it was good, because if I had a workload crunch one week, I could stay off work - it was that easy, and again, most of the concerts and stuff were on weekends, so that worked great.</p>

<p>Winter study, I worked as gallery monitor in Chapin Library. I did practically nothing, except sit and read, and I was bored to death. You don't want that in a place like Chapin Library - well, I didn't like it that much.</p>

<p>But next year, I'll be an MSRC tutor and an Art TA, but will still retain my position at the music dept and will be on hand for stuff from time to time.</p>

<p>There's a whole slew of options. You could work at Weston in dungeon [library] or at the front desk, doing "nothing". But the less you do, the less you're paid. I think I was on a high wage scale for a freshman.</p>

6

<p>I have a friend who was a math TA in her second semester. I watched her work her first few hours - it wasn't really exciting, grading all those problem sets. But worse still, she could only get half her normal pay because of some fin aid issue. And cooler still, TAs get free snack bar points.</p>

7

<p>campus tour guide is one of the best jobs +pays high. It's tough to be one though. And working for dining service isnt as bad as it is made out to be. The dining service staff are really nice and sometimes they give you free snackbarpoints if you work for em.</p>

8

<p>But I think the camus tour guide job is open only to upperclassmen, or people who've spent at least a year at Williams. Hard to get though. Of the two freshmen I knew working in dining services, one switched spring semester, and the other is switching next year. It may be a great job for first years, but I've never seen an upperclassman working in Dining except one, and exchange students/CDE students work there. Yeah, it's well paying but no time to sit around. Great if you like it, though.</p>

9

<p>"she could only get half her normal pay because of some fin aid issue"</p>

<p>It sounds like she was able to work only half-time (five hours weekly, rather than ten) as a TA -- possibly because of her first-semester finaid office-arranged campus employment assignment to which she may still have been obligated to report (and I believe first-years' employment hours are capped at ten weekly).</p>

10

<p>if i want to give something back and work in admissions, what positions are there? do you ever move beyond tour guide to actually working with admissions, reading applications and giving your 2 cents worth?</p>

11

<p>I don't think so; tour guide is the only student job at admissions that I know of.</p>

12

<p>As a Math TA, she had grade problem sets and sit in on TA hours. That took her more than five but she was classified as a half-time TA for employment regulation purposes. I don't think first-years are capped at 10 hrs weekly. Maybe that's a recommendation. But she was international, and the max you can work is 21hrs per week.</p>

13

<p>you could be an admissions office representative over the summer.</p>

14

<p>yeah..and you can do some filing job at the admission office...and do other stuff like help organize previews etc.</p>

<p>Getting a job at admissions in freshmen year is hard..especially the tourguide job. I know only 1 person who got the tourguide job as a freshmen. I think they hired him during spring break and he did a good job and then hired him permanently. Otherwise, you have to write essays and apply for the job in your soph year i think.</p>

<p>Try getting a job at Schow library..thats a good job.</p>

15

<p>Yup, admissions is hard to get for a freshman. Schow is an excellent location. Also, what are your academic interests? You could work as a lab assistant for chem. Or work in the greenhouse for Bio. Or work at WCMA as PR assistant, etc, but you have to apply for these as they don't come easy...or even Conference Office.</p>

16

<p>Which jobs are the worst jobs.</p>

17

<p>Salt mining. It can be pretty tough to meet your 1 ton quota for the shift after a long day of classes.</p>

18

<p>Are you joking or is that for real?</p>

19

<p>Jrock, have you been working too hard?</p>

20

<p>Maybe, but I don't think I'm working hard enough. Why?</p>