Safe, convenient and relatively well paid! Nothing is better than working on campus if you are a student and want a job. There are a lot of favorable part-time positions hiding in our campus. Two students, local and international, shared how they got their jobs and what they believe is important when job hunting.

“f-ju-əl, not f-ul. Okay, try again. f-ju–əl.”

Ashlee Chatten, a second-year student in the assaulted women’s and children’s counsellor/advocate program, is genially using her lips to shape ‘ju’ and ‘u’ to teach the word ‘fuel’, not ‘fool’, to her Chinese student in the tutoring and learning centre (TLC).

Chatten is a part-time English tutor in TLC at George Brown College’s (GBC) St. James campus. Working one-on-one as an English tutor, as well as in English conversation circles, she earns $12.50 an hour.

For Chatten this is a good job with comfortable pay.

Other than having a GPA of 3.0 or higher and an A grade in college English, the English tutor position requires candidates to successfully complete an interview and a practical skills assessment test, according the TLC website.

“The interview is very casual and the test was not extremely difficult,” said Chatten. “It was a role play where I helped somebody edit a paragraph and the test was just basically grammar.”

Ashlee found this job directly on TLC’s website. She was told by a friend that there was a job suitable for her there.

Chatten’s tips for finding a good job is to spread your job-hunting message as much as you can. Let your friends know and put it on all your social media.

International student Jerry Gou, a second-year student in the marketing program, has no friends or relatives in Canada.

Luckily, Gou knew how to get help from career services at GBC.

“They taught me how to write a North American style application letter and resume, explained the interview skills and showed me the job openings list,” said Gou.

He found career services had given him the help he need to prepare, “but that is not enough!” Gou emphasized.

“You have to realize every single position’s key points,” said Gou, who holds a part-time job at Tim Hortons’ St. James campus location. “As a big chain restaurant, Tim Hortons requires its attendants to be friendly, respectful and courteous. So I approached the manager directly, and did not just leave my application letter with any staff.”

After approaching the manager with his friendly, respectful and courteous character, he got the job.

Gou said he has already gotten used to the different accents of George Brown students.

“I have (enough) confidence, to face anybody and any requests. I am so happy with this job,” said Gou with a smile.

So, next time you’re grabbing a double-double, why not say hi to Jerry and other workers on campus?