Getting a Job

I realized quickly that I needed to get a job. Student loans paid for tuition, but I needed money for food and books. I was lucky – during my second week of school I got a job on campus. The job didn’t pay much – and I could only work between classes – but it was a start. It felt great to have a paycheck and to have something to do outside of the classroom. As it turned out, the decision to get a job on campus would have a significant impact on my university experience. Eventually I would have multiple jobs simultaneously and spend a lot more time on campus than your average student. My friend Tianna did the same thing and we share many fond memories from this time in our lives.

My first job on campus was at the Front Desk answering the phones. It was an easy job and a great way to get to meet a lot of people – while I worked I got to know students, faculty and staff whom I would probably never have met otherwise. I also got to meet a few interesting characters, such as the Russian Security Guard. He had very little to do and a lot of time to chat. I probably understood half of what he said – the words came out of his mouth at a rapid pace coated in a thick Russian accent. He provided a sense of security even though there was never a security issue of any kind – and it was nice to have some company on those slow Saturdays when the phone didn’t ring much. My Russian friend became Facility Manager when the university moved to a bigger campus, and a new Security Guard took over. The new guy seemed to have even less to do, even more time to chat, and he seemed to drink more coffee than humanly possible. Over the years Tianna and I spent a lot of time chatting with him, and he started referring to us as Ebony and Ivory, which caught on for a while among the university staff. He said: if you see one of you, you know the other one isn’t far behind. He was usually right.

(At the Westwood Campus)

(At the Playa Vista Campus)

Within weeks of starting the Front Desk job, I was asked if I wanted to pick up some hours working in the Admissions Department. I thought: why not, I need the money and it could be a great learning experience. It was. Maybe not so much for the job itself but for the relationships and friendships that was the result. I ended up working at the Front Desk and in Admissions until I graduated. In addition to that, I was also the tutor for the English Department for a while, and during my last year at AIU I worked evenings at Barnes & Noble.

My dad always told me not to let the studies interfere with my education. By that he meant that there is so much to learn that you can’t learn from books. I think I accomplished that and I think working while studying was a big part of it. I learned to manage my time and money, I learned to work with people from different backgrounds and in different positions, and I learned that you can always do more than you think. It wasn’t always easy to juggle everything, but I wouldn’t change it if I had to do it all over again.

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