Hi everyone,
I know you’re probably wondering about employment at Amherst College. College can be very expensive, and you might be worried about finding a job during your academic year. You might have heard stories from college students about how competitive it is to get employment at some universities. I’ll tell you about my experiences finding employment at Amherst!
My first job was (you guessed it) being an Admission Office Blogger. I applied to a few jobs on Workday, an online portal that is also used for course registration, and got an interview for the blogger position. When you guys become Amherst College students, I highly recommend this job! You get paid to yap–It’s great. After my job as a blogger, I was hired as an event staff member. This is a job with very flexible hours. Whenever Amherst College has an event (ex., LitFest), workers can sign up for a shift to ensure the event runs smoothly. My most recent job is with ACEMS, a student-led emergency medical services group. As a new squad member (Med-13), my main job is taking patient vitals and assisting the other two members on shift with me (Med-12 and Med-10) as we respond to an emergency. I also strongly recommend applying to join the ACEMS squad if you love caring for others and want to learn how to think on your feet. I am on a 12-hour shift once every two weeks for ACEMS, so it is not a huge time commitment.
While I do have three jobs, they are all very manageable! I have enough time for academics and fun at Amherst. Also, to be transparent, getting jobs at Amherst College can sometimes be difficult. I applied to over 15 jobs and received offers from 3/15. However, upperclassmen and students with work studies are given preference for many jobs. Although finding employment was a little tricky for me, it will get easier over time as I gain more experience at Amherst. Also, my friends at large universities applied to over 20 on-campus jobs and still haven’t gotten an offer. At Amherst College, almost all my underclassmen friends have at least one job on campus. There are so many job opportunities at a small school, despite how competitive some jobs may be. For instance, working desk jobs at places like the library are competitive because students want jobs where they can do homework during downtime. For application tips, students can contact the Loeb Center. The Loeb Center has resume workshops and appointments for students to have their cover letters/ internship supplementals looked over. This resource has been extremely helpful for me in solidifying employment applications.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about my experiences applying to jobs on campus, finding employment, and the types of jobs available, please reach out to me at ipatel28@amherst.edu.