Time was when work-study meant taking shifts at the campus commons, wearing a paper hat and serving mystery meat and creamed spinach as your classmates shuffled through. But with dining services mostly outsourced, and everything about college life more complex, work-study jobs have come to fill a variety of needs — beyond the obvious one of putting cash in the pockets of undergraduate and graduate students. Some want to develop a skill, or beef up a résumé. Some seek an “in” with a certain professor. Ms. Rice’s goal was to make as small a dent in study time as possible.

Back in the day when I was applying for financial aid, my college would send back a list of different funding sources that I was eligible for given a variety of factors. Federal work study was always listed, but the options put before me in the program weren’t as meager as paper hats and mystery meat. That said, I did find the options presented to me unacceptable when I was in college. They were the typical, BS jobs like sitting at the front of the dorms and signing guests and working as tellers at the various cash registers around campus.

Plus, the rates they were willing to pay were abysmal. Something like $5 per hour (I think one job was even at $4.50 per hour). I know it was 2000 when these options were presented, but come on! Instead of these ridiculously low, modern-day-slave labor rates, I went out and worked at a large pharmacy and grocery store making over $10 per hour. From there I went on to work for a creepy, deceit-laden real estate development company making even more.

How are students expected to pay for college when they are given such unacceptable federal work study options? Here’s hoping that they’ve changed the types of jobs that are available to the students so they can at least make some decent money in this program.

As a result of the recession, college seniors and grads are not only vying with their classmates for employment, but also with career-changers who possess much more professional experience. The difficulty of today’s job hunt is further compounded by hiring freezes and slashed budgets. Even in light of President-Elect Barack Obama’s proposed stimulus plan, the outplacement consultant firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas forecasts another one million layoffs in 2009, and some economists expect unemployment to soar as high as nine percent before the job market begins to rebound. Now more than ever, it’s essential for job-seekers to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

In light of this, Gradspot.com has launched “30 in 30,” a series that will feature one insider job-hunting tip (developed with the help of career experts and people who have successfully found employment) each day, for the next 30 days. We know that finding a job can be an aggravating process—by providing hunters with these essential tips and tricks over the next 30 days, we plan to get hunters started on the right foot, and to save them from the humiliation of sitting alone in their underwear uploading resumes to Monster.com for six months. Topics include: “Five Recession Proof Industries,” “Online Career Networking,” “Informational Interviews,” “What’s Your Greatest Weakness?”, and more…

In addition to all of this great stuff, once the 30 days are over there will be additional links added to the site from users and previous contributors. I’ve arranged to have a brief entry added to the collection which will focus on the language you want to use in your resume. I’m looking forward to writing it and I think that you’ll enjoy reading it…plus, as a JerseySmarts.com reader you’ll get a first look at my entry as it’ll posted here first!

Enjoy the Insider’s Guide to Job-Hunting in ’09!