Students struggle to find work on campus


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Front of the Career Center in the Ronald Tutor Camps Center.
Jobs on campus can be hard to come by, and some students feel as though they are not being properly advertised on platforms such as connectSC, a USC Career Center resource that helps students find jobs. Frustrated students are turning toward word-of-mouth to find employment. (Drake Lee | Daily Trojan)

More than two-thirds of USC undergraduate students — which amounts to 14,000 students — receive financial aid in varying forms, such as need-based grants, merit scholarships, loans or work-study, the latter specifically relying on students getting on-campus jobs with wages sponsored by the government on the University’s behalf. But as of Feb. 26, connectSC — a USC Career Center resource that helps students find on-campus jobs – displays 11 available on-campus work-study jobs and nine on-campus, non-work-study jobs. 

In a statement to the Daily Trojan Feb. 23, USC Student Affairs wrote that for the 2022 fiscal year, connectSC displayed a total of 542 on-campus jobs, 306 of which qualified as work-study positions and 236 that were not work-study positions.

From July 2022 to now, USC Student Affairs said that it had 286 on-campus jobs, 188 of which are work-study positions.

Duke Bristow, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering and a student worker in a senior design lab, said he thinks the Career Center could do a better job at promoting available positions. 

“Sometimes, it’s not clear to students there’s these possibilities on campus for you to get involved and get paid and to work,” Bristow said. “They can do a little better of a job in that regard.”

Bristow said he heard about his job from a friend who left the position to take an internship.

Kayasana Croft, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering, has worked as a student ambassador at the USC call center. Croft got the position from an email alerting students about the job opportunity. 

“Since a lot of positions on campus aren’t doing that, it’s been very difficult for me to find a new position, and I haven’t been successful yet,” Croft said. “ Most of them hire within the first couple of weeks of school and they are not advertised very well.”

“Getting work-study or on-campus jobs usually comes from word-of-mouth — at least, that’s been my experience. I know people recommend connectSC but, personally, it has been a lot easier to hear from word-of-mouth.”

Kiana Ong, sophomore majoring in public relations

While Croft received the email about the call center “just out of luck,” Croft said she has primarily heard of jobs through friends, rather than being able to find them herself. 

“I have searched on connectSC and have applied to jobs through there, to really limited success,” Croft said. “There should be some sort of easy way to look for jobs to apply to.” 

Kiana Ong, a sophomore majoring in public relations, works in the Financial Aid Office and previously worked at the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Ong, like Croft, said she found that word-of-mouth was the best avenue for finding jobs.

“My second year, I realized that getting work-study or on-campus jobs usually comes from word-of-mouth — at least, that’s been my experience,” Ong said. “I know people recommend connectSC but, personally, it has been a lot easier to hear from word-of-mouth.”

Ong said she attended the Federal Work-Study Job Fair the USC Career Center hosts twice a year when she was a freshman, but did not get hired after it. 

“It would be easier if the Work-Study Job Fair was a little bit later and not so early in the year,” Ong said. “I know a lot of people miss it because it’s so early, and they don’t hear about it fast enough.”

Lori Shreve Blake, senior director for career engagement at the Career Center, said on-campus offices that hire students are personally responsible for registering for the Work-Study Job Fair and for posting available positions on connectSC. 

“We’re going to encourage all of the on-campus offices to — in addition to registering for the fair — post their jobs on connectSC,” Shreve Blake said. “I’m expecting improvements in that area.”

Shreve Blake said she also encourages students to broaden their horizons when searching for jobs at USC and to extend their search to  the USC Hotel, USC Credit Union, USC Hospitality, USC Housing and the libraries. 

There are also job opportunities further from the heart of campus. Some students turn to off-campus jobs, such as shops in USC Village, remote internships and jobs in the University Park area. Numerous businesses created by USC students such as Duffl, Handle and UniBud hire primarily fellow USC students.

“[On-campus jobs are] definitely more limited than we often believe them to be,” Croft said. “There are some jobs on campus that are easier to attain … that hire a lot of students, but the community service centers and help desks hire a very limited number of students, and it’s hard to get a job through them.”