Hiring Process
Zachary Reese,

All decisions to hire fulltime, part time, temporary and hourly staff must be approved by the APPC Director. Salary range and space options will be considered. The process of hiring must then proceed through the office of the Staff Director.

Posting Open Positions at Penn

All open positions other than those for limited service (maximum of 1,000 hours) or hourly students must be posted on the University Human Resources website, giving opportunity for all to apply. [There are rare exceptions.] The Staff Director will work with you to develop what she needs for the posting. The APPC now requires a background check on all final candidates. This requirement must be included in the position posting.

The Candidate of Choice and Offer Letters

The University procedures leading up to the offer of a job to a candidate are precise and have been developed to protect all involved. No APPC staff member is allowed to indicate to any candidate that he/she will be offered a position or imply any commitment on salary until the Staff Director finds all conditions have been met and approves the wording of an offer letter. All offer letters come from the Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Limited Service Hires

The University permits the hiring of temporary non-student personnel without posting the open position. These temporary staff members cannot work more than 999 hours anywhere at the University. If audited, the federal government may require that retroactive benefits be provided if the employee was allowed to exceed 999 hours.

Penn Students – Hourly Hires

Undergraduate and graduate students may be hired at an hourly rate that has been approved by the APPC Director. During the school year, undergraduates cannot work more than 20 hours a week. During the summer, they cannot work more than 40 hours a week. Annenberg graduate students cannot perform additional work for pay during the school year, when they already receive a stipend from the School. They cannot work for APPC when they are on DRF [dissertation research fellowship].

Preference to Communications Majors

For hourly paid student positions, it is APPC’s firm policy to give preference to undergraduate Communications majors [or prospective Comm. majors] whenever possible. This pool of candidates can be reached through the ASC Undergraduate Program Administrator. Next in preference are Penn undergraduates in general, and lastly non-Penn applicants.

Work-Study Students

Within any of the categories above in the “preference” section, attempt should be made to hire students with Work-Study grants.

Copies of Weekly Paid and Hourly Paid Timesheets can be obtained through the Business Office.