It’s been mentioned that honor students often work at the tutoring center for to earn extra money. I think this might be something my D would enjoy doing in the future. I was curious about the pay and time commitment so I was poking around the OU Jobs page (it’s $10 and hour for 2-10 hours a week). I was surprised at the number of student jobs still available for the the Spring semester.
One position I was particularly surprised to see was an opening for an RA in Headington Hall. I’ve heard RA positions are hard to get and that it’s also hard to get a room in Headington Hall. The job’s been posted since 01-28-2015 I wonder if it’s still open because everyone already has their living arrangements or if it’s more difficult to be an RA in a sports dorm?
It’s still open because people don’t want that job. There is a lot of tension between workers and management at Headington and it caused a lot of people to either get fired or quit. For now, I’d reccomend D avoid it. It’s a very negative situation, from what I can tell.
I don’t know if your daughter likes sports, but working in the athletic department has been some of the most fun I’ve had at OU. I’m a manger for one of the athletic teams and it’s a great way to meet new people and I’ve gone all over, from NYC to Arizona and hopefully California next year. If there’s a sport D played in high school, I’d reccomend e-mailing the coach listed on soonersports.com. If you’ve got a specific sport, shoot me a PM and I’ll give you better info.
Tutoring is definitely very profitable. I do it in my spare time and make a good bit of money that way.
Another thing for your D to look at is research that can turn into a paying job. There are freshman research programs and if your D does a good job, professors fight to hang on to you and will generally offer payment.
My S2 is very interested in working in the athletic dept. Is it hard to get a job with the football team? When did you start working for them? Freshman year? Sophomore year? How many hours are required to work each week?
It is very hard to get a job with the football team. Typically those are reserved for people with connections (kids of boosters or former players, etc.). It might be more attainable right now, since the athletic teams are having to hire more managers and workers. This ties in with the hours we work. Long story short, part of the new healthcare law means that OU caps us at 26ish hours per week. Previously I’d work roughly 40/week and I know football managers would sometimes get to 60 during the season. Now that we’re limited, they have to hire more students to make up the hours.
So, as I said there are a lot of hours. You will not work in the athletic department for less than 20 hours/week on avg. There might be a few jobs that require less than that, but they are few and far between. I think it is worth it though. It exposes you to a very unique side of OU and you get a ton of perks (athletic tutors, priority registration like athletes if you don’t have it through NM, free trips around the country, and connections in the state of Oklahoma). It does make it challenging to work with school. It’s hard to take more than 15 hours/semester not because of workload, but fitting classes in with practice times can be difficult to schedule.
I started working my freshman year as soon as I got on campus. I e-mailed the head coach of my sport senior year and they directed me to someone. I met with my contact when I visited for summer enrollment and set up my position for when I arrived in the fall.
I’m very satisfied with my job. I prefer it to working in a food service place or retail. I’m very grateful to have it. I will say that it makes you grow up fast. You have to schedule your time well and it limits me to one other serious activity outside of school and work.
I am happy to answer any other questions.
Thanks for the reply! That is a lot of hours per week!
Are there many jobs that require less than 10 hours per week?
@sunnydayfun you can look at current job openings here:
https://jobs.ou.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/search/SearchResults_css.jsp
I’m guessing more jobs are posted at the change of semesters.