What if you could find a student job that gave you free room and board, valuable people skills and priority registration? It may sound like a pipe-dream, but this is exactly what you get as a Residential Advisor, and exactly what I wanted when I first enrolled at Sacramento State.

But this was not to be, and I ended up working at a coffee shop.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working at a coffee shop. I get free coffee, have an easy schedule and a relaxed environment. And hey, if an attractive girl wants coffee, she is pretty much obligated to talk to you.

But I still want that RA experience, and I recently found out that the housing department will once again start accepting applications for residential advisers next week.

The first thing I see here is opportunity.

Not only would being an RA get me all those benefits, but more importantly, it would present a rare chance for me to learn and practice a well rounded set of good human skills, like peer management, time management and conflict resolution. It’s also a great resume badge for just about any job or major.

“Nothing could prepare you more for the real world,” said Dion Warrick, a third-year RA at Draper Hall. “It teaches you how to communicate with just about anyone.”

Because RAs help other students manage their lives, I would also gain a new perspective on how to manage myself as a student.

RAs find themselves in scenarios which “most college student would never get to experience,” said Jane Heaton, associate director of Housing and Residential Life. “It’s like a human lab.”

But before everyone applies just for the perks of being an RA, you should know that it’s no cakewalk. As last semester showed us, being an RA could go from a quiet night of relatively undisturbed homework to a life-and-death emergency.

RAs must quickly learn the ins and outs of college, as well as how to write incident and conduct reports, handle roommate conflict and other kinds of confrontation.

“This is not a normal eight-to-five,” Heaton said. “This is a lifestyle.”

RAs are not allowed to socialize with students outside of the Residence hall, so a good candidate for an RA should be able to appropriately separate business from pleasure.

It’s not that RAs cannot drink at all, it just needs to be kept within reason. College responsibility is a radical change for new students to go through and they need to observe a good working model of time management.

“Even though students will invite you out to bars or parties,” Warrick said, “you should say no immediately … How can I party or drink with a student one night, then bust them in their room the next? I would be a hypocrite.”

Heaton said a good candidate for an RA would already enjoy this type of work, be even tempered and a good role model.

They should have good communication skills, good self confidence and be able to understand diversity enough to appreciate many people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Warrick said a good applicant should “own up to their own biases and fight through them.” They should be ready for constructive criticism, keep an open mind and accept everyone.

“Every year is different &- new freshman, new cultures,” Warrick said. “There is no way you can leave the job as the same person. You will use things learned here everyday”

Sounds good to me, I just hope for better luck this time.

Paul Roundtree can be reached at [email protected]