Why on-campus jobs are the best jobs to have during university

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York University’s Fall Career Fair 2014 was held on Tuesday, September 23. The Fair welcomed future and current students to York University’s Keele campus to explore the extensive list of job opportunities available to current York U students and recent grads. It also hosted 50+ companies including CIT Financial Ltd., Air Canada and YMCA among others, looking to inform students about job opportunities and career ideas. Check out some of the day’s photo highlights here.

On-Campus Job Opportunities

A part-time job on-campus will give you the opportunity to work in a professional environment in a position that interests you. Volunteering on-campus first gave me the opportunity to contemplate over a variety of possible careers. After volunteering for Fall Campus Day, I decided to pursue a job as a student ambassador. I gave tours of York’s Keele Campus and helping out during the bi-annual York open houses. I got to see campus from a variety of perspectives. It taught me a lot about university programs, history of the school and how it runs. Getting the chance to see ‘behind the scenes’ was so fascinating to me. After working as a student ambassador, I decided to pursue other positions and that’s when I applied to be a social media assistant & blogger. I really enjoyed answering questions via social media and writing blogs since one of my majors was English. It was such a great experience being able to share my perspective about York as a current student and also communicate with future students and answer their questions from a student-centric point of view.

The Variety of Working On-Campus

Working on-campus is a great way to network and gain professional skills. Work/Study, Research at York (RAY), College Life at York (CLAY), York Engaged Students (YES) and York International jobs are posted on the Career Centre website before the beginning of the fall term allowing new students to apply to these positions before the start of the semester.

Daniel is a work/study Web Assistant, check out what he has to share about his position and how his experience in the position will get the attention of future employers.

Working in a university setting teaches you a great amount of professionalism. You get to work with highly-trained and talented staff that you will learn from tremendously.

On-campus employers are also very conscious of the busiest times in a student’s life in university. They are understanding when it comes to booking time off to study for exams or to work on important assignments. Whether you commute or live on campus, you’ll save tons of time having a job that’s only minutes away from class. Watch Halime share some of the perks to working on-campus.

Career Centre Support

In my opinion, York’s Career Centre is a great resource for future and current York U students. I probably visited the Career Center once a month during my entire undergraduate degree. They had a variety of workshops and events directed at students in all years and all studies. In my first year, I mostly attended writing and research workshops where I was guided on how to find sources efficiently online. In my second year, I was still contemplating what I wanted to do with my degree.

I attended career-specific workshops and was also able to make one-on-one appointments to meet with career advisers. These workshops and appointments helped me consider a variety of interesting careers, many of which I had no idea existed. By the time I was in the last year of my degree, I decided to start looking for full-time jobs. Because I was graduating in October but knew I wanted to apply to teachers college which was only possible once a year, I decided to look for full-time work in a field that I was genuinely interested in.

Academic and Career-related Workshops:

Through the Career Centre, I was able to sign up for resumé writing workshop and practice interview sessions with professionals. The support I was provided with through the Career Centre prepared me to write successful cover letters, resumés and taught me how to stand out in interviews. I was offered a full-time position to work as the Communications Assistant for Science Academic Services in the Faculty of Science immediately after graduation. The writing skills I gained through majoring in English, combined with the part-time work experience I had as a social media assistant & blogger at York made me a great candidate for the job. After my few months of my full time job, I decided to apply to teachers college, a career goal since high school.

As a recent York U grad, I still had access to the Career Centre. So, I signed up for help with my grad school applications, and met almost weekly with an adviser to get help on crafting my applications. I believe that the support I received definitely factored into me getting accepted to five out of six schools I had applied to! I was thrilled to have been accepted and ready to start my Bachelor of Education journey. Besides the educational experience, university is definitely an environment that provides you with tons of student success and career support. It’s up to you to reach out for that support and take advantage of all of the free workshops and advising opportunities that are given to you as a York U student.

Follow @YorkUCareerCtr for helpful job related tweets or like their page on Facebook for updates on the upcoming York U Winter Career Fair that will be a great setting for you to learn about on-campus jobs, internships and give you the opportunity to make connections with your future employers.

If you have any questions about jobs at York, leave me a comment on tweet us @yorkustudents for quick and helpful advice!

Kren