From working as a climbing wall attendant for the outdoor program, to leading campus tours, to working in the university’s IT department as a programmer, Weber State University students have access to a wide range of employment opportunities on campus.

Beyond just providing students with opportunities to generate income, WSU’s Career Services department and its staff also want to provide students with employment opportunities that will strengthen and expand their professional skill sets to better prepare them for their future careers.

Sara Seefried is the student employment coordinator for WSU’s Career Services department; she oversees student career readiness on campus while serving as a resource for both student employment supervisors and students seeking employment opportunities on campus.

Part of Seefried’s job involves training the staff and faculty who supervise student employees on how they can teach their employees skills that future employers will be looking for in prospective employees.

When asked about the benefits of working on campus, Seefried cited the opportunity that students have working with employers on campus who are trained to help them strengthen the skills that employers in the future will be looking for.
“All students have those skills, they just don’t know how to articulate them yet,” Seefried said. “Our student employers really work with students on that.”

In addition to the opportunities student employees have to learn skills that will help them in their professional careers, Seefried said research shows that on-campus employment may also yield benefits in terms of students’ academic success.

“All the research out there says that if you work on campus, you’re more likely to graduate, and you graduate at a quicker pace than students who work off-campus or not at all,” Seefried said.

Seefried attributes this correlation between on-campus employment and academic success to the relationships that students build with staff and faculty.

“When you’re working on campus, your employer feels that your education is important, so they support you in that,” Seefried said.

Lian Ulbrich, a WSU student who’s studying to join the healthcare profession, is employed on-campus as the student leader liaison for Asian American initiatives. In tandem with her paid position at WSU’s Center for Multicultural Excellence, she serves as sitting chair for the Asian Student Involvement Association.

Ulbrich’s job as student leader liaison for Asian American initiatives offers her opportunities to work closely with communities she’s passionate about while developing her professional communication skills. She cites the greatest benefits of on-campus employment as added scheduling flexibility compared to other jobs and the chance to develop professional skills that will aid her in her post-graduate professional career.

Students who are considering on-campus employment, according to Seefried, should seek out positions that involve skills that they’re interested in improving. However, when it comes to finding and applying for an on-campus job, both Seefried and Ulbrich admit that the university’s job application page could use some work when it comes to ease of use.

Currently, those interested in working on-campus can view listings on WSU’s career services website or at https://jobs.weber.edu/postings/search.