In high school, having a part-time job and being able to buy coveted electronics and clothing is crucial to every teenager's quest to become the best-dressed, coolest kid in school. With issues like tuition payment, resume building and general survival to worry about, the job-hunting stakes are much higher on the university level.
Shaun Spellman says garnering experience and being active in the university is his top priority when it comes to finding employment.
"I work for SA so I get a stipend. It's more about the experience than the money. I get paid like once a month," said the sophomore business major, who works as a small concerts coordinator for the Student Association.
Spellman said that he discovered his desire to become more involved in school last year when he worked off campus and had little time for on-campus activities.
"It would tie me up on the weekends," he said of his position at Office Max. "I wasn't as involved on campus as I could have been because I was tied down with work."
While Spellman was able to find fitting employment, not every student is as fortunate.
Iyabo Oyewo, a freshman economics major, said she hasn't had much success finding suitable employment.
Oyewo said she doesn't qualify for Work Study - a federal program that provides jobs for students with financial need - and that finding a job has been a challenge.
"I look for the signs and posters (for job openings)," she said. "I never get hired for those kinds of things."
Oyewo said her difficulty is compounded by the fact that she doesn't have the resources to venture off campus.
"I don't have a vehicle and if you don't have a vehicle you can't really work off campus."
According to Dawn Baumgarten, the student employment coordinator at the Office of Career Services, students seeking employment on campus are encouraged to look at the Career Services Web site, www.ub-careers.buffalo.edu, for job openings. She also advises students to stop into her Capen Hall office and speak with any of the 11 advisors available.
"We've had part-time job fairs. Offices call us (because) they know that we have a mechanism to post openings," she said. "This year we made a collaboration with the Student Response Center and posted all the Work Study openings. We also post non-Work Study positions and graduate assistantships."
Baumgarten said it is important for students to respond quickly to the postings on the Web site.
"We're getting to the point where there's not a ton (of job openings) on the Web site," she said. "(The amount of job postings) depends on the time of year. Things are sort of seasonal, the beginning of the fall semester, the beginning of the spring semester and summer is when there are the most openings posted."
While Career Services is a good place to start, some students, like Shahla Khan, a second year graduate student studying business, said she found her job on campus through her own initiative.
"I just asked a couple of friends and then I talked to the manager over here," said Khan of her food service position at Putnam's last spring.
Khan said though the work was physically tiring, and she had to balance the job with schoolwork, it was worth the effort.
"It's a good experience, it teaches you time management," she said.
Rich Waterstreet, a sophomore business major who lives on campus, was much less satisfied with his job at a carwash off campus.
"It sucked, I hated it. I make like $4.50 an hour with tips, if I didn't get tips I wouldn't make any money," he said. "And I hated management."
Whether students are pleased or dissatisfied with their employment, many would agree that having a means of income is of great consequence.
"Working is very important to me," said Xzavier Jackson, a junior majoring in early childhood development. "Ever since I was 16 years old, I felt that it was essential to have a job, not only for my personal experience, but also for the basic needs of my family."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
