To apply, candidates must read the job descriptions below, interview in person and complete a short application at the Jordan Planetarium office 2nd floor Wingate Hall. Phone or email to arrange a time.
They come from all walks of life and departments and range from 1st-year-ers to graduate students. Some jobs require Work Study funding and are labelled as such. For those jobs, the student must have received an award of work study as part of their financial aid pacage for the current year. With such awards, students can work one or more jobs for up to the total amount of money in the award.
Planetarium jobs tend to be very different than other plain vanilla campus jobs. Each person usually performs a wide variety of tasks, some they have never seen before, and many are projects that will never repeat. They vary from narrating sound tracks and processing digital imagery to disassembling and repairing a slide projector. The structured job classification system used for job titles will not describe all of the interesting aspects of a planetarium work experience.
Contact Name: Alan Davenport
Contact Address: 202 Wingate Hall
Contact Phone: 581-1341
Contact E-Mail : First Class
Current Openings: Spring 2008
These jobs offer the opportunity to train and work in May and limited summer hours, but employee must be planning to continue through the coming school year September to May.
Video specialist Planetarium Presenter
Student Instructor's Aide IV (9532): Starting rate $7.75 - $8.50/ hour depending on qualifications. Work-study award required (or very highly qualified non-w/s students)
INTERNAL JOB TITLE: Planetarium Operator/ Presenter- NOW Hiring for fall staff but training and light schedule times can be worked in May and summer months.
General duties: All planetarium related tasks including but not limited to program development and presentations to public audiences, astronomy classes and school field trip groups. Work includes full responsibility for opening, operating, closing the planetarium and supervising operations. Equipment to be operated ranges from the star projector to slide and video projectors, the OmniDome video system and computers a plenty. This position also participates in preparing visuals from video to slides, writing news items, editing web pages, and crafting or constructing simple equipment. The variety of activity is part of the fun while working at the edge of the real world and sharing a love of science and astronomy with visitors of all ages.
Weekend Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon short shifts are a required commitment. Other work shifts tend to be 3+ -hour blocks during weekdays between 8:30am and 4:30pm.
Requirements:
Some basic astronomy background/ aptitude. Constellation identification and solar system elements are important subjects to master. Candidates who took AST-109/110 at Orono should have received a B grade or better.
Candidates should be 2nd or 3rd- year students comfortable with visual media technologies, informal science education and public speaking, and be able to work up to 12-20 hours per week on weekends and weekdays during the school year.
Successful candidate qualities:
- Total reliability and consciensciousness.
- Ability to learn new tasks and procedures quickly, retain and transfer new skills.
- Must be sociable, patient, and possess strong communication skills.
- Knowledge of computers is required, as is the ability to quickly learn how to use new computer equipment and software. Experience with MSExcel, MSWord, Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe PageMaker or MSPublisher all pluses.
- Ability to work under modest pressure and multitask.
- Must be able to quickly adapt to changing environments and remain flexible.
- Ability to coordinate specific departmental projects and work of others.
Student Computer Technician III (9515): Starting rate $7.85 - $8.75/ hour depending on qualifications. Work-study award required (or very highly qualified non-w/s students)
INTERNAL JOB TITLE: Videologist/Media Specialist- NOW Hiring for fall staff but training and light schedule times can be worked in May and summer months.
Primary duties are to edit and develop video sequences for planetarium programs and manage processing and creation of other visual media. Popular software used include Adobe Powerpoint, Adobe AfterEffects, Lightwave, and specialized plug-ins for full-dome video projection and more. Some productions include full-dome video projection of your work and unique content for that medium!Job also includes other responsibilites and a range of support tasks for planetarium operations.
Some prior experience with video media is required but On-the-Job-Training and self-directed skill building is the norm and typically increases efficiency and creativity over time.
M ost hours are worked weekdays in blocks of 3+ hours between 9am and 4:30pm. Extra hours are possible and additional tasks to fill the need for personal income. This could include short shifts during weekend evenings and/or Sunday afternoons doing reception, ticket sales, computer management, word processing, image processing, etc.
Successful candidate qualities:
- Total reliability and consciensciousness.
- Ability to learn new tasks and procedures quickly, and retain and transfer new skills.
- Knowledge of computers is required, as is the ability to quickly learn how to use new computer equipment and software. Experience with video and/or image processing software is essential.
- Ability to work under modest pressure and multitask. Ability to track progress and organize workflow is very important.
