Maybe this makes me a cog in the capitalist machine, but I love to work. I love taking on responsibility, learning new things, making connections with people not 18-22 years old, and preparing myself for post-college life. Throughout my two years at Oberlin so far, I have held many, many campus jobs. Here, I will give an honest, unfiltered opinion of all of them in no particular order.
As a disclaimer, the pay and job experiences are true to myself and the time that I worked them. The pay rates disclosed may have changed. My experience is not everyone’s experience.
Ambassador, Admissions
October 2022-May 2023
Becoming an Ambassador was my first job at Oberlin. I have always wanted to work in Admissions because of my Tour Guide and passion for working with other people. Being an Ambassador entails meeting with prospective students and giving them a holistic view of Oberlin. Most of the time, I ate lunch with prospies at Stevenson or played games with them at the Cat in the Cream. When I had this job, I didn’t get paid much, but to be fair, I wasn’t really doing that much.
PROS:
- minimal effort
- lunch-time hours
- meet cool people
CONS:
- low pay ($10.25)
- few hours (1 or 2 hours every 2 weeks)
- lack of flexibility
Tour Guide, Admissions
February 2022-May 2023
Becoming a Tour Guide actually felt fairly competitive to me, considering a few of my other friends also applied and did not get the position. I wanted to make an impact on any prospective families joining Oberlin, and I love attention, so this job seemed perfect to me. Having attended many tours before, I was determined to be interesting, honest, and funny. It didn’t hurt that I would be getting paid to walk and talk for an hour.
Unfortunately, after a semester, I realized that being a Tour Guide was not for me. It was a big time commitment to walk for an hour, and because I could not do back-to-back tours, I had very few hours per week. I did enjoy walking past the Conservatory koi pond and telling parents that we sourced our Friday Fish Fry locally.
PROS:
- meet cool people
- be funny
- be the first impression of Oberlin
CONS:
- low pay ($10.75)
- time commitment
- few hours
Overnight Host, Admissions
October 2022-May 2023
This was my last Admissions job and probably my least favorite. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I was underpaid and overworked. The program is definitely getting better. Being an Overnight Host entails welcoming selected prospective students to Oberlin on a Thursday night, eating dinner with them at Lord Saunders Dining Hall, showing them to your room, and hosting them Thursday and Friday night.
I loved the prospective students that I got. They were funny, nice, and smart. A few of them came to Oberlin; some didn’t. The reason this program was difficult for me was because prospective students did not have key card access, so I needed to swipe them into my dorm whenever they wanted to go in. It was also difficult having 1-2 people share your space and resources. Admissions did not supply students with an air mattress, so we often had to give our students a blanket and/or pillow.
I also sometimes received students intending to go to other colleges, which made it harder to tailor their visit to them. I had a student who partied until 3 am on Friday night, and then I had to show her to the Hotel at 9 am. This was a fun job, but ultimately not worth the pay and time.
PROS:
- host awesome students
- show prospective students around
CONS:
- low pay ($12/student/night)
- lack of flexibility (could not take weekends off when the program occurred, 2/3x a semester)
- disinterested students
Service Engagement Intern, Hillel
September 2022-May 2023
I worked for Hillel as a Service Engagement Intern for about eight months. I attended online information sessions about environmentalism and Judaism, organized a humanitarian event, and volunteered with Oberlin Community Services. This was an interesting internship, and I really liked the humanitarian aspect of it in that what I was doing made a difference. The event I hosted was a slumber party where we ate snacks and made tie blankets. I donated the blankets to a local hospital center that supported women and children.
That being said, I did feel like some aspects of this internship were performative. I appreciated the emphasis on education and learning, but most of the information I learned in my online training was information I already knew. I think that this was a good one-time experience.
PROS:
- meaningful impact
- independent, can interpret the internship as you want to
- stipended
CONS:
- somewhat performative
- probably did not make a large impact
- little human interaction (mostly online)
I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of my campus jobs! Check out part two for more.
