N.C. State students will have more than just new spaces for studying and socializing to look forward to when the Talley Student Union opens in early 2015. The building will also add an unadvertised benefit for students: jobs.

Campus Enterprises, which oversees University Dining, the bookstore and University Student Centers, currently employs 655 students from N.C. State, with the recruitment process happening year-round.

Talley currently employs 27 students according to Tim Hogan, director of University Student Centers, and 10 to 20 more student positions will be added when the building opens.

Dorothy McLeod, human resources director of Campus Enterprises, said certain jobs are aimed at students and their hours. With many students having odd schedules, Campus Enterprises offers two, four, six and eight hour-long part-time shifts to get around class scheduling.

“Normally students give hours of when they are available on the application and that is what we go by, along with experience. Availability is sometimes more important for some positions,” McLeod said.

However, not all positions are that generous. Cooking and catering prefer students with experience in that area, according to McLeod.

“Some of our students in cooking have cooking experience and that would outweigh anything due to having that experience,” McLeod said. “Any experience you can bring to the table helps but your availability weighs a lot too.”

Despite the number of students employed, not all that apply get jobs.

“I think we get at least a 1000 more applications than we can accommodate. Cashier is probably the most popular one applied to,” McLeod said. 

Students on campus are paid a salary of $8-10.50 per hour, depending on the position and student’s experience, according to McLeod.

“A student with experience in food service might make a higher hourly wage for a dining position than a student with no experience,” McLeod said.

Christine Knight, a senior in Environmental Science, works at Port City Java in Nelson Hall and said it’s relatively easy to balance school and work.

“Work at Port City Java is not too stressful,” Knight said.  “Overall, the job doesn’t interfere with my school work because my manager is pretty aware of our other obligations as students. I work about 20 hours a week, but most of my co-workers work less.”

Port City Java, a coffee shop that is operated by Campus Enterprises, can be found in several locations such as Park Shops, Nelson Hall and Carmichael Gym.

However, despite offering on-campus jobs, student employees miss out on several benefits provided by other employers such as vacation, health insurance, retirement funds and other benefits offered to state employees.

Knight also said that other benefits, such as employee meals, are often hard to find.

“The only thing that I might ask of my managers is that they find some way of letting workers get some kind of food compensation regardless of the hours they work,” Knight said. “As it currently stands, you have to work four-and-a-half hours before they’ll give you a meager $2 to spend on food, which doesn’t get much, and you have to work six-and-a -half hours before they’ll give you a decent lunch allowance of $6.25.”

Even without these benefits, students working in dining generally said they thought they were getting a good deal, Knight said.

“Overall, I like where I work and my coworkers are awesome,” Knight said. “The only problem is that there is a lot of down time between [lunch] rushes and when we have too many people working, you pretty much feel like you’re wasting your youth standing around.”