graduate researcher

graduate assistant

senior cook

research assistant

custodian

Montana State University

I typically check in with my supervisor, complete tasks that they require, then continue to ask other co-workers if they need me to complete any particular tasks. I have learned a lot about efficient communication, effective and efficient decision making, and consistency in the area of customer interaction. The most difficult part of the job would have to have been the times in which Deadlines needed to be met, and all of the other office employees I work with would at times begin to show signs of stress and frustration. I always understood what they were experiencing, and was willing to do what I could to help them, however, their frustration and stress was not stemming from any particular task that I was qualified to help with. My favorite part of this job would certainly be the fact that I had very flexible hours, being a student worker this allowed me to keep up with grades as well as work and. I also really enjoyed the feeling of being trusted with the responsibility to oversee the completion of tasks that were vital to the responsibilities of the office to the campus. For example, I am responsible for making sure that when graduation ceremonies are conducted, there must be enough diplomas prepared and presented at ceremonies.

Groundskeeping is a part of facility services and is a very enjoyable work environment. The head of grounds is an excellent manager, he makes work very easy for students where you can work as much or little as you want. He can also accommodate schedule changes for students quite easily. Very early hours are offered in the winter so you can work a couple hours before classes start, and you can return later in the day to pick up a few more.

If you go full time you do get a certain amount of course credits paid for (I think it is around 15 credit hours) on top of your normal pay.

If you express interest in learning certain parts of groundskeeping like tree care, landscaping, heavy equipment operation, etc. the staff there will teach you how to do those things. Some things, like heavy equipment, are restricted to full-time workers, but they will still help you learn the controls. If you don't directly state interest in doing something though, it won't happen. You have to be an advocate for yourself at this job, which is great for real experience

The most frustrating part of the job is the governmental bureaucracy because you will have the greenlight for certain work, only to be told you can't do it just before starting because someone from the Office of the President said so.

A typical day as a cinematographer on game day for Montana State Bobcat Football is filming game day atmosphere, every play, time lapses, and interviews. Then organizing all of the footage and eventually creating highlights, motivationals, documentaries, and fan videos from that one game and also sometimes practices. I've learned how to shoot a camera for a fast paced environment. I have also learned a lot in post production. Such as Premiere Pro and After effects. I work with amazing coaches, players, and an awesome film crew who help me grow every week at this job. They help me push the boundaries when it comes to editing a video to motivate the players for the next game. The hardest part of the job is collaborating with every staff member and giving them the video they want when they all have different opinions. It can be frustrating dealing with many personalities and ideas but eventually it comes together to create something new and edgy. The most enjoyable part of my job is being out on the field in the atmosphere of the game and realizing how lucky I am to be doing a job I love that involves a huge part of my life.

I was a grad student and then later a research associate for a lab at MSU.  I really liked my PI.  He was an ambitious guy, who sometimes didn't know how much he was asking of his lab, but he was responsive and supportive of his team.  MSU's administration is quite top-heavy like many research universities, but at my level, I never interacted with administration. Bozeman is fun and beautiful, but MSU like most other employers in the area use that as an excuse to pay less than comparable positions in other places. Academia has certain frustrations that are universal no matter where you go - petty politics, institutional inertia, etc. MSU is no different, but I have experienced much worse elsewhere.  I worked on and led a number of interesting agroecological research projects, published several papers, and drafted several grant proposals.  Worked with a lot of great people.  Because MSU is a land grant the research is applicable and involves Montanans from all across the state.  This was one of the major highlights of working there.

• Great "full time" job if you need to do something on the side, such as a degree or catching Pokémon.
• With this experience, I have learned that even if an endeavor isn't driven by profit it might be driven by ego.
• My direct supervisor was understanding and supportive, it was a pleasure talking, working, and finding solutions with them, but they could only do so much.
• The culture was excessively monolithic, they were claiming to be diverse and inclusive and certainly were working hard for the appearances, but the interpersonal relations sometimes reflected a rather colossal dissonance with those claims.
• The hardest part of the job was boredom and having ideas, plans, and work initiative too often stalled or outright rejected. Quite often, I was also asked to do tasks for which specialists were hired at the library/university level. This was frustrating, especially when you are paid 10-12 $/h less than the specialists.
• The most enjoyable part of the job was access to a treasure trove of knowledge that was very well curated. The public was also a great source of enjoyment, as you could meet some interesting people with genuine diversity and interests.

For the amount of work needed to succeed satisfactorily at this job, accounting for the ability to do school work on downtime, this job may be a perfect source of extra income for a full-time student who is living off of student loans. There is a good balance between custodial, event services and building supervision duties. The management is reasonable, understanding, often quite courteous, straight-forward and reliable with a very large exception for both middle-management and related office personnel, who are among what I can only describe as dysfunctional. To be fair, some may be so overburdened by their workload that they fail to do the most basic of tasks needed for you to do your job properly. The communication between management and student custodian that is supposed to be relayed from the head manager is simply lost in translation and/or not cared about enough to be passed along accurately or with any consistency. Aside from that, it appears the wages have significantly increased now and I approve of the position for particular students.

I was instantly brought into am ultra-fast spectroscopic lab my freshman year of school.  I knew very little about quantum mechanics. After four years of research probing kinetics and dynamics of DNA in solid state configuration, I began to feel very comfortable with high levels of math, precision, and attention to detail. I was paid as a freshman and beyond, to help build up the lab environment. I worked to help organize components and processing for the post- doctorates, graduate, and senior level undergrads that were in the group. I was giving the task of organizing the cryogenic set-up for the pump-probe, TCSPS, UV-Vis, FTIR experiments.  At 77° K, I would statistically evaluate properties of DNA nucleotides that did not occupy room temperature kinetics and dynamics.  Therefore, based on the rapid ability of DNA nucleotides to relax in a matter of femtoseconds from an excited state; in a solid state we could observe the relaxation time from the excited state to the singlet state in the order of multiple magnitudes.  It was fun.

A typical day at work for me at Montana State University varied.  At the time I was working multiple positions there, all of which were at the Pool department.  I learned so much over the years I was employed, how to reach outside my comfort zone and take on more responsibilities.  I was trusted enough to implement a brand new program for Montana State University- the 1 credit beginning swim class and the 1 credit advanced swim class. This was probably the hardest part of my job, starting a new program from the ground up but this was also one of the biggest highlights of this job.  It proved to myself what I truly was cable of doing.  My co-workers were amazing and all shared in an equal passion with me for helping others learn how to swim and be safe around water. The management was outstanding as well, they were all so supportive in every dream I had for this new program and were extremely helpful in helping me reach them.

If you're curious why there's always an as for an open position in the HVAC/refrigeration shop, it's for good reason. The work itself is really interesting and rewarding--working on campus is amazing. Being a state job, the benefits are excellent and the on-the-check pay is also good for a state job. That's about it for the positives. The work environment in the HVAC shop is extremely poor. There's a lot of scheming from the coworkers and there's a general environment of dislike and distrust between everyone in the shop. Everyone pretends to be your friend to your face, but will scheme behind your back and gossip about you to no end. Shop foreman does nothing to discourage this behavior and borderline encourages it. It if you can wade through the BS, it's not a bad job, but the turnover is insanely high for a reason.

Working for the Bozeman Public Schools as a substitute-teacher was a job I hoped to parlay into a career as a full-time (eventually) tenured teacher in an elementary classroom after I graduated with an Elementary Education, k-8 B.S.  Unfortunately, after several years all I had accomplished was becoming a regular sub for several teachers.  However, despite not achieving permanent employment, this was an incredibly valuable experience as it really forced me to learn several different teaching and disciplinary protocols.  While I've since made a career change, I would recommend working for BSD if you are looking to gain some experience as a teacher and develop portfolio for employment in another district.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Graduate researcher 4 salaries reported	$1,975 per month
Graduate assistant 4 salaries reported	$1,900 per month
Senior cook 5 salaries reported	$25.26 per hour
Research assistant 3 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Custodian 2 salaries reported	$28.56 per hour

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