Work Study Job

[Minnerbelle]

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sooo... I need to find an employer for a non-resident merit work study job, and was told that I should find one before the fall (which makes it difficult because I don't know anyone there, or really what kind of jobs are generally available and/or how to apply for those).

I looked at the list of work study jobs that are officially open through the school for all students, and there really isn't much there. So I'm thinking I'm going to have to start hitting up anyone who might be willing to take on a work study student. And naturally, I think that the best/easiest thing to do might be to find a research position since that's where my skills are at right now. I figured, many labs hire undergrads so why not hire a vet student especially if they already have experience, right? Or am i thinking about this all wrong? Is it difficult for vet students to find research jobs during the semester?

So if I am going to hit up some faculty and beg to work for them, I'm having another prob. I really want to do some sort of research that is somewhat related to shelter med. The prob is, there aren't too many that i'm interested in, and those tend to be clinical... and I'm not sure how useful i would be in those types of projects, or exactly what they entail for someone who would only work 10-15 hrs/wk...

On the other hand, I've found several molecular/genetics/cancer research labs that do EXACTLY what I do currently in my lab. I feel like I have a better chance at these if I offer myself up to be genotyping b**** or cloning b**** since no one likes doing those things, but every lab needs to! I mean, if someone with demonstrated skills came to my lab and said "gimme a construct to clone, and i can have it maxiprepped within a week for cheap pay" my boss would take them in a heartbeat. Not the most glamorous of tasks, but hey, what can I expect for a part time job right? I also like the idea of something like this, since these types of tasks aren't time sensitive and I can fit them in according to my schedule.

That being said... cancer genetics or any type of bench research is something that I don't ever plan to pursue in the future. I was thinking maybe I could do that for this school year just for the $ and try to apply for summer research in something that I'm more interested in. Is that like totally rude???

Any advice will be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[BlacKAT33]

IMO, no i dont think that is "totally rude" lol. You are overqualified to be a genotyping b**** since you have previous research experience. I think they would know this already, and if they hired you they would understand you need the money. I dont think they would care as long as they had someone who knew what they were doing for the year! If they dont have to train you as long they will love you. I think the biggest problem will be the hours you can work. You want to work a small number of hours and they will also have to schedule them around your class schedule. This may be hard.

I would take w/e you can find for the school year that pays $ and is willing to work around your schedule. If you can find something related to shelter med then that would be perfect. If not, do it for the time being and then once summer comes look for a good research job or externship in the area you're interested in. Also, if you're only doing something simple like genotyping for 10-15 hrs a week and your summer job is in the same location maybe you can keep both jobs and continue with the b**** job for second yr! lol

Hopefully it works out for you! It's hard to find lab jobs with few hours that are flexible.

 

[nyanko]

At least here, there are some jobs available at the teaching hospital that students can do with or without work-study funding. I've worked there for the last year in the diagnostic microbiology lab and plan to keep my position there through vet school. So maybe you can find something like that, if CSU does the same thing...it's really a pretty fun job.

 

[VeganSoprano]

Another option may be to take the sort of job that involves sitting at a desk waiting for a phone to ring where you can spend most of your time studying. Unless the work itself will be a valuable experience for you, it may be better to have a job where you don't have much actual work and use it mostly as a paid studyhall. That way you can also leave the lab jobs open for undergrads who would really benefit from the experience.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Thanks guys! It's been kind of stressing me out, because I thought this was something I could figure out once I was on campus... but I was advised against that by the financial aid's office.

BlacKAT - I figured, if it was something like genotyping/cloning, I could easily fit it in my schedule since each of those tasks can be broken up into a bunch of different parts with lots of good stopping points, and it generally doesn't hurt if either of those things are postponed a day or two. As long as I'm not responsible for my own project or cell culture, I don't think it'll be unrealistic to find a flexible position with limited hours (but who knows!).

Plus, like Vegansoprano suggested I'd love a job with lots of downtime, and if I actually can talk a PI into giving me job descriptions like these, I would have so much incubation time to get a lot of studying done (which is how I got the idea in the first place). While i understand that there are undergrads who can use lab experience out there, I don't think I would necessarily be stealing positions from them given the particular skill set that I'm offering (esp given that I'll need very minimal training to get me going). I'm pretty much offering to be a part-time research associate at $3-4/hr (or whatever wage the lab has to pay for work study) willing to do just about anything as long as they can give me a little flexibility with scheduling.

Nyanko- that sounds amazing! how do you go about finding a position like that, if they're not listed for work study???

 

[UM2014]

I did my undergrad at CSU (I think that's where you're going, right? if not disregard this post) and worked at both the teaching hospital and also in a biomed lab. I will say that after watching several friends in CSU's vet school it's going to be almost impossible to have a job in either of those settings while handling your classes simply for availability reasons. The teaching hospital did have some overnight shifts (mainly foal care related) but those were usually only for vet students on their clinical rotations...but it never hurts to ask. Maybe contact the pharmacy there as well, they always need help and everyone is super friendly plus the hours are more flexible when it comes to restocking items, packaging and that sort of thing.
As far as lab positions go...mine was very demanding which doesn't mean all of them are but I had to really devote a lot of time there and it wouldn't have been possible in vet school (it was a stuggle with 18 creds of undergrad).
Another option is boring and unrelated to anything but you could try getting in contact with Susan Deines who oversees the undergraduate biomed/micro computer lab on campus. I worked there for a while and there was a vet student on staff with me. She did work there as an undergrad as well so I'm not sure they'd be willing to hire a vet student for one of the positions over an undergrad but it wasn't work study and it is for the college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences so I don't see why not. Basically you load paper trays occasionally and get paid $8.50/hr to study. Sounds lame and boring but that's the only job I know of that could mesh with a vet students schedule. It won't be many hours (labs are open from 7:30-5) but you could get a few maybe..


Edit: I was NOT a work study student so there definitely are positions out there for non work study (as well as tons for work study) it's just a matter of knowing who to contact. I got all of my jobs by calling supervisors directly since they rarely list their positions on CareerRam.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Thanks UM2014! I guess I'll just have to start contacting a bunch of people and see what's open.

 

[cRose]

Minnerbelle,

Are you attending OSU? If not, disregard this message, for the most part, at least!!!

If so, my advice would be to keep your eye on your school email account; work-study job postings get sent out all the time, and many will go out over the summer months. It's how I got my current work-study for the office of continuing ed. (which I love!)...as soon as I saw job postings that I thought I'd like, I immediately sent out resumes, and had 3 interviews by the end of the summer, so I had my choice of which job to take.

I'm not sure how often or when lab assistant jobs go out...we don't get many of those sent to our email accounts...probably because a lot of those jobs would be too time-time consuming for a vet student. That being said, you should definitely look into it if you're interested. Only advice there would be to be sure that your lab supervisor doesn't expect too many hours from you.

Most vet students get desired research hours in over the summer, by taking on a project with one of our faculty members, not by work-study (a 40-hr per week, full-time kind of thing). OSU has a very strong summer research program, and it pays a stipend big enough to squeak by with until Fall financial aid goes out! I think we have like 40 students participating this summer. There are some pretty cool projects going on, too. If you talk to the shelter med researchers early enough in the school year, I'm sure that you would be able to get in on one of their projects for the summer.

Good luck with the job-hunting, as epically annoying as it is.