A hierarchy of student employment

When I began searching for a job at the beginning of the school year, the first thing I did was make a list of services I wanted to work in, wouldn’t mind working in and honestly felt I’d have to be desperate to work in.

While job hunting, many of us have created these lists of job hierarchy, assessing the pros and cons of our job opportunities.

Although everyone has a different preference of where they’d like to work based on their personal interests and passions, the circumstances for finding a job are the most important element.

Education
Education is one of the best services to work in; tutoring and coaching are extremely beneficial and fulfilling.

Teaching another individual is as beneficial to you as it is to them because you can learn as well during the process.

Almendra Mesones, fourth-year political science major ranked education as her most preferred industry to work in as a student.

Mesones said teaching allowed her to “take all the knowledge I learned from school and profess that with other people.”

“People who do not have the same knowledge as me — I can teach or I could have a conversations with someone who is on the same intellectual level as me— someone who could bring new ideas to the table that I didn’t think of before,” she continued.

Johnny Duong, fifth-year mathematics with finance and accounting major, also said he prefers the education industry.

“As a student, I think you should be focusing on your education before you get into the real world. Working in education will help you get a job later, especially when you are trying to get a career in education. I think it’s a really good experience, overall,” he said.

Exercise and fitness
Vuk Lazareric, a third-year political science major, ranked exercise and fitness as the number one industry he wanted to work in.
Lazareic currently works at Athletic Locker and said he enjoys fitness and values it highly.

“I like physical exercise. Fitness to me is number one; I would love to work at a gym, but not as a personal trainer — that’s almost babysitting people who’ve never worked out,” he said.

Lee Anna Osei, fourth-year history and English student, is passionate about fitness and she deems the perfect job as “partly what your major is and partly what you see yourself doing.”

“For my graduate school I’ll be looking to do occupational therapy. Exercise and fitness is beneficial as a job because for one, it should be done every single day for personal benefit and after high school you’re not required to do any physical activity, so as a society we’re getting more and more obese and encountering more health problems,” she said.

”As a student trying to balance school and possibly work, it’s tough with your eating habits. Working in an exercise and fitness environment can impact your thinking.”

Public relations
Public relations is an industry in which communication is key and working and interacting with other people is the main focus.

Osei felt her best job was when she worked in public relations.

She went to basketball games, took pictures and video and tweeted play by plays, games and basketball game recaps.

Osei was sponsored by three basketball leagues: Canada Basketball, Jewel League of Ontario and Ontario Basketball.

“I was basically like a walking media outlet. I would just take that and put it on a website that promoted athletics. For me, I was getting that public recognition based on what I was able to do. So, in turn, it benefited me because I was able to grow my own brand as a business, as well as make money,” she said.

Retail services
Retail services, from what I’ve heard, is a nightmare.

Third-year political science student Jessica Bruccoleri worked at Aeropostale when she was younger.

“I hated it. The managers that I had were always really pushy and so when I was working they would always tell me to make sure to jump on the customers as soon as they walked into the store, and although some people do appreciate you coming up and talking to them, most people want to be left alone.”

Mesones, who also worked at Jean Machine, said retail services were not for her.

“When you have to meet a budget, it forms a tension between you and your co-workers. You’re not a sales team, so you’re always looking out for yourself.

It’s a very fake environment and you have to have fake conversations with them in order to get them to buy something,” said Mesones.

The industries might be different, but in the end students have strong opinions about the places they work.