A good thing to know about is jobs – where can you work at Notre Dame? There are so many different jobs you can get on campus (or even off campus) but today I’ll start with a little about the jobs my friends and I have worked.
Catering with Catering by Design
This one is pretty hard with long hours especially when you work events like Junior Parents Weekend (JPW) or alumni reunions in the summer. You literally work the entire weekend and you’re on your feet for hours and hours. On the bright side, you get paid for those “hours and hours” so it’s a good way to make a sizeable chunk of cash all at once. A common sentiment I hear is that people would work it once, but “never again” – I guess it just matters how much you need the money (the work is very tiring!). My roommate and I have both worked catering multiple times.
Au Bon Pain (ABP)
Speaking of my roommate (Sarah), here’s a job that she worked all throughout her sophomore year. ABP is in the library, which is a 2-3 minute walk from Cavanaugh (our dorm), so she could just go over a few minutes before her shift started. She started with two (3 hour) shifts a week, but I remember her picking up other people’s shifts (the workers had a Facebook group they swapped or gave away shifts on). When she had a closing shift, she’d come back at 11 p.m. (on weekends) with cookies or croissants that they couldn’t sell. I was not opposed to this. Ultimately, she liked the job as long as the store was busy, and she enjoyed meeting the other workers and seeing people she knew stop in.
Boxing Manager
Notre Dame has women’s and men’s boxing called Baraka Bouts and Bengal Bouts, respectively, and they are great ways to raise funds for missions in Uganda and Bangladesh. I participate in Baraka Bouts and an old roommate (from when I studied abroad in China) is one of the boxing managers. Payton and I didn’t know each other before we left for China, and on return, we just happened to both be a part of the boxing program! This is what she has to say about her job on campus:
As a student with a job on campus, I was really nervous at first about time management with my schoolwork; however, I quickly found that my job was the perfect escape from any school-related stress that I needed. I only worked a few hours a day, a couple days a week, and found that having a work schedule actually really helped me plan out my study schedule more efficiently as well.
I loved going to work boxing practices not only because I loved the people that I worked with, but it also gave me the opportunity to meet a bunch of other students on campus that I normally wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet. Being a part of the boxing program has made me feel a part of something so much bigger at Notre Dame. I love knowing that the work that we help the boxers accomplish makes a difference for the missions in Uganda and Bangladesh.
On fight night, I remember being frazzled about how my uniform looked or what size I should pick, and, thankfully, Payton was there to give me fashion advice before I got in the ring. This just shows that being involved in activities and having a job on campus is a great way to keep in touch with new friends! I also agree with Payton that having a schedule actually allows you to be more productive, because you don’t have hours upon hours available to procrastinate. I would recommend getting a job for a few hours a week for these reasons, even if you don’t necessarily need the extra cash.
These are just a few jobs at Notre Dame, so stay tuned for more posts about campus employment!