Something that employers want students in college to know is what they desire in an employee. And college graduates would value greatly if they knew this information before getting out of school. So what is it that employers want students to know? Come out of college with experience. It’s what you do within your degree that sets you apart—not just the simple fact that you have a degree. Here are some different ways to gain experience with finances, academics, personal skills and relationships during your college years, leading up to graduation and finding a good ol’ job.

1. Understand all perspectives of dorm life by living in the dorms, taking a leadership role in the dorms, then living off campus with people by renting a house. The different relational and financial perspectives gained will bring experience and give credibility.
2. Work multiple jobs during your college years to gain experience in various fields.
3. Intern somewhere that applies to your working field of interest.
4. Form relationships with professors and your school’s faculty. Not only will it give you experience in communicating with a different generation but it will enable you to establish connections and gain insight with intelligent professors and doctors who are there to help you.
5. Join multiple clubs for fun. Being involved in a wide array of activities will extend your interests, and strike up conversation. Bonus: Learn something.
6. Join a club early on that you are serious about, that parallels with your academic interests, and work your way into a leadership or club council position.
7. Know where you live. See the sights and get an understanding for the different ways in which your college home works so that you can seek out more opportunities for internships, relationships or pure adventure.
8. Establish hobbies and be consistent with them. Perseverance in one activity is invaluable, and shows employers you are capable of sticking with a particular activity for a long period of time.
9. Keep a journal to document your progress throughout school, so that you can come out being aware of the ways you grew and how much you learned, beyond just academics. Notifying employers of the growth attained through certain experiences is a definite plus.
10. Employers want well rounded individuals; take a wide array of classes that not only peak your interest, but help you understand how the world works.
11. Apply for scholarships. The more you apply for, the more you will likely win. Winning scholarships is a good resume builder, because employers will see that you are qualified in the eyes of others also.
12. Keep up with the print media and read the daily news. Not only does reading the newspaper give your life context, but it’s valuable to know what is going on during a daily basis.
13. Find out what you think for yourself. If we ask questions and examine all aspects of life, we will be more educated through the processes used in finding our answers and also more prepared to be employed long term.
14. Read blogs! Find out what opinions there are on different issues and see where you fit in to all of it. Being aware is very valuable in an employee, and will help you do your job on a higher level than you would while being unaware of current events.
15. Study abroad.
16. Take a year off. Spend the year building up your experience.
17. Take workshops at your college. Any workshop. Last week I attended a presentation on “Careers in Liberal Arts” which gave me some insight on different liberal arts majors and the occupations that students go on to take. Any presentation or workshop that could be beneficial (which are most) should be taken advantage of!
18. Run a marathon. It’s something besides academics and extracurricular activities that challenges you. (And it’s impressive!)
19. Fail at something. And then learn a lesson through your failure, coming out of it with a great story to tell. Walter Brunell once said, “Failure is the tuition you pay for success.”
20. Volunteer! Volunteer opportunities can be found in many places, and all the better if you can find something that that you can contribute to with the expertise of your major.
21. Become an expert in what you’re interested in. Read books, follow blogs and stay up to date with the news in your field of interest.
22. Use social media to get your name known, and to communicate with others who are doing what you want to do eventually. This can give you opportunities to form relationships early in your career.
23. Take advantage of freelance opportunities from connections who would like to help you, and who need something done that you are capable of doing. And it wouldn’t hurt to make business cards.
24. Make an excellent resume. Use online resources or career center resources at your school.
25. Create a blog to mediate all of your networking and to post questions and issues of your area of interest, starting as early as possible and getting yourself established in your studies when employers search you on Google.
26. Practice people skills. During an interview, personality is a definite factor in the hiring process.
27. Take advantage of free advice (free is relative). Attending college hands these opportunities out freely (again relative).
28. Use your time wisely .
29. Do important things, like study and manage time well, but don’t forget to be a college student and socialize. Learn from experience, not just textbooks.
30. Learn how to socialize in large groups and one-on-one.
31. Meet with your professors if they are willing to meet with students outside of class, use this as an opportunity to be mentored and given advice in academics and life.
32. Don’t settle for the first major that sounds interesting and probably has a high employment rate. Study what you are good at and study what you love.
33. Have fun.
34. Be organized with your accomplishments.
35. Manage a budget so that you aren’t hindered from partaking in beneficial activities because you’ve spent money mindlessly.
36. Be able to tell someone about yourself and how you have grown individually through your time in college and list specific experiences that have helped shape you.
37. Don’t sweat the small stuff. As long as you focus on the bigger picture of graduation and beyond, you will have a larger perspective that employers will appreciate.

There are several different ways to pay for college…

Deb: Um, hello. Would you like to look like this?
[holds out a photo]
Napoleon Dynamite: [Napoleon takes the photo and looks at it] This is a girl.
Deb: [Deb continues nervously] Because for a limited time only, Glamour Shots by Deb are 75% off.
Napoleon Dynamite: I already get my hair cut at the Cuttin’ Corral.
Deb: Well, maybe you’d be interested in some home-woven handicrafts?
[Scene continues after Rex Kwon Do TV ad Kip's watching]
Deb: … And here we have some boondoggle key chains. A must-have for this season’s fashion.
Napoleon Dynamite: I already made like infinity of those at scout camp.                                   Deb: I’m trying to earn money for college.

Though making home-woven handicrafts would be quite fun, you don’t have to earn money for college the way Deb chose to. There are other options.

1. Join an on campus group that offers free room & board. A great option for anyone with great leadership abilities who wants to be involved. For example, a Residential Advisor. Look into the benefits of positions on campus that are related to residential life and food services.
2. Attend your campus wide Job Fair: Bring a resume, dress well, and pay for college by working it off through an on or off campus job .
3. The Summer Melt is an opportunity few know about. It’s the time right before fall term when students resign their spots in a university, thus resigning their scholarship money. Writing a letter to your financial aid office asking for more money doesn’t hurt, and usually helps.
4. Write a killer scholarship essay, and use it for multiple scholarship entries. Kill multiple birds with just one sweet stone.
5. Join a free scholarship search service such as Fast web, College Board’s Scholarship Search or Sallie Mae and let them find scholarships for you to apply for.
6. Using Advanced Placement credits towards college means super cheap college credit.
7. Have the government cancel all or part of your educational loans by qualifying for loan forgiveness. To qualify for loan forgiveness you must match the criteria specified by the forgiveness program which can include community service, joining the armed services, and teaching or practicing medicine in certain types of communities.
8. Seek out jobs that pay your college tuition. Three national companies that assist employees towards their education are UPS, FedEx and Home Depot.
9. If you’ve got a knack for writing, or just have things to say that would be useful in any way to others, create a blog and make money through advertisement placed on your website.
10. Host an event (more likely if you are living in a house) and organize a house show with the musicians on campus, or host a Scrabble tournament with incentives. The suggested donation for attending should be posted as anywhere from $1 to $1,000,000.

Save Save Save

1. Accelerate your degree by getting yourself into an accelerated degree program, which cram a semester’s worth of content into a shorter amount of time. In an accelerated degree program, tuition is about half the price of a traditional degree program, while encompassing a greater intensity of work.
2. Bulk up on transfer credits! During the summer, enroll in classes at a community college that will transfer to your university and save you a whole lot of money.
3. Consider transferring into your preferred university after two years, if it is more expensive, while going somewhere else at first. Doing this will allow you to still gain the benefits of your chosen university while also taking away a diploma from the college of preference.
4. Create a budget to calculate the money you spend on coffee, late night fast food runs and other things that are unnecessary. Being able to track your money will help you save and spend responsibly.
5. Keep coupons of local grocery stores and follow weekly sales, avoiding expensive grocers.

Let’s face it – working and going to school is never going to be a fun combination.  With most jobs, you’ll have to worry about conflicts.  For example, you may need to study for your final or write that huge research project on the same weekend you’re scheduled to work a double shift.  Or you may have to deal with employers who say they will work around your class schedule only to find out too late they didn’t really mean it.

Working on your college campus, however, can help alleviate some of the problems.  Because most of the jobs will be done through your college, you know they will be eager to work with your schedule.  However, many students think working on campus means slinging food onto a tray.

The goods news is that working on campus doesn’t mean a four year stint in the food industry.  There are plenty of other options – many of which will help give you experience for your future career.

Here are some jobs to look into:

• Working in the Offices – All colleges have offices – admissions, financial aid, liberal arts, etc.  And all of these offices have one thing in common:  they need friendly faces that can answer questions, do some typing and filing, and maybe answer telephones.  Students are perfect for these jobs.
• PC Help – Most colleges and universities have a number of computer labs on campus, but these labs need supervision so the equipment isn’t stolen or misused and in case students run into problems.  The jobs usually require someone with a basic knowledge of computers and someone who doesn’t mind sitting at a computer for a few hours at a time.
• RAs – RA stands for Resident Assistant.  These are students who live on-campus and agree to be available for students living in the dorms.  For example, if a student has a complaint about a party, he or she would come to you and you’d have to take care of it.  It may be a thankless job but in return colleges usually pay some or all of the costs of your room.  That could leave you plenty of extra money.
• Newspaper Staff – Although many college newspapers are run by journalism students who don’t get paid, some positions are different.  For example, our newspaper recently hired a student to be in charge of advertising.  The student earned $30 per issue (it was a weekly newspaper), plus a percentage of all the ad sales he or she made.  While the money wasn’t great, the job would be great preparation for a future in advertising, sales, or business.
• Tutors – More colleges are realizing that students need a little extra help sometimes – maybe with checking their grammar on a paper, maybe with working a few algebra problems, or even with preparing to re-take an important standardized test.  That’s why colleges are hiring students as tutors.  To be a tutor, you usually need to be strong in your specific subject area.  You may also need to go through training.  If you like your subject and people, then it’s a great job.  Plus, you can use the down-time to work on your own homework.

These are just some of the non-food related positions available on most college campuses.  If you’re not sure what’s available, pay a visit to Career Services or check out your college’s Human Resources page.  You’ll undoubtedly find more than “burger flipper wanted.”