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Pittsburg State offers many opportunities for student employment.
Students can work in almost any department on campus. Positions on campus include but are not limited to office assistants, library assistants, lab assistants, research assistants, grounds assistants, tutors, custodians and student publications.
There are some requirements and rules. Students need to be enrolled in at least six credit hours. All students must establish that they are eligible for employment in the United States by the guidelines administered through the department of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. International students with an F-1 and/or J-1 visa may work on-campus.
Students can only work a total of 20 hours on campus per week during the semester and 40 hours a week during academic breaks. During the summer, students can 20 hours per week if they are enrolled in a class and 40 hours if they are not enrolled in a summer course.
While there is no limit to how many positions a student can hold on campus, they cannot exceed 20 hours total.
Gorilla4Hire is a website that shows a listing of available positions on campus at PSU. To view those listing and apply online, students should create an account. Student may be asked to attach a resume to their application online or contact supervisors directly to apply for a position. Listings will include a description of the job, qualifications required, hours available and the name and contact information of the supervisor.
The Career Resource Center is a good resource when looking for on campus positions as well but is not a service only for graduating seniors. They provide many services for freshman as well including but not limited to researching possible career paths, assistance with resumes, tips for job interviews, information about the on-campus recruiters that have attended Career Services events, and counseling to receive help in choosing a major or career path. The Career Resource Center is located on the second floor of Horace Mann.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, most services will be online during the fall 2020 semester.
“So, we have the student employment office that’s part of Career Services and of course everything this fall will be virtual… meaning that they can contact our office through our webpage,” said Mindy Cloninger, director of career services, said. “We will have a live chat feature that we’re developing and hopefully that’s gonna all work the way it’s all supposed to here shortly… They apply for those positions… through Gorillas4Hire and look at the application instructions within that posting to see if the department wants them to submit a resume or what the specific instructions are for applying for the position… Then when they are hired… then they go through the paperwork process and we will walk them through that and that’s pretty much all online as well.”
According to Cloninger, there are many benefits to working on campus.
“…So, we think that some of the pros for working on campus certainly include just the convenience of being able to break up your schedules a little bit since class schedules are kind of broken up throughout the day,” Cloninger said. “Maybe a student might work even two shifts within one day or they leave and go to a class and then come back to work. That’s a little trickier to do sometimes if your working downtown or north Pittsburg… Also, of course departments on campus are very accustomed to working with students so they will be a little more flexible about your schedule… Also, just connecting with a campus department, this provides students another resource… to learn everything else about campus. So, as they’re connecting with their supervisor and the faculty or whoever, the university full time employees might be in that department or even the other student employees then particularly as freshmen come in and start working in that department they can just ask the general questions that they have kind of about navigating campus… Their supervisor and whoever they’re working with can potentially serve as a great recommendation for that student when they’re ready to apply for internships or full-time jobs when they’re ready to graduate…”
Most positions on campus pay minimum wage and students are paid bi-weekly, two weeks after the hours are submitted. Opportunities for raises are available annually. Gorillas4Hire also posts jobs off campus in Pittsburg as well.
“Working on campus, it does pay minimum wage and so we’re just very upfront about that with students,” Cloninger said. “So, a position… in the Pittsburg area might pay a little bit more and so sometimes students feel that’s the direction they need to go in meeting their financial need or obviously there might be a position that just is a better fit for them or for their future career goal than maybe they would find on campus. So, that certainly would be understandable. So, there’s also pros to working off campus and like I said they can work more than 20 hours (off campus) so sometimes again for financial purposes students really need that.”
Once a student is hired on campus, they will need to fill out paperwork. They will need proper identification, employment authorization documents, and direct deposit information to complete the paperwork.
“…Some of the paperwork is a federal form and so pending decisions at that level we believe that the paperwork will continue to be available online,” Cloninger said. “So, we are able to answer questions… over the phone or email or through the live chat but usually it doesn’t take students very long to fill out the paperwork and they can get those submitted online… So, the great thing is that our services really are already available virtually if students need that. So, as we shift to how we service our students in light of COVID, we really won’t need to make too much of a change…”
