Jobs are generally available in computing on a number of levels. They break down to these: 1. Work Study printer maintenance. You sit at a desk, make sure the printer has paper, answer a few questions, etc. You learn little, do little, and get little (some) credibility for doing it. This can turn you into the go to guy, but the work is all desktop and doesn't go anywhere. 2. Working for specific faculty. You do computer stuff as an aside, along with other work, and your success in this depends on your faculty person. There are snakes and gems among the faculty, and it's very difficult to tell who's who initially. This, too, is largely desktop. Some faculty will have you do programming work, which can be valuable, if that's your thing. 3. Central Computing jobs in labs other than public clusters. These can be in any number of specializations, and offer a lot of chance to find things you want to do. They typically have a small number of managers who may actually SEE you, and might notice good work. These may include helping many faculty with VOIP/teleconferencing, video production, specific application use, UNIX consulting (computer janitor), etc. 4. Central computing back office. These are hard to get into, until you're well-known on campus and skilled. These are jobs specifically like central UNIX computer janitor, very low-level machine/cluster admin, some software development, punch-down/network jockey. The most important thing about any of these jobs is that it lead somewhere for you. Most of them are dead-end, in themselves. They want to get students to work cheaply and that's their primary concern. It therefore is vital that a student get to know the other students and staff who are higher up on the food chain, get involved in projects, and establish a social network. That network will help you solve individual problems as well as boost your career for the next 4-6 years. (Note that that includes your first POST college jobs.) Many (or all) of the type #1 jobs will be work-study. It's harder to get such work if you aren't designated as work-study. Work-study is a program where the Fedgov pays a chunk of yor wage and the school (or faculty) picks up the other part. This is a red flag that the employer is cheap, and is only looking for a body. Find work that hires non-work-study folk, and offer your work-study as an incentive to hiring YOU, rather than looking for classically work-study work. Many of the type #2 jobs will be work-study as well. Again, look for ones which are not. A smart faculty member will want to hire a smart student he or she can watch/help grow. Not all faculty have such benign motives, however. If you find yourself in an exploitative relationship with a faculty member (or other manager) get out quickly before it gets a chance to get personal. You live in a small pond when you work in your school, and an exploitative person may give you a bad reputation though lies. This will only work on those who don't know you, but, starting out, it can be damaging. So leave before the person in question has a chance to care about whether you stay or leave. Do right by them: Give notice, be forthright, do NOT simply fail to show up, and behave like an adult. But explain, that though you enjoy the job and the people, something which works better for your schedule and goals has just appeared. Apologize, and express hope that you're not leaving them in the lurch. AND THEN RUN AWAY to your new, better, job. Do not stay in exploitative situations, no matter how amazing your employer seems, or what he or she promises. A classic promise is a great letter of recommendation. While a letter of recommendation from a famous faculty member seems valuable, it's still a letter from a snake, and a letter which you'll probably never get to read -- the faculty member knows that. I know good people who have been hired in SPITE of such letters, and later find out what's in them, to their shock. Don't trust snakes. Wouldn't anyone you work for and do a good job for give you a letter of recommendation? Be suspicious of someone who suggests you could get one, after time served and good work. They're trying to establish power over you, and to bait you to stay. Why? So how do you get better jobs? Jobs with faculty can be gotten by establishing relationships with the professors and the grad students who are running your classes. These people interact with you, can get to see you as a person, know the questions you ask and that you're clever. You'll have been job interviewing with them a whole semester, though neither of you knew it. Ask these people if they know of openings in the department at the end of a semester (or earlier, if your relationships with them are going well). They're in the grapevine, and will know about people who may need people. As you can tell from the last paragraph, that means that your first semester at school is a bad time to look for a job. You should still get one, but try to keep the commitment down to a semester. That way, once you're better oriented, you can get a job near people who think like you, who you respect, and who respect you. Those you don't know will respect you (to some extent) if: 1. You have prior work experience 2. You have done work in open-source projects 3. People that they respect respect you Summer work before school can take the form of internships (Argonne National Lab has some), or work in computer stores. (Other ideas, my friends?) Open source projects are easy to find. They're easy to get on, too. You're offering to work for free, after all. Pick a project you like and ask what you can do. Don't lie about your experience. You want your name on the project, and you want to LEARN. Find someone who wants a beginner and can/wants to teach. Some folks LOVE that. If you get the brush off, go to another project. The important thing is that you're enthusiastic about the project, and it should be very easy to find such a thing, as there are many to choose from. When you talk to older computer folks, whether at school or in such a project, be honest about your knowledge, and don't get into oneupsmanship with them. Knowledge is power in computer groups, and territory. Guys in computing can be very nasty to people that know only a little more than them, and certainly to those who know less. If they can smack you down, they may, and that may be a satisfactory ending to the interaction for them. Yes, it's purile. So avoid it by being honest, and learning what you can. If you wind up in computer classes, you'll probably be thrown into a group who wind up coding together for long hours. This is a perfect starting social group. Keep track of these people, keep in communication with where they're working. If they like their work, see if there's room for you. You're young men and women, but the best way to get jobs is always the old-boy's network. Starting forming yours from the first day of school.