Friday, February 27, 2009

We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop? #6

So I broke down and applied for Residence Life jobs. Yes, I know. I can’t believe it either. What am I thinking? (And as I write this I hope no one who has the power to hire me for one of these jobs reads this and figures out who I am….I know, I know there’s like 0% chance of that happening, but I still worry…)

So let's walk through the pros and cons of this decision:
Reasons Against Working in Res Life
1) I don’t think I have the personality for it.
2) I want clear separation between work and home.
3) I worked in Res Life over the summer and it was not the most enjoyable experience (to put it lightly).
4) I am an introvert; I feel Res Life staff members are usually extroverts.
5) I also feel like you have to be able to handle ambiguity, be okay with unstructuredness (which the computer tells me isn’t a word) and have a sense of humor to work in Res Life. Not that I don’t have a sense of humor, because I do, but unless I really know people, I tend to be quite serious. I don’t think I have a Res Life sense of humor.

Reasons for Working in Res Life
1) Perhaps my experience has skewed my perspective. Perhaps my summer internship experience was atypical; it seemed EXTREMELY unstructured, was missing protocols, etc. All Residence Life departments can’t be like that, right?
2) We all can’t be extrovert, right? Introverts still do amazing work and like to work with people. They are social (like to work with people), but may not be sociable (the life of the party). I don’t have to be the life of the party to be a good RD, right?
3) You get free room and board in Res Life, plus a salary. That could go a long way toward paying back loans and even saving some money.
4) I am learning to relax more and be okay with some unstructuredness/ambiguity. It’s a work in process, but I’m improving.
5) It provides me more job search options (especially in my limited geographic area).

So, in the end, the Reasons For have won out. I have applied to an RD position at one small, private college and one, large, state university. I believe I have more of a chance at the small, private since that’s my background and since that job description only required a Bachelor’s degree. Of course, that could mean I will be overqualified, but we’ll see. One thing that also worries me is I don’t have one full year experience as an RA or Assistant/Graduate Hall Director. However, I believe the skills I’ve learned from other positions are transferable; I mean, they are always telling us these skills are transferable and we should learn to explain how they are. So (like other positions, I’ve applied for….see previous blogs…) I hope the search committees aren’t closed mind and don’t overlook all my other experience just because it’s not in Res Life.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Pat #4: Let's Talk About Recs, Baby

Lately I've had this increased need for reassurance. My reference list includes supervisors that gave me a lot of freedom on projects. As a paraprofessional, I value their willingness to let me find my own way. The trouble is, I’m not sure what they think about what I’ve been doing. I keep telling myself, “If something was wrong, they would tell me.” Right?

On the other hand, my internship supervisors really lay on the praise. At first, it kind of freaked me out. I receive tremendous amounts of positive feedback, sometimes just for making a simple spreadsheet. I'm getting spoiled here. It is nice to have someone appreciate you, but it also makes me wonder if I'm doing a good job in my other roles. Being a supervisor myself, I know it is difficult to give constructive criticism. Maybe they have just been holding back.

So who are my positive references? I’ve got a handful of internship supervisors, an employee, a professor, and my assistantship supervisors.

How well can they speak about my abilities and strengths? I’m hoping that each can speak about a different dimension of my professional life. These people have been with me through the ups and downs, whether it be at work, an internship, or a professional organization. They recognize my strengths, but more importantly, they know my weaknesses. They know how to frame my weaknesses in a positive way; they know the steps that I've been taking to better myself personally and professionally.

Do they even know me well enough to take on this responsibility…did I choose the "right" people? All I can do is hope that the answer is “yes.” I can’t think of anyone more qualified to vouch for me. It is gut wrenching to put your future into someone else’s hands. We’ll see what happens when my ears start ringing.

Here I am, clicking “send” on University employment sites, and hesitating each time. I keep analyzing my past performances and behaviors. What do these people really think about me? Last semester I let paranoia get the best of me. I applied for a scholarship, one of my intentions being to learn more about myself. I asked three people for letters of recommendation. Two were absolutely lovely; if I were an emotional person, I could have very easily cried. The other, however, was a template and was clearly written for someone who came before me.

Is this sneaky? Perhaps. But it eased my mind and I found out who appreciates my work. Sometimes when I'm having a really crappy day, I pull out those two letters and read them. It makes me feel like it’s all worth while.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop? #5

Since I am geographically limited, I decided to think outside the proverbial higher ed box in order to expand my job options. What did I come up with? AmeriCorps VISTA.

AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program for 18-24 year olds interested in volunteerism. VISTAs work in collaboration with nonprofit organizations or local government agencies working on a variety of projects from literacy to health care to Habitat for Humanity. What is great for me is how VISTAs work with colleges and universities. These VISTAs have projects that range from coordinating service-learning or a volunteer corps for an entire campus to working with a specific group of students who complete various volunteer projects throughout the academic year. A VISTA working at a college/university is provided room and board by the university, and a stipend and health insurance from AmeriCorps. VISTAs usually work for one year and after that year of service they also receive an end-of-service stipend or education award (which can be used to pay back federal loans). What is great for me is I know of several area schools that house VISTAs.

Although I do not have much experience with service-learning or volunteerism (my experience is limited to a church missions trip during my freshman year of high school, serving Thanksgiving meals to the poor at a local church, and wrapping a whole bunch of presents for a charity’s Christmas giveaway to poor, local families), it is something I have always been interested in doing more of. A VISTA position would be an excellent opportunity to:
1) Gain experience in an area of interest
2) Be challenged and learn a lot
3) Stay in the area
4) Did I mention the benefits? Who wants to pass up free housing and food? Plus more. It’s like residence life without well….all the residence life stuff: on-call duty, RA supervision, etc. Okay, so maybe it’s only similar to residence life in that your room and board is paid for. But that’s amazing!

The positions haven’t been posted yet, so I can’t apply until probably the beginning of March, but learning about these VISTA opportunities has given me hope that I have recently lacked. Therefore, I am going to continue to search for more “outside the box” opportunities while also applying for student affairs jobs that become available.

Monday, February 16, 2009

We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop? #4

Do you know what I hate? That sometimes applying for jobs is such a waste of time. They want you to have experience before you have a job. But how are you going to get experience if no one will hire you first without experience?

I also hate universities’ online job databases. It’s so tedious to enter in all your personal, work and education information. It’s a repeat of what’s on your resume! WHY CAN’T THEY JUST LOOK AT YOUR RESUME? Furthermore, as you are not supposed to lie on your resume, I also don’t lie when I answer the “supplemental questions” for positions I apply for in online job databases. “Do you have one year of academic advising experience?” Hmm. I have experience advising students, but it is actually academic advising? No. So I check “no” and get automatically rejected. “Sorry, but you do not meet the minimum job qualifications.” BS. What about all my other experience in higher education/student affairs? Doesn’t it count for anything? I am sure it is transferrable to academic advising! Just take a look at my resume, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, no, I am rejected. What a great way to weed out possible good candidates/fits for that position. Just because a person doesn’t have that specific experience, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do a great job.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Pat #3: Hitting Close to Home

I really haven’t had time to breathe since the beginning of the semester. My energy reserves are starting to wear thin and it is showing in my work. I just need a “watch 12 hours of House, smother everything in cheese, not change out of my pajamas, or answer my phone” kind of days. To be perfectly honest, it has been a bleak couple of weeks and staying optimistic is becoming quite difficult.

Last night I got a phone call around 11 p.m. which sadly enough, is about two hours past my usual bed time. I debated answering the call, but because most of my friends know that I go to bed before the sun goes down, I assumed it was pretty important. Ronnie, my best friend since the eighth grade was sobbing on the other end.

Ronnie has been my constant support over the years. For better or worse, she has always been by my side. We both went to State for our undergraduate degrees and studied the same subjects. Our fork in the road was Ronnie’s decision to pick up a second major, causing her to graduate a semester later than me.

I jumped right into graduate school and Ronnie spent over a year looking for a job. That’s right, a year. A bright, talented woman with not one, but two baccalaureate degrees could not find a job. I was so excited for her when she finally found a decent job at a newspaper in October.

Last night the recession became a terrifying reality. Ronnie, defeated and scared called to tell me that The Newspaper decided to cut 7% of their budget (for the second time in the past two years). Since her job happens to be towards the bottom of the Newspaper Prestige Scale*, it isn’t difficult to figure out that her job will be included in the 7% of cuts.

I feel so guilty. A few months ago, I was actually jealous. She was starting her adult life and I was still in school. And now, my best friend might be losing her first full-time job at the age of 23. “You are so lucky that you’re in graduate school. Higher education is one of those recession-proof jobs,” she said.

And so I told her about hiring freezes, budget cuts, and “anticipated” job openings. My future could be just as uncertain as hers. Neither of us could think of anything to say that would make us feel better. And so we sat in silence, both terrified and uncertain about our futures.

"It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours." - Harry S. Truman


*The Newspaper Prestige Scale is fictional. For someone who has a tremendous amount of talent (and two degrees), Ronnie deserves better than the Obit-writing, coffee-grabbing, status that she currently holds.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop? #3

Oh, the job search. People are already asking me how it’s coming. And inside I freak out a little thinking, “Is it supposed to be in full-swing already? Is everyone way ahead of me and have they already applied for a couple dozen positions? Is there a secret job board that I don’t know about that is posting hundreds of available positions?”

For me the job search is not coming or going. It’s not much of anything right now. Granted, I did sign up to receive weekly emails from HigherEdJobs.com and InsideHigherEd.com. If you don’t know about these, they are great (FREE) job search tools. At each of these websites you can check off which positions and geographic locations you are looking for, provide your email address and then every Thursday or Friday you receive an email listing positions that match your specifications. Awesome, right?

Well, it would be except not much is available yet. I want to give a shout-out to Pat, the other job search blogger, on applying a position that sounds like it fits her skill-set perfectly. I wish I could find an opening like that. Maybe I could, if I wasn’t limiting myself geographically. In fact, I am interested in Career Development/Services positions, so I would have also applied to that job if I was doing a national search. So there you go, Pat. I am currently one less competitor for that job because I (sometimes foolishly, I think) want to stay in the area.

I say “foolishly” because I sometimes wonder if my boyfriend and I are actually headed down the same path. Well, maybe that isn’t the correct term. What I mean is, I feel I have more depth of feeling and am more committed to being an “us” than he is. This is still coming out wrong. I am not saying he has a wandering eye or isn’t committed to me. He is just in a more “I am still an independent person” place than an “I am in a serious relationship where I should put our needs above my needs” place. So am I a fool for trying to stick around? Maybe if I went far away that would give him the kick in the pants I think he sometimes needs to figure out how much he (hopefully) loves me and wants me around. Or maybe he would then figure out he doesn’t need me around. Now THAT is a scary thought. All I want is to be loved and wanted. Is that too much to ask?

Sorry - back to the job search! The one that hardly exists right now. Let’s talk about functional areas/positions I would apply for. This has been pretty consistent since I entered graduate school, with a few additions: admissions, academic advising, career advising/counseling and study abroad advising. Do you get the sense that I am the advising type?

Truth be told, I want a job with (mostly) regular hours. Eight to five. Eight-thirty to five. I don’t want to do student activities where I am busy five of seven nights each week. I want my nights and weekends for me. I also do not want to do residence life if I can help it (no offense to all those wonderful hall directors and assistant hall directors and other res life staff out there). It’s just that I have dabbled in it before and figured out I am just not a res life kind of person. I wish I was since there is a proliferation of residence life jobs available. But I am not. On the other hand, I am not saying I would NEVER take a residence life position. I could suck it up for one or two years. Hence, if a residence life position becomes available within my restricted geographic arena, I will probably apply for it. Oh, the joys limiting your options….

Sunday, February 1, 2009

We’re adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop? #2

So it’s been over a week since I’ve posted my first blog…the first few weeks of school have been busier (and crazier) than I thought. But now I am sitting on the couch, munching on chips & salsa, and (kind of) watching the Super Bowl, so I thought this is probably as good a time as any to blog. I am a shameless multitasker, but it’s probably better that I write a blog while eating & watching the Super Bowl than trying to read for class.

This entry will not have a lot to do with job searching, but since it’s early, I thought that would hopefully be okay. In this post, I want to discuss my issues with blogging.

First…
This blogging experience is a bit out of character for me. I am by nature a very private person. It takes me a long time to warm up to people and for them to figure out I am not really as shy as they first think I am (Is that grammatically correct? Maybe not. Oh well.). So when I applied to blog, I thought it would be easy to remain completely anonymous & that I wouldn’t want to tell anyone I know that I was a blogger. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as I found out I was chosen to blog, I wanted to tell EVERYONE. I was at work, so the first person I thought to share the news with was my supervisor. It took me all of 2 seconds to realize that was probably not a good idea. What if I wanted to complain about *Jim in the blog? (*Names will be changed in this blog to protect people’s identities.) I also realized I didn’t really want to tell everyone, especially those I work with or go to class with everyday. So I settled for telling my friend from undergrad and…I did tell my boyfriend because I tell him most things. This doesn’t mean I won’t be writing about him, but I thought I would give him fair warning. Also, he is pretty easy-going and I don’t think he’ll actually ever look up the blog to read it.

Second…
I had trouble coming up with a title for this blog. I wanted to be creative, but at the moment of posting, the juices weren’t flowing. A few ideas:

If you’re going through hell…keep on going – You know, from the Rodney Atkins song, since I figured job searching is sometimes like hell. But then I thought “No, too negative. Let’s not scare people off.”

Searching for the perfect fit – Referencing the search for the institution/job that seems like it exists just for you (most high school students also go through this search deciding where to attend college). “Eh. A little too boring.”

Please, God, let me survive – Again, too negative or possibly, whiney

PROCESS – Enough said.

Growing up and moving on… - Too cliché

So I ended up with one of my favorite quotes from Grey’s Anatomy as the title. Not super creative, but it’s what I’m stuck with now.

Third…
How do I enthrall and entertain my readers, but also maintain my anonymity? It’s a fine line to walk. I do not want to reveal information that would blatantly give me away to people in my program if they happen to read this. Like I said, I am a private person, so I’d like to be able to write what I want without fear of “getting caught”.

My boyfriend just went crazy because Arizona got a safety. We are rooting for the underdog. All righty, that’s enough for today. More on the actual job search later this week…