Pooling efforts to cast for better student employees

Managing a smaller University Computer Help Desk, it was unusual that I would ever be hiring more than 2 or 3 students at any given time. However it was not unusual that I would lose a student part-way through a semester, leaving me either short handed or scrambling to fill a position and train an individual at short notice. This resulted in using less than ideal resources to recruit student staff. Not being alone in this situation, I, along with other IT student supervisors on campus decided to venture into a new method of student recruitment, interviewing and hiring. ResNet, Distributed Support, Distance Learning and the OIT Help Desk combined efforts for the first time in recruiting students for IT-related positions. The main objective was to have a wide spread campaign to attract as many qualified and interested students as possible. Then, after a universal application was filled out, interviews would be held with a panel of IT staff and students alike. From information compiled via applications, interviews and background checks, three separate lists were created: those we would offer positions to immediately, a list of reserves for possible later hires and those not recommended for hire. Although the first run-through of this did show areas for improvement, it was an overall success as we went from having 5 or 6 applicants to 57 applicants to fill approximately 15 student staff positions. This paper will explain the strengths of this program and ways we look to improve and grow in the future.