Hey everyone, I hope you are all staying as safe as you can in this terrible weather and pandemic. I’d like to tell you about my experience getting hired on as a TA for NMT’s CS department.
My experience getting the position was a little out of the ordinary since I didn’t apply for it. I think since I did well in one of the CS classes, they thought I would be a good candidate for it. So, if you are looking to become a TA I would suggest trying to get 100% on every assignment for the class. Even if you don’t meet the mark completely, ending up with a B shouldn’t put you at a disadvantage. I would also recommend to apply for the position unlike me. I also had a bit of an unfair advantage since the class was introductory programming and I already had two programming classes under my belt by the time I took it.
My second semester they have me working as a head TA for the class I originally assisted. If I had to guess their reasoning for wanting me it would have to be due to the fact that I never missed any of my scheduled hours, I helped them out with some extra events, and I would try to contribute as much as I could while I worked. I think these are generally good behaviors to exhibit for any job you get, as well as having a good attitude. It also isn’t the first time those behaviors have landed me with more responsibilities/hours.
Being a Head TA has been a fun learning experience so far. They’ve had me work on the schedules for our lab and general tutoring hours. I relearned a lot of excel to help me create it, since we had weird rules of how many general tutoring hours a person got based off of the hours they received. It also helped me create as even of a distribution of hours as well as class TA representation throughout the week. It has also been very important to have good communication with my peers and superiors, since I’ve been needing to lean on their knowledge due to my lack of experience in the role.
Overall, being a TA has enriched my university experience at Tech. It’s been a good way of making friends as well as provided valuable experience that I can take with me into my future career.
New Mexico Tech Student Life 