By Patrick Greenwell

The search for a job is often times a difficult process that nearly every college student endures. For some, a job is a temporary source of funds. For other students, however, the job they pick during college is the first step into a career that will last the rest of their lives.

Regardless of the reason students choose a job, most agree that few experiences are worse than choosing the wrong one.

The careers available to the average college student can be limited. As a result, many students find themselves working in retail or other equally popular sources of employment.

For U of L students, UPS helps to pay for its student employees’ educations, going so far as to cover both tuition and books.

Brandon Wells, an undeclared freshman, began working at UPS in June of 2007, due to their tuition coverage, however, he has yet to receive the check covering his books.

“The tuition payment is the only way UPS can keep people working there. The turn over rate is ridiculous,” Wells said. “The average employment lasts about one month.”

Wells worked the midnight to 4 a.m. shift as a medium sort loader for six months before quitting. His job was scanning and loading boxes into cans as they came down a conveyer belt.

Many of the packages consisted of car parts and other heavy machinery. While such packages are supposed to be lifted with the aid of another person, Wells had to lift them alone.

The constant backlog on the conveyer belt left no one available to help and no other equipment was available to aid him in loading the packages.

The conditions in the shipping center were often wet or icy, resulting in a dangerous work environment.

Severe hand and back injuries were common and often permanent in the case of veteran employees.

Wells received a concussion after hitting his head on a table while picking up a box. The injury was deemed a contusion by the Health and Safety office at UPS, despite a doctor’s comments otherwise and as such Wells was not given time off for the injury.

Shortly thereafter, he left the job due to scheduling reasons.

“The job just sucked,” he said. “No places were open and everyone I knew was asleep. My sleep cycle was ruined and getting to class became very difficult.”

Freshman biology major Michael Patterson works as a senior tech at Valvoline and currently is training to become an assistant manager.

While the life of a senior tech consists mainly of working on cars and cleaning, he will soon begin dealing with paperwork, inputting orders, managing employee schedules and dealing with customers, in addition to his regular work on cars.

According to Patterson, the work is incredibly easy; for him, however, that is part of the problem.

“It’s so easy my ten year old sister could do it. It’s the exact same thing over and over,” said Patterson. “I end up giving the same speech 200 times in a week, so I burn out on it.”

Additionally, the job requires Patterson to work in a hazardous environment for long periods of time.

Valvoline’s material safety data sheet stated prolonged contact to used motor oil can be harmful up to the point of causing cancer.

Though the job requires employees to wear two pairs of gloves, Patterson’s hands have already turned yellow from the chemicals to which he is exposed.

“It’s to the point now where I don’t feel it anymore. That’s probably a bad thing,” said Patterson. “I’ve had borderline third degree burns. I have scars that look like they happened yesterday from a year ago. It’s like a weird shaped tattoo that I’ll have my whole life.”

Bad jobs may be prevalent for the college demographic, but they are certainly avoidable.

According to Patterson it is important to look into things beforehand.

“Most importantly,” said Patterson, “don’t get into a job where you do the same thing over and over again. Most kids right now aren’t going to find fun and exciting jobs, but they still need to go and look into their prospects.”