faculty

director of student services

office assistant

laboratory technician

federal assistant

Glendale Community College

As an Instructional Associate, then a Floor Coordinator working in the multicultural, customer service oriented environment of the Glendale Community College High Tech Center Computer Labs it was expected that one needs to be effective customer liaisons with students, be courteous, prompt and reliable. Always able to report problems to a Floor Coordinator and there was always security. Thoroughly enjoyed learning about various personalities, who could offer some unique challenges while being mindful to encouraging and instilling calm confidence. Got much satisfaction introducing students to the technology, addressing questions related to applications, computer operating systems, software and hardware in the high tech center and in assisting students to review and understand their syllabuses and coursework. At the same time practicing my own course work. As a Proctor work was very structured. Required to: Uphold test confidentiality, security and decorum. Be observant for transgressive activity, at the same time being mindful of basic courtesies and customer service in an environment fraught with the tensions of testing anxiety. Enforce and adhere to policies and procedures. Create nightly incident reports, maintain records, report problems to whomever needed the input and secure materials and closing the testing lab at the end of the day. The culture was one of nurturing, mutual support and respect, and so one could explore their horizons. And after work one could explore any new or unfamiliar software applications.

In a typical day at work I would at least tutor about 50 students. I learned that perfection comes through repetition. I learned  to be patient, different methods of explaining to different students based on their level of knowledge, and learned to effectively communicate my point across. I learned new topics, techniques and strategies, and humility to become a good tutor.  My co-workers were very help, whenever I needed help. I can ask and they would help me. As a Math Tutor, the hardest part of the job is when you run into a problem that you can't solve on your own. When this occurs, it is important that you ask another fellow tutor for some guidance while you stay and learn incase someone else asks the same question later. this is hard because as a tutor you feel humiliated because you think you should know everything, which for the most part is true. However, sometimes you get stuck and might ask for a helping hand from your fellow tutors, that way it's a team effort and it's a best way to eliminate pride. The most enjoyable part of the job is when you see a struggling student understands the concept or problem that was giving them hard time. To see the smile, high-five, and the appreciation from them is the unforgettable part of the job.

A typical day at work involves coming in with lessons and work ready for lecture.  There is a lot of out of class preparation.  The most difficult thing to learn is how to write the syllabus.  This is considered both a contract between the student and teacher as well as an outline of the course itself.  I often did extra--rubrics for assignments, handouts, set material on line (in this case on Canvas or Blackboard) write announcements (to keep the students up to date) and answer emails from students.  I usually come in early to set up for class and to see if there are any issues I need to attend to; after which I will lecture and or set up writing/ work time when I work with the student themselves.  There are also group activities and online activities to orchestrate.  It is second nature now but took a while to learn how to do.  

The workplace culture is rather loose.  There are only two times a year when you actually get to meet your colleagues--at the assessment meetings in August and in January.

Working as a tutor for the Math and Computer Science department at Glendale Community College was one of the best jobs I've ever had.  As students required help, we would sit with them and talk through problems, never giving answers, but usually helping them to find the answers on their own.  On the rare occasion a given problem was beyond my skills, there was always another tutor on duty who had taken whatever class the student was in and could help.  There was a very minor amount of stress in the management department, as while I was working there, the department was going through an extended period of reorganization; however, my bosses did a good job keeping most of that away from the tutors.  I genuinely loved sharing my knowledge with the students there, and lived for the moments of enlightenment, when understanding would suddenly light up someone's face.

A typical work day is stressful yet enjoyable, I am able to do what I  love and help others in the process, so I enjoy everyday I work there.

I have learned and continue to learn, is that I can help so many individuals succeed in math, but also that I don't always know everything, and to not take this setbacks personal, but to move on to the next question.

My supervising instructor is quite a mentor to me, in that I can watch and learn so much from how he interacts with and helps students.

The workplace cultivates a friendly inviting atmosphere, that allows students to learn and even thrive in mathematics.

The hardest part of the job is that there are students I am not able to help, whether that is because I don't have the knowledge or because I am not able to share the mathematics in a way they can understand.

The most enjoyable part of the job is when I see a student's eyes light up and they are able to understand the mathematical concepts and succeed in their math classes.

A typical day at work was clocking in, talking to various tutors about math, waiting for a question when someone did not know how to answer a question and explaining how to solve the problem.

I learned how to effectively communicate to both coworkers and students alike. The responsibility of being a tutor is focusing on the problem and not giving up on a problem until the problem is solved. 

There was no need for management at the job. Our main requirement was to focus on helping out students.

Coworkers were friendly, they were not harsh or anything of the sort. They were supportive, and help when you are having trouble solving a problem.

The hardest part of the job was self-managing time allotted to students when the problem was difficult and there were a flood of students showing up.

Most enjoyable part were my coworkers, my boss and the students I taught. Each one only added towards a great experience at working in this job.

I'd clock in and start filing Instuctors mail, then I would get on my email account and start going through those email from Instructor of what they need done. For example some of the things would be creating document for their class using excell, editing test before handing out, edit office calender, etc. I've learned that I work well in an office environment, you can use excell for alomst anything, team work is a great work ethic. My co-workers were great, we always got the job done and did it as a team. No one didn't have a problem with the work we shared. The hardest part of the job for me was the down-time. There is a good amount of down-time working in certain department on a college campus. The most enjoable part was helping a student. I loved getting them the information they needed and seeing them relieved, because I was also a student at the time I was working.

We meet up to set up microphones and run pink noise to eq the speakers in the performance art center, we decide how we wanted to record audio for the event or to even record the event at all, we gathered with other team members like the lighting team and video team to see if we need to sync audio with video or lighting at all, the management was great, full of out going creative thinkers, same with the co workers, the hardest part of the job was to get more work because we only worked when the school had concerts to throw or plays and other events. The most enjoyable part was to get to do the things I love and watch the production we maid that others could enjoy and experience.

For starters, I was embarking on setting up an entirely new technology that was not properly utilized to its fullest capacity.  I had to pick up the pieces and rip out the old process and start something new that I had trained and learned in my prior positions.  My immediate manager did not put any effort into anything and there was no help on contracting support - although the Windows counterpart had consulting and assistance from contractors.  After working about 1.5 years, I was prompted another position for more pay with another upper education business.  So, I took it...  If you want to stay stagnant, never get promoted, rewarded, and don't like getting paid what you're worth...then GCC is the place to work at!

As with all community colleges, they are hiring tons of part-timers, giving you hours just shy of the requirement to also give you health insurance, and are basically expecting you to get hired elsewhere to make living wages.  In my department, there were dozens of adjunct teachers who'd been there for many years - ie. there is zero chance of getting a full time position, much less a tenured spot.  Some of the teachers were working at five different colleges, driving all over the state.  Realize that you will be working a lot more hours than you get paid for.  I was in the English department, so there were a lot of essays.  When you're grading that many essays, the pay works out to 1 or 2 dollars per hour.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Faculty 5 salaries reported	$75,724 per year
Director of student services 5 salaries reported	$22.43 per hour
Office assistant 4 salaries reported	$15.79 per hour
Laboratory technician 4 salaries reported	$21.87 per hour
Federal assistant 3 salaries reported	$15.45 per hour

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