JOB Site to help students find work

For some students, college life couldn't get any better.

They're getting a top-notch education, they don't have to worry about paying for food and paying rent is as far away as the distant future.

For others, these worries are in the here and now. Some of these students are not on scholarship, and some don't have their parents' help in paying the bills.

These students need jobs.

The easiest solution to this problem would be getting a job on campus. However, outside of the work-study program, finding employment on campus has been far from easy.

Allison Jeffreys and the UA Department of Human Resources want to solve this problem.

Next month, human resources will be extending their Job Opportunities at Bama Web site, jobs.ua.edu, to include student assistant employment openings.

Currently, the JOB Site serves as part of the University's Online Recruitment and Employment Management system and allows those interested to apply for jobs in each department of the University, Jeffreys said.

The expansion to the Web site, which will be up May 1, will allow students to do the same, Jeffreys said.

The first time a student visits the site, they will be asked to create a username and password for logging on in the future, Jeffreys said.

Once logged in, students will be able to browse all on-campus job openings and their descriptions, excluding work-study jobs, which will continue to be handled through Financial Aid, she said.

Before applying for a job, students will fill out a general application that covers the basic information about a student. Once completed, the application is saved on the site for students to access and update whenever they like, Jeffreys said.

Once a student has found a job he or she would like to apply for, they simply view the job description, pull up their application through the site, and submit it to the particular department hiring, Jeffreys said.

Jeffreys said any job-specific questions will be answered separately from the application, before the process is through.

Students can apply for as many jobs as they would like to, and, as they do so, the site will keep up with the jobs they have applied for and update as jobs are filled, Jeffreys said.

Students may remember another job site within the student tab on myBama that allowed students only to look at job descriptions and was not limited to on-campus opportunities.

Jeffreys said she thinks site may have been originally intended for students who did not qualify for work-study jobs.

"I don't think anybody really kept up with the system," she said. "It might not have been accurate and up-to-date."

When it comes down to it, Jeffreys said, she and others would rather see students work on campus than elsewhere.

"Many students need to work, and we would rather see students work on campus rather than late nights off campus," she said.

Jeffreys said the site will work to remove the "who you know" element from getting a job on campus, and give all students the same fair chance, as well as making the process easier.

"A lot of times, [finding a job on campus] happens by word of mouth, or someone recommends you," she said. "This way it just gives everybody the same chance."

For the month of May, UA human resources has been training all departments at the University to prepare them for the site's extension, Jeffreys said.

Jeffreys said when the expansion launches, students can probably expect to find openings for both the summer and fall semesters.

To qualify for on-campus work, Jeffreys said human resources policy states that students must be enrolled in at least six hours, while graduate students must be enrolled for at least 4.5 hours.