Effort helps students land the perfect work study job

By Doug Schantz 9:34 PM Friday, June 24, 2011

Working on campus during your college years is a fundamental “rite of passage” that everyone should get the opportunity to experience.

Work study jobs help to prepare you for life after college, serve as a great resume builder, and help you make connections with people that will provide solid references for many years to come.

I hope the information provided below helps you get a leg up in landing that dream college job and gaining all that it has to offer ... and helps you make a couple bucks along the way as well.

A few tips for landing the perfect job on campus

• Start applying as soon as possible: Most colleges have some sort of job listing available on their website. In addition, many have a virtual-application process that allows you to select your top jobs and send an application to each one of them electronically.

As soon as you have selected your college and know that you want to work there, you should start looking through the job listings right away and check back routinely for any newly available positions.

• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up: Work study jobs are just like any other job in the real world. If you want to get the job, you need to keep your name at the forefront of the person responsible for doing the hiring. Email them, call them, become their Facebook friend (well... maybe not that, but you get the gist).

• Look for the jobs that are not there: In the past few years, it seems like more work study jobs are getting filled by word of mouth, and an official job opening is never posted. Take advantage of this by calling or stopping by various departments and offices to see if they plan to hire anyone. If you get any good leads, refer to the follow-up mantra above.

• Play the part: What I mean here is that even though you are a college student, you don’t always want to look the part. When you are attempting to score a great work study job, try and keep the flip flops, ragged jeans, and chewed-up baseball caps to a minimum. After you secure the job, you can bring back the normal college attire, assuming it conforms to the employer’s dress code.

• Complete paperwork in a timely manner: In order to qualify for federal work study, you first have to complete your FAFSA so that the financial aid office can include it in your financial aid award.

Also, double-check with the student employment office to see if it is OK if you pre-complete any tax paperwork (W4 forms) and/or campus documentation required for employment.

If you have all this done, it will save a lot of time for the office that hires you and it will show that you are a go-getter with initiative.

• Draft up a resume: It doesn’t have to be anything too fancy at this point. It just needs to reflect any relevant job experience you may have had leading up to college.

If you are visiting different offices on campus, you can always leave them with a copy of your resume and your current contact information in case a job opening becomes available.

As you continue your college career, you can build upon this resume so that you can have a jump-start when you begin the job search again in four years.

Doug Schantz is director for the  Office of Student Accounts at  Wittenberg University and the founder and editor of the college money blog, CheapScholar.org.

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