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people who work at colleges...
There's a clerk position available at a college near my mom's house in Alabama. It requires 3 professional letters of reference and I can only think of two (all my others are teachers or from the education field). Anyway, thats just one of my problems! Do you like working at a college? How's the work load? Do you get off when the kids are gone for spring break, christmas break, etc? My husband is starting college and he will be at this school, which will be kind of cool. Do you know if most colleges give a discount on tuition for family members?
My interview with all the principals went well last week, but they told me they cant offer me a job until my certification transfers to Alabama. They say it can take weeks to MONTHS and I might not be able to get a teaching job by the end of the summer. So, I was just trying to find something else for the time being.
Re: people who work at colleges...
All schools and most departments within schools vary widely with regard to employment/personal happiness/benefits. Here is my experience (long).
At the first university I worked for, a proprietary university, I was in financial aid. It was the suck. Most of my coworkers were awesome, but the practices the school had were a bit unethical (IMO and several coworkers felt the same). The benefits were good but expensive, and we were always at work unless there was a federal holiday.
At the second school, a proprietary college, I was also in fin aid. Working there was terrible--when they were violating regulations and I brought it to their attention (compliance fell into fin aid's hands), they got angry and tried to bully. Benefits were very minimal and very expensive. There were hardly any days/time off, they did not encourage vacation use, and, often times, we were required to work overtime.
The thing to know is, if you're going into proprietary, no matter what your position, you're really in sales. Enrollment and retention is up to everyone who comes in contact with (potential) students: this makes daily life in the office not so pleasant.
My current school is a large, public university. Here, I work in scholarships which has me working closely with fin aid, but I'm no longer in fin aid. The benefits rock (they cover almost everything and I pay a mere 17$ a month for DH and me), and vacation use is encouraged. The bad: the office is open pretty much no matter what (because it's administrative), and you're either going to love or not love your coworkers (hate is such a strong word). Things can get so laid back to the point where people don't care what they're doing, they mess up, things get forgotten and left behind.
All of the schools I worked for offered discounts for the employee, only my current school offers them to spouses and dependents. Also, the first two offered them only after a certain length of employment. Working for a public institution has been far better than working in proprietary. I have not worked in private, non-profit and cannot give experience there. Sorry this was so long!
Thank you for writing back! That does give me a lot of info, I am not really sure what department this job is for, but I get the feeling it is for admissions. Here is the link to the job description:
http://www.gadsdenstate.edu/pers_off/clerk.pdf
I used to be a student ambassador for UCF and I worked in an office for about 5 yrs. I also have a bachelors degree and it only requires a HS diploma or GED. I am wondering if they would be willing to pay me more than the starting pay of 23k. This will also benefit my husband because we are moving from FL so he was going to have to pay out of state tuition when he went to school this fall. If you're spouse is an employee at the school, you get in-state tuition!
My Blog!
I currently work at a college (almost 3 years) and I know after 6 months of employment, you and your family members qualify for tuition benefits (I can take a class for $2). We also get free metro link and bus passes. I work in counseling so we are always swamped (for the most part) but if the position is in admissions I know they bust their butt, especially the beginning and end of each smester, but the middle of the semester is usually a ghost town down there. I also know a lot of people who have been at the college for a while and have moved around to different departments (when you can't stand your position anymore, you move across the street). But it's a good environment to work in, I think.
Hi five to Munkii. We share a lot of same thoughts/experiences.
I've worked for three universities, not counting my employment at my college during my undergrad degree. One school was a for-profit online university, the next was a Big Ten medical school, and now I work for a smaller, Chicago-based University.
I can't impress upon you enough what Munkii was saying about for-profit (proprietary) institutions. I was an academic advisor on one. Everything is business/money based. My success as an advisor was based on how many students I could "retain," regardless of their academic success, life situations, etc. My job was not to advise students, it was to generate money for the school. I was asked to do some ugly things to students, and decided to leave that company.
The Big Ten school was really pretentious. I did not enjoy the people I worked with one bit. I'm very happy at my medium, local university. I love the people I work with and the job that I do.
Regarding benefits, it will vary by university. My current university has the best benefits I've ever heard: absolutely free, unlimited undergraduate courses. Graduate courses are free up to a point (around $5000 per year) but then anything above that point is considered taxable income. I've had great medical benefits from all the universities I've worked for. AND if you're working for a non-profit institution, you may be able to sign up with TIAA-CREF for a 403b retirement plan. All three universities I worked for had employer matching.
The job you're looking at looks like a standard office support job at a University, similar to what I was doing at the Big-Ten school. I was making about $17 at the Big-Ten school in a metropolitan area. I'm not sure what cost of living would be around Gadsen State, but I would imagine that it's going to be a bit lower.
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!