Tag Archives: On Campus Jobs

Finding your “win” moment

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Looking back, joining my high school’s newspaper publication was one of the best decisions I ever made. I was definitely one of those kids who was super academic and felt obligated to join extra curricular activities for my college application. Plus, my older sister is super bossy and insisted I joined. Aside from that, I had no expectations or idea of what I was getting myself into. Now, I chuckle at how much that has changed my life.

Starting on the bottom as a staff writer, writing articles made me develop a love-hate relationship with journalism. I never aspired to be a writer! On top of having seven classes a day (most AP’s), I was always expected to do better, meet tight deadlines, and learn to swim after being flung into the deep end of Associated Press style (journalism guidelines, otherwise known as AP style). Most importantly, journalism forced me to confront one of my biggest fears. I struggled with writing all of my life (and still do occasionally), so I had to work longer and harder than the average student just to compete. Unfortunately, I was embarrassed and ashamed of my limited abilities and was not very open to receiving help. Luckily, some editors saw how hard I worked and quickly absorbed me into their sphere of influence. Although they were not the editors I had to report to, they were the ones I could rely on for help and advice. Not all editors are great, but those who reached out to me made me realize my true potential. To this day, I am still extremely grateful for their overwhelming faith. Without them, I would not even have the courage to apply to a liberal arts college (with an infamous amount of writing!).

I found my “win” moment when I finally rose the ranks to head editor of the “Student Life” section, a three-page section in a 12-page, five section paper (in other words, this was a pretty big deal). However, my promotion was bittersweet. A lot of s*** hit the fan that year: my co-editor went MIA in his responsibilities*, other section editors lagged behind, writers were not getting the attention they deserved, the Editors-in-Chiefs were basically nonexistent, and we had our fourth journalism advisor in four years. After years of glorified journalism, our paper was slowly dying.

I still don’t really know how it happened, but over time, writers kept coming to me for help and advice when they did not know who to ask. I started staying after school for at least an hour every day, teaching them how to use InDesign and Photoshop, edited their articles, and just talked with them about their day. After a while, the other editors started coming to me too for help on how to manage their sections and design their desired graphics. I did not realize it at the time, but my increased responsibilities and strengthened relationships with staff members greatly boosted my credibility and leadership potential. Although I was never officially Editor-in-Chief, I might as well have been.

At the end of the year, I was extremely proud of how far we’ve come. Although we were not the best student publication in the country, I could not be more happy with the results and my staff. It was so embarrassing, but at our end-of-the-year banquet, I teared up (more like cried) with immense pride when my writers and “students” received deserving awards for their work. However, when the Editor-in-Chiefs presented me my award, they gave me “Most Likely to Be Found in the Computer Lab.” Ouch.

Of course I felt bad and invalidated, but I did not expect the wonderful reaction of my peers. A lot of my writers and staff were indignant that I was given such low recognition for my work and proceeded to come up to me, personally thanking me for my work and contributions. That was my “win” moment.

To me, a “win” moment means you’ve hit a sort of nirvana in your career; where everything you worked for finally comes together in a fulfilling way. You would never trade anything for that experience. This moment defined who I truly am and was the peak of my high school career. I cannot tell you how incredibly important this was in establishing my sense of self. The person that emerged from that banquet was the person my parents saw at graduation receiving my diploma and the person they see today.

The funny thing I learned about this entire journey is that journalism itself was not my nirvana. I did not leave high school wanting to study journalism at college or make it my life’s work. It was not my calling. Ultimately, it was the people and the work we did that made everything matter. I go back to my high school every year to check up on my writers. One is at Northwestern pursuing a major in journalism. Another was just appointed Editor-in-Chief this year. I feel as proud as a mama duck! Also, of you want to know, I am still in contact with my fabulous previous editors!

Today, I am looking for my next “win” moment. My next career nirvana. Since attending college, I continued to work in journalism publications for the Scripps Voice. This year marks my seventh year in the field! A lot of things changed for me since starting college and sometimes I feel like I am back in freshman year of high school. I still experience self-doubt and uncertainty with my decisions. Yet, I will never forget the feeling of working with people you care about towards a greater goal. In the next stage of my career, this will be my motivation. I believe that every day is a new adventure and by doing things we love and always striving for the very best, we can eventually find our way to our own nirvana.

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Like what you read? Check out my other articles and leave comments down below!

Have a Great and Memorable Turkey Day today!

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* I don’t blame him. He was working on science fair project that was on the way to curing cancer. Now he’s in some IVY league school.

A Brief Look Into My Work Schedule

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I haven’t really settled on one field of work that I want to pursue, so I have been basically been snapping up any job I can since arriving at Scripps to gain experience. Making money along the way helps too!

I now work four part-time jobs. Pretty crazy, I know.

Out of the four, three are on-campus jobs as a: design editor for the Scripps Voice, Phonathon caller for the Scripps Fund, and usher for the Scripps Performing Arts Center. My fourth job is with a company based in Gardena called Trinity International Industries. During the summer, I work at their home office. At school, I work remotely on my computer doing data entry.

Landing jobs are not easy. I probably sent dozens of applications in the course of my on-campus job search and I was very lucky some level of networking, since Trinityii hired me with little/no experience. Trinityii’s CEO hired me solely on word-of-mouth from her family friends… I was very lucky indeed.

Balancing the workload and responsibilities of four jobs can be really difficult and time consuming, especially since I consider myself a full-time student. I am very fortunate that my bosses are very considerate of my vigorous academic schedule, so my time is flexible. However, despite the flexibility, I still often find myself sleeping later and later, so I can finish all of the work I have to do.

I do not recommend others to follow in my footsteps, unless they have ridiculous organizational skills or if the work is absolutely necessary. I love having money at my disposal, but I love challenging myself to see what I am capable of. So far, my social and academic life has not dramatically changed with my increased level of work. I hope that remains as I continue to push through the rest of the semester!

Have any questions? Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn! I won’t bite! It would be a good start building your network. You never know when you might need a hand!

Live long and prosper!

The Illusion of Anonymity

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My junior year at Scripps I interviewed for the position of Admissions Intern. After a summer of working with the Office of Admission, I wanted to return my senior year to work with AAT leadership responsible for prospective student events, in addition to a number of special projects for the office.

I interviewed from abroad via Skype. I had commandeered my host-family’s kitchen, brushed my hair, put on lipstick and a nice button-up shirt. I went in confident. I felt good, and I knew my interviewers personally. I had worked with them all before.

I had prepared for the questions I knew were coming. Why was I applying for this position? What could I bring to the table? How would I balance the significant commitment of this job with my classes and thesis?

I answered the questions. I asked some of my own. We laughed and caught up a little bit. Everything was going as expected, until a question that caught me completely by surprise.

I was Skyping with an Admissions Officer and two of the AAT student staff whose shoes I would be trying to fill. I knew something was up towards the end of the interview, when one student turned to the other and said, “should we ask her?”

There was a pause.

I was on the edge of my seat.

Part of the job, the student explained, is keeping tabs on Scripps’ online presence, including college forums like College Confidential. “Are you [user_name] on College Confidential?”

College Confidential– a forum that allows students and parents to ask questions about specific colleges, majors, internships, study abroad and generally obsess over the admissions process.

I could feel my face go bright red. I laughed nervously and admitted that yes, that’s me.

There was laughter and quiet cheering on the other end of the Skype call. Someone said, “I knew it!”

I racked my brain to think of all the things I’d posted under that username recently. I certainly hadn’t posted any of it with my job interview in mind, but I had never tried to stay particularly anonymous. I was never shy about sharing details like my hometown, my major, my classes or on-campus jobs. It was all about helping prospies, and in my experience, the more specific detail the better. Although I never deliberately kept them separate, I never expected my online identity to be revealed as part of a job interview. The illusion of any sort of online anonymity had been shattered.

When the interviewer made the comment, “I feel like we should already be paying you!” I knew things were still ok. My online forum presence actually turned out to be a positive thing, in this instance. Answering questions online was something I had been doing to procrastinate homework and feel as if I’m helping people… and it helped me get the job where I could continue answering questions online for parents and prospective students.

I was lucky. What if I had lost my patience and cussed out a forum troll?  I’ve been tempted, I’ll admit, but this interview was a good reminder that online behavior, even under an “anonymous” user name can have very real consequences, good and bad.

5 Perks of Having an On-Campus Job

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This week I want to share 5 perks I have found to having an on-campus job.

  1. You learn more about how an office works. Or, if you’re a research assistant, how that professor does research. Or maybe you work at the bike shop, and you learn more about how to care for and repair bikes. No matter what you’re doing, you‘re probably learning something, and in a way that is different from how you learn in the classroom.
  2. Depending on where you work, it probably only takes you a few moments to reach where you work. Which means that if your alarm to wake you up from your two-hour power nap (okay maybe that doesn’t qualify as a power nap), then you can probably still get to work only a minute or two late. You will probably never again in your life live so close to where you work, so take advantage of that fact.
  3. You are getting work experience! While it might not be in the field you are hoping to work in as a career, having some work experience is better than having none when it comes to the day you do finally start applying for jobs in your field. And some of those skills that you are learning now may be transferable to your future work. And you may get an amazing reference out of it for those future jobs.
  4. You can earn money to help pay for Scripps, or save up for extra traveling during study abroad. Maybe you’ll just have some extra spending money, but whatever you do with it, being able to earn money for yourself is a truly rewarding experience. And since you’re probably going to be doing it for the rest of your life, it’s kind of nice to get some practice with personal budgeting and how to spend and save in a responsible manner.
  5. Work schedule flexibility – I know I already talked about the perks of working close to where you live (my own personal commute is only between Dorsey and Balch), but the other thing about on-campus jobs is that they know and understand that you are a student first and foremost. While they still expect you to behave professionally, they are more understanding about the rigorous demands of college life than an off-campus job might be.

If you haven’t yet found an on-campus job, use your resources. That doesn’t just mean looking on the Gateway or going in to CP&R – although that can be very helpful – tell your friends that you’re looking for a job. Maybe even mention it to a professor you’re particularly close to. They might have heard about jobs that aren’t listed, or that they might be able to help you get hired for. Either way, don’t give up! I got my current job through a friend of a friend. There are a lot of jobs on campus, and due to the nature of college, there is frequent turnover, so you have a very good chance of eventually finding something.

What are your favorite things about having an on-campus job? And what kinds of jobs have you had on campus?

5 Steps to finding an on-campus job, one step at a time

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Finding an on-campus job can seem daunting. Getting back into school mode, while filling out applications and going to interviews can be overwhelming—at least it was for me. Anyone seeking an on-campus job, but does not qualify for work-study positions have the added challenge of finding specific positions that are open to non-work-study students. I got my first on-campus job in the spring semester of last year. This semester, I will be continuing to work as Professor Delmont’s research assistant. Here are five tips that will hopefully point you in the right direction if you are looking of an on-campus, non-work-study job.

1. Spend time on The Gateway. Look at all the different positions that are available, even if they are work-study. Scouring The Gateway helped me gain a better understanding of all the different kinds of jobs available to students. And, it helped me figure out what kind of job I would be most interested in.

2. Determine what kind of job you want to get. Some things to consider might include: flexible hours or concrete hours, working independently or working with peers and possible career interests.

3. If there is a job you really want, but is not offered to non-work study students, I would recommend contacting the person who posted the listing. Chances are they may have a volunteer position you could take. If the volunteer position is in an area you are really interested in, it might be worth it to ask if they see non-work study positions becoming available anytime in the future.

4. Talk to friends and talk to professors. Many professors have research assistants who help out with their academic projects. You could ask your adviser if they know of anyone who is looking for a research assistant or office aide. Chances are, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

5. Respond quickly. The sooner you turn in your application, the better. However, make sure that it the application is thorough and doesn’t have any typos. I often get so excited about new possibilities that I try to get everything done as fast as I can and it ends up not being my best work.

I hope this gave some of you a good start to finding a job. What have other people’s experiences been like? Has anyone else found a non-work-study job a different way?