It's been a hard day's night,
and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night,
I should be sleeping like a log
-The Beatle's "A Hard Day's Night"

This job is probably the worst-kept secret in all of campus student employment.  Nearly every freshman has heard about the coveted "Front Desk" position at the residence halls.  They're notoriously hard to pin down in your first year (I applied last year and was summarily rejected).  But for the chosen second-year students living in the Residence Halls (and those lucky First-Years who get hired), it truly is a sweet job.

It's a job about people's skills.  As someone manning the front desk of a residence hall, I interface with a lot of different people.  There's the Residence Manager, the RA's (Residence Advisors), the Hall Director, the housekeeping staff, the maintenance staff, etc. etc.

Our main purpose is to serve the students who live in the Hall.  This includes things like sorting the mail, renting out DVDs (free), renting out kitchen equipment for our lobby kitchen (free also), renting out ping-pong and billiards accessories, yadda yadda yadda.

There's also a lot of procedural stuff we worry about (think tracking every single key the Residence Hall to every room).

Knowing procedure is super important.  For example, when the fire alarm goes off at 8AM on the first day of classes (it happened), it's super important that the front desk worker knows the procedure to work the fire alarms, interface with the fire department, protocal to evacuation, and all that good stuff.  (For the record, it turned out to be a harmless sensor issue, so all were safe and sound!).

So what's the upside of all this?  Flexible hours!  I prefer to work at night so that it doesn't interfere with my class schedule or my extra-curriculars.  Also, whenever there is down time, we ARE allowed to work on other things.  This means on a particularly slow shift I might be able to actually get my homework done.  And be paid to do it!  Think of it as being paid to be on call at the front desk.  If anything happens front-desk-related, it's my number 1 priority.  Otherwise, I can do my homework!

This all is probably way too much info for ya'll, so I'll cut it right here and return you to your regularly scheduled web browsing.  If you're interested in working at the Front Desk, just drop by your Residence Hall Front Desk and ask if they're hiring.  You may get lucky!

Take care,
Rob