Years ago as a UNC-Chapel Hill student, Kaity Yu arrived at the ITS Response Center walk-in support needing her computer fixed when she saw that the center was hiring student workers.
A psychology major, she needed a job to help pay the bills. As it turned out, she got more than a job. Yu, 27, has now worked at the ITS Response Center for seven and a half years – the last five years as a full-timer since graduating from the University. She met her husband as well as a close friend at ITS. Soon after starting at the ITS Response Center as a student, she decided to make it her career.
ITS work atmosphere offered “good vibe”
Working at the ITS Response Center wasn’t an obvious fit back then. “I couldn’t have told you the first thing about computers,” Yu said. But ITS taught her much in a short time. She felt a good vibe from the office, liked the people, and felt really productive at ITS. Other people in her life complained about their co-workers and jobs, and they went home exhausted every day. Even though Yu was working 35 hours a week as a student, she never left work feeling fatigued. Instead, she always went home with a positive experience or a story to tell.
“A lot of us didn’t plan on doing this for a living and wound up here,” Yu said. “I’m comfortable and I really enjoy what I do.”
The Morrisville resident likes working on campus, surrounding herself with students and seeing her sisters often—both sisters attend Carolina and one, coincidentally, works for ITS Web Services.
“I get to see them whenever I want,” Yu said.
Oversees student workers handling social media
As part of her job with Frontline Support Services, Yu and her dear friend from their student worker days, Christina Riegel, together oversee the two new student employees hired to handle social media. Since Whitney Barker and Wynton Wong started in May, the number of people who follow the Help Desk’s pages has increased tenfold, Yu said, and the amount of social appearances has skyrocketed. The students know the Help Desk’s target audience and who the department supports. What better way to be in touch with students, Yu asked, than to have students handling our social engagement.
Frontline Support, which is the first point of contact for ITS support via phone, Web submission and online chat, has six employees who used to work for the ITS Response Center as students, said Sharon Glover, ITS Response Center Director.
ITS values returning former student workers
The ITS Response Center benefits from having former student workers return as permanent employees. “There is less of a training curve for these employees,” Glover said. “They know the UNC-Chapel Hill environment and systems, and they understand the importance of having their issues solved in a timely manner.”
If you want to inquire about a student-employee job at the ITS Response Center, contact ITS at its_communications@unc.edu.