<p>I have about 3k in work study as part of my financial aid package and I was wondering how hard is it to find a job at Berkeley. Also, since the economy is bad, what do you do if you can't find a job? </p>
<p>What should I do to make sure I get a job? How and when should I start looking for work? Which are the best jobs with the most flexible work schedules?</p>
<p>the jobs def are not hard to get-its not like trying to get a job with a fortune 500 company. they have more than enough positions for everyone in WS to get one, although some may require specialized skills (eg grad student standing or HTML/coding experience/etc). jobs that pay in the lower range ($10-11 /hr will allow you to work more hours to make sure you get all your money) </p>
<p>also WS employers are understaidn about midterms/finals etc and so are pretty flexible with work hours</p>
<p>i recommend you check out this website
[UC</a> Berkeley Work-Study Program](<a href=“http://workstudy.berkeley.edu/]UC”>http://workstudy.berkeley.edu/)</p>
<p>thanks, the website is really helpful.</p>
<p>The website above is really the only place you should be looking. Jobs aren’t that competitive, so whichever you want is more than likely available to you. I had numerous work-study jobs during my time at Cal. With no real specialized skill/training, my wage rates were (in order, beginning freshmen year) $11.00, $12.00, $14.00, $10.79, $18.00. Yeah, some of those higher wages were off-campus, but all of them were pretty flexible in allowing you to work away from the office, occasionally. Looking back, I do wish I could have gone for some of the menial $9.00 on-campus jobs that were much closer and would have allowed me to interact with students more frequently. There are definitely peaks and valleys in job offerings. Beginning a month or so before each semester, the # of job listings should climb to as high as 250.</p>
<p>would you be at a disadvantage if you never had a job before? I’ve done some volunteering but that’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>I never had a job before college, either. Of course it’ll depend on the job, but you should be fine.</p>
<p>I think it definitely helps to have work experience in order to stand out for competitive jobs. However, if the job requires few skills and there aren’t people with work experience competing against you, it’ll be okay.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link! [:</p>
<p>no problem!</p>
<p>can you request work-study even if you have no financial need</p>
<p>How does payment of work-study work? I know it is being used to pay part of your costs, but does your money go straight to the school until you reach how much you have to pay and then the rest goes to you?</p>
<p>The money from work study goes to you. You can do whatever you want with it.</p>
<p>^Then I’m definitely gonna need to budget it out and try to develop a schedule in advance to see what money I will have extra to use.</p>
<p>is there an interview process involved in getting the work study? what happens if you like in SoCal and you can’t go to the interview because it’s too far away or is the interview in the beginning of the academic year?</p>
<p>There’s usually a interview, just like any other job. You don’t need to apply right now. In fact, I don’t know why you would apply right now. You usually would apply when you get to school because you know your schedule, class workload, talk with the person hiring you, and it’s not like the supervisor is going to hold a position for you over the summer.</p>
<p>If you are an incoming freshman, I would highly advise holding off on jobs for awhile. Your #1 priority should be getting acquainted to college life: this actually qualifies as a job in itself. Pretty much all your social network in dorm life is cemented in the first few weeks of school, and being gone for work is a great way to be out of the loop. Get through your first set of mid-terms before you get a job, so you know your academic progress. Get a job by mid- to late-October, but you should periodically peruse the job listings at the work-study website to get an idea of the type of offerings so you have a good set of expectations when applying. </p>
<p>Remember that you have all year to earn your work-study amount. </p>
<p>Your pay goes directly to you; in fact, all my employers highly suggested (or even required) direct deposit (directly into your checking account). It usually takes about two weeks after your pay date for the money to go through. </p>
<p>Here’s an important lesson in work-study finance (well, financial aid in general). Look at your financial aid package. It consists of elements that amount to the campus’s cost of attendance, which consists of six categories: housing and utilities; food; books & supplies; personal, transportation, and tuition. Each financial aid offer varies considerably, but there are several rules of thumb. This is the one that applies to work-study: the money you earn is intended for you to make up the costs outside of tuition, and housing and utilities, meaning most often your work-study is structured to cover “personal” and “transportation.” </p>
<p>The reason why will become apparent shortly. </p>
<p>The majority of a student’s semester financial aid allotment (from loans or grants) will be released to the student at the beginning of the semester, meaning they will have sufficient money to last them for ANY costs for several months. (Dedicated grants and loans-- those that are only allowed for tuition purposes-- are received by the institution and withheld from students but kept on balance by the university towards tuition costs.) If you don’t do work-study, and your personal budgets equals that of the university’s cost of attendance, then you will have $0 to spend for the last month or two of the semester. But here’s the secret: NO ONE SPENDS THE UNIVERSITY COST OF ATTENDANCE ESTIMATES, ESPECIALLY FRESHMEN! Seriously, has anyone ever spent $1306 on “books and supplies” in a year? Freshmen live on campus, and with the Class Pass (free bus), almost no freshmen spend $614 for transportation. Because freshmen have meal plan, very few freshmen will spend $924 for food. And this doesn’t even include the $1336 for “personal” costs. In short, if you are wise with your spending and cut out unnecessary costs, you can get by even without $3000 in work-study earnings! And this is exactly what work-study is intended to do: the other part of your financial aid covers school-related matters, while work-study can be seen as income towards standard of living-- the more you work, the better off you’ll be financially, the less you work, the less so-- but it’s not essential, like with housing vs. being homeless, or fed vs. hunger. </p>
<p>Now here’s the logic: the school (financially, through the financial aid office) is only responsible for helping you to meet the needs of attending school, to those applicable. Federal work-study is not mandatory, they can’t make you work, the decision is entirely yours. Work-study cannot be made mandatory for a myriad of reasons. For example, wouldn’t that put students with a past criminal history at an unfair advantage because many wouldn’t be able to find good jobs as a student? So work-study is created to meet outside costs that are non-essential, you know, “personal” or “transportation” costs. And this also explains why your pay is not channeled through a medium (like the financial aid office) but directly to you: no need for a middleman when these costs are a burden to your own finance.</p>
<p>And yes, I clearly thought about work-study and financial aid A LOT while in college.</p>
<p>thanks, this is great advice! I am also planning on saving some money by getting a triple my first year (plus I’ll make more friends).</p>
<p>i know this post might be old but it’s pretty useful.</p>
<p>can we get work study if we do not have the financial need? i’d like to earn some extra money and have some experience.</p>
<p>no, you cannot.</p>
<p>Work study is for people who need the money… :S</p>