Popular Campus Jobs that Can Help You Explore College Majors

Popular Campus Jobs that Can Help You Explore College Majors Enrolling in a diverse array of classes isnt the only way to explore college majors. You can also join clubs and organizations, volunteer in your community, and take on a part-time job. Campus jobs are a great option for students because your supervisors inherently understand your scheduling needs. Work hours are generally reasonable, and you can get paid while learning certain skills. Having a part time job during the school year may also help you prepare for your first internship. Here are five popular campus jobs that can help you explore college majors: 1. Teaching assistant Working as an undergraduate teaching assistant (or TA) is an excellent way to get to know what a specific field of study is like. As a TA, youll likely grade student work, as well as answer any questions that students have about the course material and assignments. You might even get to lead part of a lecture. This is great practice if you are hoping to be a teacher or professor yourself. Youll be in a prime position to determine whether this is a field of study youd like to pursue, and the professional relationshipyou form with your professor will be extremely valuable youll become familiar with his/her research, and he or she should be able to give you insight into related career fields. 2. Writing center assistant Second in this list of popular campusjobs that can help you explore college majors is the writing center assistant. Working at your campus writing center will allow you to develop transferrable job skills, and a glimpse into the majors of writing, education, and the general humanities. Youll be able to work one-on-one or in small groups with peers who are writing papers. In this way, youll become familiar with content from a wide range of majors, as well as with the typical assignments required of those majors. This kind of tutoring will give you a sense of whether youd like to work in education, as well as any of the fields you dabble in while helping students. You may also want to consider taking a tutoring joboutside of your school, where you can be exposed to students of all ages in the community. 3. Computer technician If youre technologically minded, look into becoming a computer technician perhaps at the informational technology help desk, or in the library, computer lab, language lab, or other media center. Your responsibilities might include helping others with technical difficulties, computer or media failure, or a simple question and answer about using certain devices. You may be able to work in a specific department such as computer programming, engineering, or statistics to get to know different majors that way. Youll also gain a deeper sense of what its like to work as a technician or resource person. 4. Administrative assistant Almost every department needs an administrative assistant. Inquire with the academic departments of fields youre interested in, as well as at the career center, the study abroad center, or even the admissions office. This is an excellent way to get to know the inner-workings of a specific field, as well as to see whether or not youd like it. You might have to do tasks like filing, copying, and running for coffee, but whats valuable are the connections youll get to make in a field that interests you. 5. Research/lab assistant If youre passionate about or intrigued by the sciences whether natural or social investigate research and lab assistant positions. These jobs can give you hands-on experience working in a lab itself or helping to crunch numbers and synthesize data for a professor. Youll often work for a specific professor and get to know his or her project well. While you might not want to follow in the exact same field of study, youll still learn about what you like and dont like in terms of interesting majors or future jobs. Research experiencemay also help you in aplying for grad school. If you have the time in your academic schedule, look into part-time campus work. There are a variety of popular campus jobs that can help you explore college majors. In these positions, youll get to investigate different fields of study and make some pocket money at the same time. Here are some good reasons why you should have a part time job in college.