K Story Guide – On Campus Student Employment

LET’S TALK ABOUT your on campus student employment experience:

Working on campus is an opportunity for students to gain experience in the workplace during their college careers. While being a student employee, you can gain experience in many different areas of interest. By working for the College, you learn how to be representatives for the school, as many on-campus jobs require students to maintain the College’s image. Many on-campus jobs require interactions with other students, so you may have opportunities to make the campus a more welcoming place for students as well as encourage students to get involved in the Kalamazoo community.

LET’S TALK ABOUT the transferable skills acquired:

  1. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving: Student employment requires you to problem solve when the original idea is not working. You may need to be open to new ideas to find the most efficient way to solve an issue. When evaluating new ways in problem-solving, student employment may require you to be critical of your own ideals, as there are some situations where you will have to dismantle pre-existing notions on campus.
  2. Communication: Student employment requires you to learn how to communicate with people who may not agree with your ideals. By having this skill, you learn how to disagree with respect and still work toward your main goal. As you talk to others about different solutions to problems, you learn when to end or redirect a conversation when it is not actively working toward the end goal. This may involve relocating people to areas that are more suitable for their skillset or compromising when everyone is not meeting eye to eye. In situations like these, you become mindful of the language you are using to ensure everyone’s opinions are valued and respect is maintained.
  3. Professionalism: In on-campus jobs, you learn to encourage positive reinforcement as well as how to receive and give constructive feedback. This requires you to learn how to use neutral language and how to manage your composure in times of frustration. With involvement in student employment, you gain first-hand experience in what it means to be a representative of a company; in this situation, you would be a representative of Kalamazoo College.
  4. Teamwork/Collaboration: A main aspect in student employment is working in a small group to strategize ways to work toward an end goal. In these groups, many viewpoints are shared to allow everyone to see the issue from all different perspectives and find the best solution to solve the issue. Along with problem-solving with fellow coworkers, you work with others on how to be resourceful when trying to solve an issue or when collaborating on an event together. You may work with colleagues to assess the needs of students on campus and the ways in which you can fulfill these needs together as a team.

LET’S TALK ABOUT sample resume action statements:

  • Establish a safe space for students.
  • Research projects going on in the community and speakers to attend events.
  • Strategize effective ways to educate.
  • Manage K students by coordinating schedules/meetings.
  • Maintain relationships with community partners.
  • Collaborate on new approaches to existing programs.
  • Develop new relationships with alumni and community partners.
  • Evaluate mission statement and goals

CCPD TIPS

Behavioral Interview Prompts:

Employers often ask questions about how you responded to specific situations.


For example:

  • Tell me about a time when you experienced a conflict while working on a team.
  • Describe a time when you had to work well under pressure.
  • Give me an example of a time when you showed initiative and took the lead.
  • Tell me about a time when you made a mistake, and how you handled it.


S.T.A.R. METHOD

You can use STAR as a framework to structure your response to behavioral
interview questions.

  • Describe the context and background for a Situation that’s relevant to the question.
  • Explain the Task that needed to be completed. What was the goal?
  • Outline specific Actions you took. How did you exhibit transferable skills?
  • Share the Results of your actions. What was the outcome? What did you learn?