AMARILLO, TEXAS -- If you're a college kid scrambling to find a summer or part-time job -- don't panic. Just head back to school.
No, we're not talking about going back to class (unless you want to, of course). Colleges like West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College both offer services to students to help them find summer, part-time or even full-time jobs.
"We actually have our own in-house job database where people post with us and that's available to students and students can come here and ask questions," said WT's Student Employment Services Coordinator Beth Ann Moore.
Moore said about half of WT's students use the job search database at some point during the year -- that's about 4,000 students. The school's Career Services department also helps students put together resumes and conducts mock interviews with the students.
Amarillo College is also working on developing it's Career and Employment services for it's students. AC will be opening up a new center in the coming weeks.
"We hired a new Career Director and she starts June 1," said AC Student Affairs Associate Vice President April Sessler. "The whole focus will be on career and employment services for students."
College students and school officials agreed that students will do just about anything to earn a little extra cash in the summer.
"People always look during the summertime because it's really hard because people are going on vacation, they need money because they want to go do stuff and have summer fun," said Amarillo College student Lauren Speelman. "I do look for another job during the summer, last year I worked for a bank."
"I've worked for Autozone for the past year and a half now," said another AC student William Wheeler.
"They'll work in the food service industry, landscaping lawn mowing, that sort of thing, construction, baby sitting, retail," added Sessler.
While students were mainly concerned with the extra cash, school officials agreed that finding a summer job will earn a student a lot more than just money.
"These are great chances for students to get some real world experience and to learn some of those skills that can be used either in jobs that they get when they graduate or transferable skills," said Moore.
"Do a job shadow or an internship," added Sessler. "There's nothing like a part-time job in the field that you're interested in to get a feel for if that's the thing for you or what your interests are."
