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With tuition fees and the rising costs of living, many tertiary students choose to take on some kind of employment to gain work experience and make ends meet.

For employers, hiring a student can be as good for business as it is for the student, the economy and the community. Employers in the know have been tapping into this rich resource of enthusiastic, bold thinkers since 1982. They use Student Job Search (SJS), a free service run by students, all year round to connect with students who have the skills that meet their business needs.Tim Dorrian runs digital marketing agency Aro Digital, in Wellington. He says one of the obvious reasons he hires students is for their technological savvy.

"As a digital marketing agency, we focus on social media ads, google ads, analytics and insights and we work with businesses like Weta Workshop, Red Cross, The Hurricanes, homes.co.nz and a bunch of other cool businesses.

Since 1982 Student Job Search has been the place to go for bold enthusiastic thinkers.

"The reason we hire students is that digital marketing moves very quickly. You have to be up with the play when it comes to technology and the latest trends on social media and all kinds of digital platforms, which have a tendency to change frequently."

Another important aspect for Dorrian is that Student Job Search takes care of the time-consuming task of recruitment, saving him time which can be better used elsewhere.

"I'm in marketing – I'm not a recruitment specialist," he says. "It would take a lot of my time to manage that hiring process. SJS just took care of all that and we essentially just received a shortlist of four people. I went through and called those four people, met up with them and made a decision from those interviews. If I'd had to do that all myself, receiving all those applications, which started out in the vicinity of 15 to 20, it probably would have taken me three or four hours. Instead of that, I got that three or four hours down to zero, which is nice because my time is really important to me."

Few people are as up to date with online trends and are as valuable in the technology sector as students.

Student Job Search is a charity funded on the number of students who are placed into jobs each year.  Instead of paying to advertise a job, employers just need to let SJS know when they hire a student.