He doesn’t have the typical bottom-of-the barrel job most college students are forced to resort to in order to earn extra cash. He isn’t toiling in local grease pits or scraping grime off the floors of any respected facility. In fact, Eastern student Dave Heidemann’s job as Deejay Spider from 9 p.m. till close, at late-night hotspot Stix, may just be one of the most coveted college jobs, period.

“My favorite part is meeting all different kinds of people,” Heidemann said. “You meet a lot of interesting people; it’s fun.”

Perhaps “fun” is the key word. How many college students can actually say they enjoy working the front desk at their residence halls or flipping burgers at local fast-food joints?

“When (people) are having fun, it makes the job a lot easier for me,” he said. “The only time it gets boring is when there aren’t a lot of people here.”

Heidemann initially established a name for himself as a deejay when he came to Eastern and hit the local party scene.

“I played after hours (parties) and friends would come over after being at the bars,” he said.

He said he had his heart set on a deejay position at Stix since “I had friends that worked here and they liked the music (deejays) played.”

The 26-year-old has been spinning the tunes under his Deejay Spider alter ego for five years now; however, he hasn’t allowed his responsibilities at Stix to be limited to playing CDs for crowds.

“I take care of all the repairs, all the amps,” he said. “I change bulbs (the sky-high colored lights). We just got six new lights. There were so many problems with the old ones.”

In addition to his aforementioned duties, he holds a more intimidating position as manager during daylight hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

“I bartend, do (money) drawers, make sure the kitchen is running okay, set up the bar,” Heidemann said. “I make sure everything is stocked.”

Although the day hours he works as manager involve numerous responsibilities, Heidemann said he has the advantage of not having to deal with drunken patrons, which is a downside the night manager has to cope with, he said.

“The night manager has more difficult situations then I would,” he said.

As Deejay Spider, Heidemann said he is primarily concerned with keeping the bar updated with the latest hit music.

“If I don’t have (a particular song), I try to get it as soon as possible,” he said.

In this day and age, it actually can become challenging to keep up with what’s hot on the national music scene, he said. Heidemann said he often struggles to get hit singles that have already hit mainstream music radio stations and MTV when the albums don’t come out for another month.

Although the Internet music swapping sites make the hits readily available, he said music burned onto CDs doesn’t always have the ideal quality sound that one finds on bands’ authentic albums.

However, when those popular albums are released into stores, Heidemann doesn’t hesitate to generously spend his own money for the sake of having the latest music on hand at Stix.

“I just buy them; they pay me enough here,” he said. “I play CDs whether they are burned or not; I burn some stuff too.”

Heidemann said if he doesn’t own all of the latest music it is not a problem since Stix’s other deejay, who recently replaced Deejay Carebear, will gladly loan him some of his music.

“If I don’t have something, he has it,” Heidemann said. “We work pretty well together.”

On weekdays, patrons at the bar can expect Deejay Spider to squeeze in their requests; but on weekends, when song requests flood Heidemann, the requests will have to be held over until the next night, he said.

On weekdays, the deejay said he’ll also try to sneak in a couple of his favorite songs if he is short on requests.

Working a rigorous 50-hour week at Stix, in addition to being a student, make things “hard to balance,” he said.

Despite all of the responsibilities he has, Heidemann said the people he entertains and works with make the job immensely worthwhile.

“It is a fun job,” Heidemann said. “Just coming in here and working with people is fun.”