Happy employees, discounts and other perks of working at the DA Bookstore

Working at the bookstore on campus can seem a little bit boring if you are just walking in for your books and snacks. But getting closer to the employees and talking to them reveals a more fun side to the monotony.

While the De Anza College Bookstore can be the 7-Eleven convenience store of the De Anza College community, but there’s much more than meets the eye when it comes to the employees.

Students can work at the bookstore as long as they are attending classes with a total of 12 units or more, according to the bookstore employment website. All jobs are temporary for the quarter, and students must not have had more than 180 units completed at De Anza.

Student employee cashier Sara Sadeghi, 21, computer science major, said the thing she most likes about working there is that she can easily make friends. She likes that she can meet other students and learn about their cultures.

“I’ve been working here for almost five quarters, and we have an amazing manager that makes things much easier,” said Sadeghi.

Although the student traffic at the bookstore slows through the quarter, there are several perks to being a student employee.

Sean Fricker, 19, an electrical engineering major, has worked in the bookstore for three quarters. He said the best things about being employed at the bookstore is the discounts and the cool people that he works alongside with.

According to the student employees, the top selling items at the bookstore are test materials and accounting textbooks. For this quarter, backpacks and coats have been big sellers due to the approaching cold weather.

Customer Service Assistant, Tomas Martinez, mentioned that the De Anza clothing merchandise at the store is pretty popular among students. Martinez has been working with the bookstore for about two years.

He says that the best thing about working at the bookstore is assisting students get what they need.

“College can be overwhelming sometimes,” Martinez said. “Just being able to help students somehow, that is really rewarding for me.”