Employers share what they look for in students
College is expensive and, after paying school fees and trying to pay off loans, students aren’t left with a lot of money–if any at all–to pay bills and fund their day-to-day activities.
Many students tend to opt for working part or full-time jobs during college to help support themselves financially.
Downtown Savannah is a common place for students to search for jobs, but for those with cars, midtown is also an option and for international students–as well as U.S. students–there are SCAD jobs available.
With SCAD jobs, the requirements are often made clear in the job postings: what employers are looking for, the work schedule, who they want and how much experience those applicants need to have. But with a variety of opportunities for employment downtown, students can’t always be sure what qualities and credentials specific companies look for.
“Right now, customer service,” said Department Manager, Lashonda Washington.
“SCAD students are really good because everybody has different styles. H&M loves people with different styles, hair, colors, attitudes, piercings…”
H&M had it’s grand opening on August 4, 2016, with many of its opening employees being SCAD students. The most recent H&M campaigns include various types of people — advertising women with different body types, hair colors, personal styles, careers, orientations and more.
“We just look for different types of people and as long as you’re good with customers it helps you get the job,” she added.
Job applications are available online.
“It’s kind of all about their personality and if they’d fit into our space. Luckily a lot of the students we have are in creative majors that tend to work with their hands and make something that’s actually tangible,” said Senior Team Lead, Mackenzie Dakin.
Urban Outfitters is also a common place for SCAD students to look for retail jobs. The company–as stated on the website–considers itself to be a “unique retail experience and community center for creative, college-age customers.” It’s no wonder that many of its employees attend or have attended SCAD, the university for creative careers.
“We really just look at keywords. And if they’ve had experience that’s totally awesome,” said Dakin, who was also a former SCAD student.
Job applications are available online.
“As far as who I’m looking for and who we’re looking for as a company: a talented person who has an eye for design,” said interior designer, Sofi Mitchell.
24 e. Design Co. is run and owned by the Joiner family and is a well-known business in Savannah. In terms of what they look for in their student employees:
“We are always about customer follow up and customer building and with students, you have your school workload and also have your work workload as well, so you need to be able to balance between the two and hold up to the promises you make in your interview.”
For those that are looking for SCAD jobs, all job openings are listed in MySCAD under the “student employment” tab. Jobs range from little to plenty of experience required and a pay of $7.25 an hour to $10.25 an hour.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
