By Gavin Claiborne, Oct. 8, 2024
At Cal Poly Pomona, there are an abundance of jobs offered for students, and for those wondering what it’s like to work on campus, here are a few examples of jobs students can apply for.
For starters, there’s the University Library. The University Library isn’t solely a place designated for students to study and borrow books, but it’s also home to the Learning Resource Center, CPP’s on-campus tutoring service. At the LRC, students seeking academic support aren’t assisted by random tutors, but by fellow CPP students who use their academic skills to support their peers as subject tutors.
One of the many subject tutors at the LRC includes computer engineering student Mohammad Haque, who tutors math courses, beginner-level computer science courses and engineering courses. Before working at the LRC, Haque had prior tutoring experience as a chess tutor for Day & Night Chess Club, an after-school chess program, founded by CPP alumnus Edwin Ruiz, in which tutors travel to different elementary and middle schools to teach students the game of chess. He also has experience assisting his cousins with homework.
“The subjects I tutor, I have a good understanding of those subjects, so I feel confident in tutoring those,” Haque said. “And I think all of those things combined made (the LRC) decide to hire me.”
Being a college student himself, Haque certainly can’t reserve too much of his time for tutoring others, which is why he uses a rule called the 60-hour rule, a tool he learned in one of his computer engineering classes. The rule limits the amount of “cognitively demanding tasks,” including a job, schoolwork, club involvement and family responsibilities, students can do by giving them a maximum of 60 hours per week to complete said tasks, according to Haque. To calculate their time limit, students multiply the number of units they’re taking by three.
“For someone like me who’s taking 15 units, I would need 45 hours to do my schoolwork, so that means at most I should not be taking more than 15 hours of (tutor) work,” said Haque. “And that’s kind of what I do at the LRC to make sure that I’m not working too much to the point where it’s going to affect my own academic performance.”
As a subject tutor, Haque was required to enroll in a tutor training course connected to the LRC, where he learned skills like time management and finding efficient ways of studying. But one of the key skills Haque has gained while tutoring is how to adapt to every tutee’s method of learning.
“Many times, there’s the traditional way of explaining a concept, but the reason the tutee is here is because the traditional way of tutoring didn’t work for them, so you have to be creative and think of different ways you could approach the same problem with a different style of thinking,” Haque said. “And as a tutor, that kind of forces you to think in different ways… and that’s something that ends up helping me.”
Helping others through tutoring has had a great impact on Haque, so much so that he’s considering becoming a professor after pursuing a computer engineering-related career or starting his own business. For students seeking a job that allows them to work between their classes, Haque thinks on-campus jobs are the way to go.
“I could just go, clock in for my shift, take a break, go to class and come back for my other shift,” Haque said. “That’s something I’m not able to do with an off-campus job.”
Just beyond CPP’s campus, literally across the street, is University Village, one of the nearest housing options available to CPP students. But students don’t just live there, some even work there.
Isaac Castillo, a mechanical engineering student and the captain of CPP’s Solar Boat club, has been employed as a facilities maintenance student assistant at University Village. Since starting his job in spring, Castillo said he’s learned quite a bit in his position.
Castillo, like Haque, also enjoys the work schedule flexibility his position offers, allowing him to work at times that best accommodate his schedule as a college student.
“Just being able to go in when I can, and even if something comes up like running Solar Boat, I have to go to a meeting or host something, I can take that time to do that and not worry about losing my job the next day.”
When students, faculty and staff on campus get hungry, they have plenty of on-campus dining options. But when they want something that’s close by, relatively inexpensive and quick, they may decide to take a trip to CPP’s buffet-style dining facility, Centerpointe Dining Commons. Guests at Centerpointe have the freedom to select the meals of their choice from a variety of stations operated by student employees.
Computer engineering student Aaron Petrona, who worked at Centerpointe last fall, said that although he had prior experience working in the food industry, students don’t need much experience to be hired.
At times during his shift, Petrona did have to work alone, and through completing tasks like restocking stations and serving food independently, he said he improved his ability to multitask and communicate.
“If you’re the only one stationed at a station, you would have to figure out ‘Oh, do I have to restock this? Do we have any more of this? Do I have to notify the chef that we need more of this food?’ It’s things like that,” Petrona said.
As a way for students to gain work experience and network, regardless of their field of study, Petrona approves of on-campus jobs.
“If you want to get started into (CPP’s) ecosystem for jobs, it’s a good place to start,” Petrona said.
Students can search and apply for on-campus jobs on CPP’s Associated Students Inc. website, Handshake and The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation Inc. website.
Feature image courtesy of Christian Magdaleno