Financial aid simplifies job search with new board

By Cindy Dinh     8/20/09 7:00pm

Finding work in this economy can be a job in itself, from scouring classified ads and bulletin boards to relying on word-of-mouth or random online postings. Finding a job on campus, however, has been streamlined to a single Web site on the Rice Financial Aid Student Job Board. Students can now go online to search for jobs on campus such as office assistants, research assistants, lifeguards or class graders.Students can access the job board at jobs.financialaid.rice.edu by signing in with their NetID under the tab "Applicants."

The Web site launched in June 2009, replacing the previous site, College Works by Web, which was managed by an outside technology company. The job board is now hosted by Rice Information Technology and is customized to meet Rice's needs, Quality Control Analyst for the Office of Financial Aid Deborah Lassus said. Students can log in with their NetID and password to browse the list of jobs as well as create a profile with skills and work experience and upload a plain-text resume.

"It provides a high tech bulletin board that all students on campus can benefit from," Lassus said. "It replaces the need to go to different departments to look for job postings."

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Department supervisors can post and take down jobs at their own discretion instead of waiting for IT to post them. Lassus said she hopes this easier-to-use Web site will encourage more departments to use it as another form of advertising jobs in addition to listserves, bulletin board postings, and word of mouth.

Using the NetID to log in for both student applicants and supervisors means the system is more secure and simplifies the screening process to ensure only people who are affiliated with Rice can post jobs, Lassus, who is in charge of managing and approving postings to the job board, said. The jobs posted are all on-campus positions, which differentiates the Web site from the career job and internship postings on RiceLink, which is managed by the Center for Student Professional Development.

Lassus said the Office of Financial Aid is trying to make it easier for students who qualify for federal work study to find jobs on campus. A few of the positions on the job board are available only for students who qualify for work study, but, as of publication, two-thirds of the jobs listed are available for all students.

According to Student Financial Services Assistant Director Yvette Scales, the number of students who receive financial aid and qualify for federal work study has increased. Though the Office of Financial Aid is still processing applications, she estimates 500 students will qualify for federal work study this year, about 30 more students than last year.

"Between the time when students apply for financial aid in February or March, to the time they start school, people have been losing jobs and may now qualify for financial aid," Scales said.

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