I got my first on-campus job in my first year at university at IwanaTaco in the nest. Before that, I worked at other places, but they were not in a student environment as good as ON my university campus. They weren’t as fun and they didn’t make me feel as involved. I worked mostly with people who were not my age and who were in drastically different stages of their lives than me. This made it hard to connect with my coworkers or feel comfortable in my work environment. This also made working significantly less enjoyable. When I started working at UBC, I found it so much easier to make friends with the people I worked with, and that affected so many different things.
In my experience at UBC, it can be hard to make friends with people in your lectures. The lectures are huge, everyone is trying to pay attention, and then you don’t see them again once that term is over, or that’s how it was for me. I’m not saying it’s impossible to make friends in lecture, but instead imagine a small environment where there’s way fewer of you, you see each other multiple times a week for longer than just 50 minutes, and you have a chance to get to know each other because you’re not constantly taking notes.
There are lots of ways you can work on campus, and each has several of its own benefits. One huge benefit to on campus jobs is that you don’t get stuck with those gruelling 8 hour shifts – unless of course you specifically ask for one. Your employers know you’re a UBC student, and your schedule is so flexible to accommodate your classes. Working at IwanaTaco, and later at The Gallery, was so great for me because I would work a two hour shift, leave and go to my lecture, and then come back and keep working! Other programs, like Work Learn, only give you 4 hours at a time and a maximum of 10 a week to accommodate your homework and other school priorities. When you’re in full school mode, these things are more helpful than you would think. Another great benefit that I’ve already mentioned is the ability to make friends with your coworkers, but that is a much larger benefit than I might have made it seem. Making friends with your coworkers when you work on campus means that you are becoming friends with other UBC students, and making these really meaningful connections. For me this meant:
- Having people I could talk to about how hard school is and getting advice from different people on how they manage their school work with other things, like sports, their social life, and especially work.
- Meeting a large variety of people from different faculties and majors. Making friends with people in different faculties gives you access to so many new skillsets and perspectives. If it weren’t for all those poli-sci majors I made friends with, I’m not sure who would’ve helped me write my English 100 papers.
- Learning about different programs or courses I might like or could take because someone I work with is doing that and I get to hear what it’s like in a first person view. Before I knew I wanted to major in computer science, I only knew I was interested in taking a course and I didn’t know anything else. It’s because of a co-worker who was already majoring in CPSC that I learnt about how the program works and what courses I should start with based on my knowledge and interest levels.
- Getting exposure to new hobbies, clubs, games, books, and other things on top of just classes. This includes things that are available to you as a UBC student! I found out about a lot of new clubs, and while I may not have joined, it was really cool to learn so much about all the other things that go on around UBC. I also learnt where the math learning center was, which ended up being super helpful!
- Being able to work in an environment I was comfortable with because it’s where I go to school.
Our current circumstance of living in a pandemic poses many new challenges, but I may be so bold as to say you can still reap the same benefits of working while online. Even if your job got transferred to a remote work environment, you still get opportunities to communicate with your coworkers and learn from them. My job is more than 50% online now, but that definitely hasn’t stopped me from getting to know my coworkers – you just get to them in different ways! For example: we can talk about work or other things in our group chat or over Slack at any time, and because of this I now know about a new bubble tea flavour I wouldn’t have tried without my coworkers’ recommendation! And if you are so lucky that you found a job that is operating in person, you get all of those benefits plus a reason to leave the house and pretend life is normal for the day.
Some great ways to get a job on UBC campus are through CareersOnline . Here you can find Work Learn positions, internships, and other part time positions. The AMS at UBC also has lots of student positions to offer on a term by term basis, like my job at IwanaTaco!
By now you know that working on campus could provide you with endless benefits, like friends, connections, experience, and so much new knowledge! But, as much as you get out of your experiences, you also bring that much to them! I challenge you to think of 5 things you would bring to a workplace, a club, or a new environment. And if you’re really brave, I challenge you to work on actively enhancing the environments you’re already a part of with your own unique qualities and knowledge!
If you feel inspired and think you may be ready to get a job, my last post may be helpful to you! I share some pros and cons of working while at school, along with my personal how-tos for balancing work life with school life.
