<p>Is it a good idea to get a job (on-campus) during the first semester of your freshman year? </p>
<p>What I really want is the money, to build up my resume, and to get closer to my major department. The downsides, obviously, are less time to study and have fun. </p>
<p>I was thinking about getting an office assistant job in my department. Is this a good idea? Can you study a lot during those kinds of jobs? Do you need a good resume for them (or any on-campus job, for that matter)?</p>
<p>Are you sure you have enough time?</p>
<p>That's kind of what I'm asking, I'm not sure what to expect.</p>
<p>I think there's a 20 hr/wk limit on all campus jobs. I'm just wondering if this could be during the daytime on the weekends and a couple of evenings during the week? I'm not exactly sure how it works, especially with an office assistant job.</p>
<p>The office assistant jobs at my school are during the week, and you need to have work study to get them. An on campus job is a lot easier to manage than an off-campus one - I think for most of the ones at my school you work 8 - 10 hrs a week. They're also a lot more understanding when it comes to needing time off for midterms or finals.</p>
<p>I'd look into your college's career education center (or whatever they happen to call it) to ask these types of questions (how to get a job, if you need work study, what jobs are listed, what type of credentials you need to apply for them).</p>
<p>Library jobs are generally good for having extra time to study.</p>
<p>library jobs are the best...that, or a job where you have no responsibility and can do your work, is the only one worth getting.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for the advice. An assistant job probably would have been tough and out of my reach for the first year anyway. Maybe I'll try that next year and go for a library job instead. </p>
<p>But what if you weren't given federal work study? I know it's possible to get a job on campus still, but is a library job possible for someone without it?</p>
<p>Unlikely. It's much cheaper for them to hire a work study than a regular person. I'd chill for a while and see if you've got time before I worried about getting a job, unless you're scrambling to pay tuition or something.</p>
<p>At my school you can easily get a job without having work study, so I guess it depends.</p>
<p>I mean a library job OR an assistant job for that matter.</p>
<p>Is yours a big school or a small one, public or private?</p>
<p>And do you need a big resume for a library job? This would be my first job.</p>
<p>If you don't need to work, I would suggest not working freshman year (or at least for the first semester). This will give you time to adjust to college life.</p>
<p>I guess I don't need to, but I'd definitely make the money. The reason I thought I would get one first semester is because I wouldn't be able to get it second semester. Do you have to apply separately each semester?</p>
<p>And also, I'm hesitant to adjust before getting a job, because then I'll probably fill in all my time with other activities and won't be able to get a job next semester without sacrificing some other commitments. It's not an easy choice.</p>
<p>My school encourages first year students to get campus jobs. They suggest it because they feel it helps you adjust better because you understand how the school works.</p>
<p>Generally, you can easily get a job 2nd semester at many schools. Most people study abroad now and a good number of cafeteria and library jobs usually open up as juniors study abroad 2nd semester.</p>
<p>Ok, cool. </p>
<p>Well I'm getting a lot of mixed messages, people saying jobs help you adjust and others saying that they're a bad idea. But that's kind of good, because it shows that I'm not necessarily doomed for failure if I try. And now if I don't want to jump into it right away I can always wait until second semester, which is sounding like the best idea to me now.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your advice! I'm less worried about this now.</p>
<p>everyone has time for a job. it helps you learn to manage your time. even if it's just a 5 hour a week job. there's no way you can say you are too busy for a 5 hour a week job. just look around and feel out what is available for you. if the people who complain about not having time would spend one hour less each day playing video games, watching tv, or gossiping with their friends they would have time to work 5 hours a week as well as do classes.</p>
<p>check with the book store, or maybe the computer center, or the library as mentioned above. most of these places will hire freshman and then you can get a job more suited to your major after that... after you have actually taken some courses in your major anyway.</p>
<p>I got a job 2nd semester freshman year. It worked out well for me because I was able to take first semester to adjust to college life and figure out how much time I could set aside to work.</p>
<p>I am a business major with an on campus job in an engineering department. In my experience, department managers don't like to hire students from that department (ex. engineering majors in an engineering department) because student workers often come in contact with sensitive information about students and faculty in that department.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you take it easy during freshman year; I bet it's hard to adjust to the flow of college life, and I don't think you'd want to add the strain of a job onto the mountain of change you'll anyway be facing.</p>
<p>Or, playing Devil's advocate, everything else is changing, so why not this as well? Is it really that much harder to adjust to college if you have to go to work a few times a week? My guess that the regularity of the job would help getting you situated. Also, don't forget that you'll meet a lot of people when you work on campus. If you work in a department, you'll get to know the faculty. If you work at the library or other visible place, you might run into someone who recognizes you (making conversation easier).</p>
<p>Again, playing devil's advocate, but it isn't all doom-and-gloom.</p>
<p>I started working 2nd semester freshman year. I had tried to get a job right away, but was unsuccessful. Looking back, I'm glad, because I was able to adjust to college without having to adjust to working at the same time.</p>