North by Northwestern

The Gamer: Norris Game Room Attendant and Events Coordinator Tonantzin Carmona, Weinberg sophomore

Duties: Attending to the register, coordinating birthday parties and student group events and playing games with customers.

The Good: Laid-back environment and you get to play games. “If nobody needs anything and nobody shows up, then you’re free to do whatever you want as long as you make sure nobody’s doing anything bad. Our boss is pretty cool and she lets us play with the games; sometimes she encourages it. I get to play pool; I’m pretty good at Rock Band because of the job.”

The Bad: You won’t get many hours and it doesn’t look good to potential employers. “It doesn’t look that good on a résumé, or at least I don’t think it does. [Employers] don’t really like to see ‘Game Room’ as much as other jobs.”

Starting pay: $8 per hour as an attendant
Hours: 6-9 hours per plus one special event
Work-study required? No, but preferred

The Creative Thinker
ARTica Assistant Supervisor
Rebecca Loeser, Communication senior

Duties: Renting out the art space, keeping track of supplies, cleaning the rooms, interfacing with customers, odd jobs and paperwork at the art studio in Norris

The Good: Employee discounts, a free Mini-Course and time to work with crafts. “It’s extremely rewarding to help people have a fun, relaxing time. When it’s not too busy and I don’t have too much office work to do, I’ll do some crafts.”

The Bad: Inconsiderate customers, stressful days, messy cleanup. “Please clean up after yourselves, people! And don’t mix paints in the cups; that ruins it for the next person and makes me spend my time getting messier and paintier than I planned.”

Starting pay: $8 per hour for an attendant
Hours: 4-10 hours per week plus weekend shifts
Work-study required? No, but preferred

The Theater Junkie
Struble-Wallis Action Team (S.W.A.T.) member
Chris Andes, McCormick sophomore

Duties: Watch shows, assist and take care of paperwork in the event of an accident and help out show crews at Struble Theatre and Wallis Theatre on campus

The Good: Good company, fun work and free shows. “I love my job. It’s a great way to meet people, and I get to see all the productions for free. It’s a part of my job to watch the shows; I have to see each one like four times or however long it runs to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

The Bad: Unpredictable hours. “I won’t work for a month or so, but then I’ll have like 50 hours in a week and a half. I think once I worked 80 hours in 10 days.”

Starting pay: $7.45 per hour
Hours: Extremely variable
Work-study required? Yes

The Artist
Norris Marketing
Max Cove, Communication sophomore

Duties: Designing posters, TV ads and other graphics for use in Norris

The Good: Recognition, flexible hours and a good atmosphere. “It’s always cool when people say ‘Oh, I thought a professional design group did that,’ but no, those are just students. Also, the environment we have in our office is a lot of fun; I’d encourage anyone to come by on Halloween to the third floor where our offices are. We decorate.”

The Bad: Decentralized location. “We’re not necessarily at the hub of Norris; we’re on the third floor in the very corner. But as much as it’s sort of shut off from everything else… we’re still connected, and we get to know what’s going on.”

Starting pay: $8.25 per hour
Hours: 8 hours per week, and schedules are very flexible
Work-study required? Yes

An earlier version of this article stated that Rebecca Loeser is a Communication sophomore. It has been corrected to reflect that she is in fact a senior. North by Northwestern regrets the error.