Your Turn: Student Employment

Many departments rely on student employmees to "get the job done". Many departments use students for web development, desktop support, system administration, etc.

Riccardo Schulz, Music
Keith Bajura, Music

    * Suggests changing job titles to be more lively: changing
      "student assistant" to "recording engineer" increased applications from 4 to 60.
    * Pay them more than minimum wage
    * Be honest - tell them what they will and won't like
    * Give them a raise every year (fifty cents an hour),
      because their jobs are valuable
    * Give the students public credit for their work where feasible
    * Most Recording Engineer work-studies stay 4 years
    * An example of quality student work: http://auditions.cfa.cmu.edu/

Rob Jones, Heinz

    * Posts the jobs on Tartan Trak and generally try to hire freshman only because they will be here for the next 4 years.
    * Students do basic desktop support, but always with the user or full-time staff present.
    * Risks of hiring freshmen include keeping them motivated - this is often their first job, and they are still new with time management of coursework, etc.
    * Suggested resources: http://hr.web.cmu.edu/default.asp?sectionID=430

Nick Thomas, H&SS

    * Students do basic desktop support and assist with Help Desk duties
    * Most hiring is done via referrals - friends who know what the workload is. H&SS seeks students who can de-escalate a problem, people who are low-key, mellow workers.

J. Alex Lang adds:

    * There may be problems holding a student to a
      confidentiality agreement. Do your research first.
    * Students want both to make money and build their resumes. Students seemed to be more interested in "web development" or "database administration" than "desktop support" or "computer maintenance" positions.
    * In cases where student jobs are less interesting, you can opt to reward good performance with more technical/interesting extra projects.

Clay Fulton, Computing Services Help Center
Matt Howell, Computing Services Help Center

Students are employed as Help Center consultants. It's high-stress work, dealing with people who are upset. The Help Center seeks students with technical proficiency, good communication, and the ability to defuse/de-escalate upset people. The Help Center also hires for "social fit" - since the environment can be stressful, they look for students that our students will work well with. A $50 gift certificate is provided as a referral bonus for referrals who stay on at least one semester.

The Help Center is not in a financial position to compete with other departmental technical openings, so instead the Help Center sells itself in the interview with job benefits (resume-building, tech skills, communication skills, flexible schedule, guaranteed time off, parties, etc).