Information for On-Campus Employers
On-campus student employment includes a wide variety of job opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students at CMU. Job opportunities are posted throughout the year on Handshake, Carnegie Mellon University's online recruiting platform for students, employers, and campus partners.
Any student who is enrolled at least half-time (18 units) in a degree-granting program at Carnegie Mellon is eligible to work on-campus. To qualify to work during the summer session, the student must be admitted to, or continuing in, a degree-granting program at Carnegie Mellon the following semester.
Most students at Carnegie Mellon work an average of 6-12 hours per week, although they may work up to 37.5 hours. For information about work hour regulations for international students on a student visa, please contact the Office of International Education.
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Posting On-Campus Student Positions
Set Up a Handshake On-Campus Employer Account
To post student jobs on Handshake, you must have an on-campus employer account. Please note, jobs cannot be posted from a student-view account in Handshake. If you are faculty/staff and you already have a student-view Handshake account, you will need to create a new, second Handshake account connected with our On-campus Student Employment employer account in order to post jobs. Once created, you will be able to toggle between your two accounts using the “Switch users” feature in Handshake.
If you don't have a Handshake employer account, please email career@andrew.cmu.edu with the following information:
- Your name
- The division you work in (ex: Athletics, Housing, etc...)
- Purpose for getting a Handshake account
Create a New Job Posting in Handshake
When creating a new job posting, make sure you select the job type option for “On Campus Student Employment”. This allows students to easily find your posting when they search using the on-campus job filter.
Select your Division. Although it says optional, it is always best to select the appropriate division from the dropdown menu so that you and students can find your position using filters.
- Job Type is “On Campus Student Employment”
- Employment Type is “Part-Time”
- Duration is “Temporary/Seasonal”
- Start Date/End Date must be within one academic year employment calendar
- Required Documents should include at least a resume
- Applicant Package Recipients must include contact name/email to receive applicants
- Schools - type in and choose Carnegie Mellon University (do NOT choose All Schools)
- Apply Start Date/Expiration Date must be within one semester. To extend the posting into the next semester or academic year, you should repost the position using new dates. Fill in all fields. For every on-campus student job.
Re-Post an On-Campus Student Job in Handshake
Postings for student jobs should not extend beyond one semester. If you would like to hire new students for a job you have previously posted in Handshake, please create a new job posting by following the steps below:
Select Job on the left-hand navigation bar; select your Division from the top right menu dropdown; and select All or Expired Jobs if your posting is not currently active. Now search the list for the job you’d like to duplicate and select it by clicking on it.At the top of the posting, select More Actions, and choose Duplicate Job. By duplicating the job posting, you’ve created a copy of the original job posting with all the same information, but with no applicants.
Next, you'll want to review and edit the copied job before you post it. The key areas to update are:
- Start Date & End Date: Put in the new dates for the employment period.
- Applicant package Recipients: If necessary, update who will receive the application packages.
- Schools: You will need to add Carnegie Mellon as the school.
- Apply Start Date & Apply End Date: Review the default dates that your job is set to open/expire, and update them to reflect the new application period.
Find Your Job Postings in Handshake
To find your job postings, log in to your Handshake on-campus employer account. You can locate your job posting by using the filters or using the search function.
On the left side of the homepage, find Postings and select Jobs. Then on the menu at the top, choose whether you are searching for a posting that is Active or Expired, or choose All if you want to see them all.
To filter by Division, type the name of your division in the dropdown box. Click on the division name when it appears. The job postings from your division will be listed. You can re-order them by ID, Title, or Expired date.
Alternatively, you can locate your job posting by filling in the search box on the top right with the name of your division, job title, or job ID.
Recruiting & Supervising Students
Hiring a student worker can be a positive experience for both yourself and the student. In order to optimize this opportunity, you should have knowledge on how to best work with students. You can use the PDFs below to improve your understanding if necessary:
Paying Student Workers
Student workers are paid through Workday, Carnegie Mellon’s human resource system. For information about paying student workers, click here (INSERT SPECIFIC LINK). If you have any questions about tasks involving Workday, you can find answers in My Workday Toolkit.
Student Pay Rate Validation
Documentation is now required to validate the rate of pay for Carnegie Mellon student hourly positions (this does not include non-CMU student staff positions). Validation documents must be uploaded in Workday when entering the student job by attaching one of the following documents: 1) an application, 2) an email with the details of employment, or 3) an offer letter.
The university has created a template application for you to utilize when hiring Carnegie Mellon hourly students which includes all of the required information. If the hiring department prefers to use its own application, it is important that all of the below data points are included.
- Student Name
- Job Title
- Hiring Department
- Supervisor's Name
- Begin and End Date
- Hourly Rate of Pay
- Work Hours per Week
The Workday/S3 integration eliminates the need for the collection of personal sensitive data; therefore the hiring department should NOT ask students for the below types of information.
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Hobbies and Interests
- Social Security Number
- Work Study Award Amount
If the hiring department prefers to use its own email or offer letter to validate the rate of pay, please see the sample templates in the right sidebar on this page to ensure that these documents include the same data points as the application as noted above.
Standard Student Hourly Job Profiles & Pay Rates
- Undergraduate and Graduate Student Pay Ranges
- Undergraduate Student Job Profiles
- Graduate Student Job Profiles
Minimum Hourly Pay Rates for Student Positions
Federal and state minimum wage laws are systematically enforced for all hourly positions on campus, including student positions. The minimum hourly rate guidelines for student positions may be higher than these regulatory minimums. Students may be hired at an hourly rate that is above regulatory minimums but may be below guidelines for the specific job profile.
Raise Advice for Hourly Student Positions
It is not uncommon for students to receive an hourly pay rate increase of $0.25 per hour when returning to a position in the same department or hiring until after completing a prior team or year of successful performance. Appropriate increase amounts will vary based on the position's responsibilities and skills required.
Policies & Guidelines
Please refer to Carnegie Mellon’s official University Policies page for a complete list of university policies. For your reference, here are a few important policies related to student employment:
Additional Student Employment Guidelines
Supervisors sometimes have questions or concerns about student employment that are not directly covered in our official University Policies. To provide some guidance, here are guidelines that address common questions. If you have a specific situation that you are unsure how to handle, please do not hesitate to contact AnneMarie DeGeorge in the CPDC or your Human Resources representative.