No paycheck yet for many hopeful USU students
September 15th, 2012 Posted in OpinionBy Misty Inglet
LOGAN — Student after student filed into Utah State University’s Career Services Center in August. All of them were looking for the same thing: an on-campus job.
Nearly 8,000 students applied. Fewer than 2,000 were successful.
Aimee Cobabe was among the unfortunate ones.
“I’ve applied for several different positions already and only gotten just one interview,” Cobabe said. “Some of the places I’ve applied have made it obvious that a lot of other people had applied and so they didn’t even look at my application. It was very frustrating.”
“There are so many students who need work that all we can do is fill up every on-campus job available and then just leave it up to the student,” student employment supervisor Paula Johnson said. “It’s up to the students to just keep applying and checking for job openings.”
Cobabe said the competition is fierce.
“Everyone is so qualified and wants the job so bad,” she said. “We’re all going to school and we all need the money.”
But Johnson said qualifications aren’t a big factor.
“Some jobs do require specifications, but most of them are just basic, entry-level jobs that anyone is eligible for,” Johnson said.
Career Services does what it can to help students find work. It offers help with resume writing and posts new job openings every day at 8 a.m. Many of those jobs are gone by 10 a.m.
Student employment coordinator Brenda Bohm said the early Aggies get the work.
“If students will just look at the job board right at 8 a.m. every day, they might have better success in locating work,” she said.
“If students are very persistent then they can usually find something,” Johnson said. “Sometimes it just takes a little time.”
Cobabe plans to keep applying for jobs until she finds something.
“It can get so stressful that you think you’re going to quit, but you can’t. You have to just keep working at it if you want a job,” Cobabe said. “Looking for work is a full-time job in itself.”
And Bohm said that’s the right attitude.
“Those students who look early and keep looking,” she said, “are the ones who are going to end up receiving paychecks.”
MDL
Tags: Aimee Cobabe, Brenda Bohm, campus jobs, unemployment, USU student
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