I'm really loving this image going around the Internet today. (Anyone know the original source?) This Careers in Student Affairs Month, are you working for your purpose? If not, how are you taking steps to do it? Do you know how?
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@thesasearch
I'm really loving this image going around the Internet today. (Anyone know the original source?) This Careers in Student Affairs Month, are you working for your purpose? If not, how are you taking steps to do it? Do you know how?
My supervisor is horrible. She's nice, but is lazy, negligent, and inattentive to everything work-related. She revels in this, proudly proclaiming to everyone (including students) that she "just doesn't pay attention" or "is too lazy to care." This has been tolerated by the upper administration for 8 years, with no sign of it changing. I intend to start looking for a new job in the Fall; should I bother bringing my unhappiness to anyone or just wait until my exit interview?
ugh. I'm sorry this is happening to you.Â
I'm a bit of an overachiever, personally. I would have a REALLY hard time not saying something about this. Actually, I'm having a hard time fathoming that these kinds of comments and behavior would fly for that long - and it makes me wonder if there is some part of her performance that you're not privy to, or even if these comments are a (very) misguided attempt at connecting - like when I downplay my enthusiasm for something out of fear of seeming like "too much."
Have you talked to your supervisor about the way that her behavior and comments impact you and your ability to do your job? Ideally, this would be your first step. Framing this in a nonjudgmental, non-accusatory way that is focused on how it impacts you is probably a safe place to start, since this is long-standing behavior. Having the conversation allows you to be heard and lets your supervisor show all that is going on for her, if she wants to take that opportunity. It isn't really your job to hold her accountable for this (even though, as an overachiever it sounds very frustrating to "let her get away with this") - instead, your focus should be on how this is impacting you. Why is it that this bothers you? Why would you like it to change?Â
Anyway - the question to ask yourself is, what would you like to happen? It sounds like there isn't anything about this job situation that feels "salvage-able" for you - so what will both make it tolerable for the fall, and what can help you in your search for a new position?Â
Specifically, is there a way to "befriend" your supervisor's supervisor, or someone else who is further up the food chain? My thinking is - without intentionally or maliciously going around your supervisor, can you build a productive relationship with someone who might be able to influence your supervisor to, you know, do her job, and provide a decent reference as well? This is a somewhat tricky situation to navigate politically - depending on your relationship with your supervisor and how you handle it, complaining about her could have negative impacts on how she'd reply to a reference check. Building a relationship with someone above her allows you to have someone else from your institution to speak to your work.Â
Also - tread carefully with how you speak about your supervisor, to others on your campus or outside your current institution. Student affairs is such a small field - your supervisor could have folks "on her side" in unexpected places, and you want to appear diplomatic, gracious, and competent. Even if folks don't know your supervisor, I know I definitely don't want to hire someone who spreads rumors, gossips, or otherwise "trash-talks" their current institution or supervisor.
Search-Induced Guilt
I'm approaching the 2-year mark at my current job, and honestly thought I'd never make it this long because I'm rather miserable; but life circumstances kept placing the search on hiatus.If my direct supervisor finds out, my life will become more miserable, and I don't feel any guilt about leaving her.
The real issue is with my Dean, (to whom I report for about a third of my work) who has some huge project expectations for me and is taking a mini-sabbatical for the summer--I hope to not be here when she returns in October. Do I confess my guilt away, or keep her living in a dream world? If I do confide in her (I trust her discretion), do I leave it as a general "oh, well...professional growth...better fit" platitudes, or come clean about my supervisor, who is already a joke within the department?
It's kind of eating at me to talk about these huge plans with her, then hang out on HR websites and write cover letters that very night.
On Authenticity, Networking & Mentorship
This is a guest post from our contributor Bossy Clementine. For more of their posts, check out this link.
"You are an orchid. it takes a lot of time for orchids to grow and mature into the beautiful flowers they are. if you are in a place that isn't willing to feed you, love you, water you, give you space for sunlight, and sometimes replant you in spaces that help you continue to grow.... and you whither, shrivel, your pigments start to fade... then it's time. it's time to go. because you're precious and rare. and they need to cultivate you so you can grow more and plant new seeds. that's what you do for people like you."
contributed by a new professional, advice they received from a SSAO mentor. Beautiful advice! Thank you for sharing.
First Year Fumbles
This is a guest post from our friends Bossy Clementine and Prickly Pear (pseudonyms, obvy.)
Fumbling is a necessity in your first year as a student affairs professional. Some of us will have tragic outfit malfunctions and misÂmatchings, others might experience a strongÂ-willed student culture that doesnât like the concept of challenge by choice. Regardless of the âoops,â there are definitely some points of growth that come from taking off the rosy-Âcolored first year professional glasses. So, here are some reflections from two young, glamorous professionals who 1.) absolutely love their jobs, 2.) find humor in some of the engagements they have with students, and 3.) wanted to share some precious moments from the first month of working at their current institutions.
By request, for all you preparing for conference interviews - from the TPE '12 folks!
What's the best way to highlight committee work on your resume?
I've seen it done many ways, and of course which you choose will depend on your own circumstances and experience. In particular if you're a grad student the best format may be different than if you are a professional staff - your best bet is always to have a career counselor or coach (and/or a trusted friend in the field) take a look!
One way is if you have your experiences organized by institution - let's say you have multiple positions at the University of Awesome. It might look like:Â
University of Awesome, Awesomeville USA My Job (June 2010 - Present)
some stuff I do
more stuff I do
Committee for Increasing Awesomeness, Co-Chair (November 2010 - January 2011)
OPTIONAL bullets here (again depending on what the accomplishments, responsibilities, and roles you had on the committee).
My Department Professional Development Committee (June 2010 - December 2010)
More optional bullets
Or, if you have multiple positions at that institution, it might be:Â
University of Awesome, Awesomeville USA Assistant Director of Awesome, July 2012 - Present
duties
duties
Program Coordinator for Awesome, June 2010 - June 2012
accomplishments
accomplishments
COMMITTEE WORK:
Awesome Committee Co-Chair (January 2012 - Present)
Diversity Training Committee (July 2011 - December 2011)
Department Professional Development Committee Member (June 2010 - July 2011)Â
Another option is to either create a "Professional Service" or "Committees" section at the end of your resume, or include these with a broader category that includes professional service.
However you choose to present your committee work, make sure that the amount of space and time you spend talking about it is relative to how closely related it is to the job you're applying for. If you're applying for a social justice education position and you've served on lots of related committees, make sure to include it. If you're applying for that same position and have served on other types of committees? Include it if there's room (because it's always good to see how someone serves their institution, skills and other interests they bring to the job, and how "well rounded" a candidate they are), but don't use up valuable resume real estate if it's going to mean more important information gets lost or left out.
Check out our additional posts about resumes!
Why are you REALLY in the field?
It's job search season. Scratch that, it's always job search time - there is always an opening somewhere! But we're definitely entering the "high season," so to speak. The grad students I work with are polishing their resumes, figuring out their roommates for conference, and doing some (more!) thinking about the kinds of institutions and roles they are hoping for.
My #SASearch: The Day I Threw My Life Plan Out the Window
Our special guest Bossy Clementine has shared this post with us.Â
My Job Search
This is a guest post from Carter G. Roane, Carter tweets at @CarterGRoane and blogs here.
I am currently in the midst of a Student Affairs job search. I decided a few years ago that I wanted to be back in the field after being out for quite a few years. I am not sure when the deciding moment was that I wanted to be back in but I think that feeling had been building for a while when I realized that many of the skills that I have learned and were using were skills that I learned as an RA and RD. I also realized how much I love this field and admire the professionals who work in it. The search has been at times disappointing but much more than that it has been a fantastic learning experience and very, very rewarding. I have learned more about myself and what I can accomplish than I ever thought I could before I started my search. I am glad to have learned and grown from this because I can honestly say that when I was a professional before, I wasn't that great at my job. I might have been good, but I wasn't great. Sure, I handed in my paperwork on time, I did what was required of me by my supervisors and I never, ever did anything unethical. But looking back, I didn't go beyond that, I didn't think outside the box and I didn't do anything in particular that would make me stand out next to my colleagues. I know a lot better now and I think I am a much better professional because I will not take anything for granted and I plan to make the most of whatever opportunity is given to me. I think I've grown up.
Getting a master's degree in student affairs,  joining professional networks, networking with professionals, volunteering, helping with program proposals, helping students whenever I get the chance, even working on a program proposal and using learning outcomes to do that. I never did much of that before. However, I certainly do all that now and I know how much I love this field and how much I want to help a college, in whatever way possible.I I know I am not the typical candidate for some Student Affairs and Residence Life jobs and some people may wonder why I am even doing this at all. I want to make a difference. I am ready to make a difference and I want to help..a staff, students, department and community and do whatever I can to develop a close, successful community and wherever I am needed to do that.
My end goal is to make it back in the field and I have gotten close, occasionally very, very close but just quite haven't been able to be the last candidate standing. Who knows if I will make it? I will never give up but who knows what may or may not happen. I do know that I have gotten help from some amazing professionals and I will always be grateful to them for that. And I also know that my wife has been amazing throughout this whole search and I am so thankful for her. Same with my family. And I know even if I don't make it, I feel better knowing that I have the skills and passion and desire that it takes where I could have been a professional that can be an asset to an department. To all the new professionals and the ones who just got hired very recently, congratulations! I am sure you will do great and enjoy this experience and make the most of it. And to all the job searchers out there, keep your head up, stay positive and keep on being current and relevant. You will get there soon enough and hopefully, someday I will be right there in the professional ranks there with you.
On "Professional Authenticity"
I'm typing this while wearing bright aqua nail polish. I know that might seem like a weird place to start, but based on a number of conversations I've had recently, maybe it's not so strange after all.Â
A few weeks back, I was talking with a friend about the seemingly contradictory advice she was receiving during her job search: always be professional. And always be yourself. How am I supposed to be relaxed and authentic, she asked, if I'm also being hyper-conscious of professionalism? If I have to be vigilant about every little thing - no hair out of place, sit up straight, polish those shoes - how can I possibly be myself?Â
Is it career suicide to start looking for a new position a year after you start? ESPECIALLY as a new professional? I took the first job that was offered after grad school, and am miserable--my supervisor is less than incompetent, there is no real interest in change, and when they do ask for my opinion, I'm shot down before I even get my ideas out. What few transferable skills I could gain from this position cannot be honed anymore, and I feel I'm stagnating. How can I escape? Should I even try?
Sure, if you really can't grow any more - absolutely start looking for a new position. I'd personally hesitate to leave a position after less than a year, but after that - do what you need to do! You are the only one who knows what's best for you. Leaving a position after one year, especially when you are a new professional, is common enough that most people I know wouldn't consider it a red flag. (Of course, if you had a record of consistently leaving positions after one year or sooner - and they weren't designed as interim positions - it might be a different story.)
I'd recommend sticking around while you are searching for a new position - but don't be one of those people just going through the motions. You still need to be committed enough to do your job well. Otherwise, you're not doing anyone any favors and should just quit. You can choose to be open about the fact that you're searching, or not - whatever you're comfortable with.Â
In the meantime, are there additional responsibilities you can take on in your current position? Committees, projects with other departments, or other opportunities outside your typical day-to-day (but still close enough to do it during the work day) that will provide an opportunity for professional growth?
This is a great time to think about your professional goals and where you'd like to go next. Take the opportunity to have (private) conversations with mentors and friends to help you figure it out - if you're currently at point A, and you want to be at point B, how can you get there? Can you go directly there, or do you need to have more experience in C - or build connections along point D, or whatever else? Getting an outside opinion can be very helpful - whether it's someone you know well, or a career counselor or coach you're meeting for the first time.Â
You may also like this post from the archive, Knowing When to Fold 'Em.
What do others think? Should our writer take the leap, or tough it out another year or two?
Your Power Outfit
Marveling at the outfit - silver lamĂ© pants with leg warmers and flip flops? really? - I remembered the unitard I wore for weeks as a kid. I took dance classes when I was in elementary school, and at some point I got this shiny teal unitard. and I loved it. So much that I wore it all the time. It was comfortable, I suppose, and quite conducive to jumping around (or running around the house, as mom instructed me and my siblings to do when we had too much energy).Â
Silliness aside, I loved my unitard because it made me feel good. And I imagine that, for the girl I saw with the lamĂ© pants, the pants and leg warmers made her feel good too. I find that even today, there are those items of clothing or accessories that make me feel good -- and that for many folks I've talked with, they have something like that too. As we go through search processes, it can be helpful to have an item like this - a talisman of sorts to keep our confidence up and boost that mojo. I've long since outgrown the unitard, but do still secretly own a tiara, which makes me feel like a rockstar, but its wear is pretty much confined to house cleaning.Â
Of course, it helps if your power outfit or accessory is interview-appropriate attire (which silver lamé pants, like my childhood unitard, are decidedly not). Maybe it's a purple tie, a beautiful red suit, a fun color of nail polish on your toes, or some not-too-outlandish jewelry. For me, it's meaningful jewelry - a bracelet and ring I bought myself after quitting my job to go to graduate school, each engraved with an inspirational message.
What about you? Do you have an accessory or outfit that boosts your confidence and keeps you motivated during a search process?
Personal/Professional Identity: We're All Works in Progress.
This weekend, I shared an idea I've been toying with on twitter: That professional identity is personal identity. I got some interesting responses - that yes, professional identity is personal identity, but personal identity isn't professional identity; and of course the ubiquitous "work/life balance!" responses.Â
professional identity = personal identity
In talking with folks who are searching (and rounding over a year of searching), as well as grad students just leaving their programs, I've been thinking about the intersections of personal and professional identity a lot.
In our culture, for better or for worse, we are defined by our careers and our jobs. In this sense, professional identity is personal identity. I think of myself as a student affairs educator and that's how others view me. Of course, we all hold many identities (and I think the intersections of our identities and how we make sense of them are fascinating). But stick with me for a minute.Â
If we're defined by our jobs, and I don't have a job, what am I? who am I? What if we don't like our jobs? Can we like ourselves?Â
Talking About Your Work: SA Job-Seekers Edition
This is the third in a series of posts by contributor Ann G. Knoezer. Ann tweets at @AnnKnoerzer.
âWhat do you do?â
Like most, Iâve sometimes struggled to describe my work in student affairs to others. Whether I was surrounded by a crowd of cousins at a family party or engaging the person sitting next to me on an airplane in light-hearted conversation, this question inevitably arose. I had a stash of answers saved up for occasions like this and rotated them based on the context of the question. In my experience the simplest answer was typically the one thatâs best understood by an inquisitor. Iâve drawn from my job title (âIâm an advisorâ), my campus department (âI work in a career centerâ), and even my job description (âI help people with their resumesâ) to answer this question. Some got it, but I know there were others who arrived at their travel destination and told a loved one that they sat next to a teacher during the plane ride.
Answering the âwhat do you do?â question has sometimes been a point of frustration for me. I love the work that I do so much that, in all honesty, it bothers me when others donât understand it. For majority of us in student affairs, our work isnât just a job⊠itâs a part of who we are. It defines us. We advise. We support. We educate. We develop. We empower. And we wouldnât have it any other way.
But how do you define who you are and what it is you do in higher education when youâre not actually working in higher education at the present time?
I found myself facing this very real and very scary thought last summer. Two months outside of graduate school, living in a new regional area, and just turned down for my supposed dream job, I didnât know who I was. No longer was I struggling with work/life balance like so many of my colleagues; I was struggling to find meaning in the day-to-day. I was a job-seeker, not an advisor. I wasnât helping others on their resumes; I was rewriting and making edits to my own. And I didnât like it one bit.
I knew that, if I didnât want to stay down in the dumps for the entire duration of unemployment, I had better figure out a way to talk positively about who I was and what I wanted to do. More importantly, I had to believe it. I came up with a simple adage for myself:
My job is not who I am; it is how I help others. My job does not define me; it defines how I give back to the world.
While this saying often brought a tiny smile to the darkest days and weeks as a job-seeker, it also provided me with a framework for answering the inevitable question, âwhat do you do?â and his new evil unemployment counterpart, âwhere are you searching for work?â Rather than drawing from my previous job title, my previous campus department, or my previous job description, I answer these questions based on the context of how I want to help students in the future. My answer resembles something like, âIâd like to work as an advisor for college students to help them prepare for their careers,â or âIâd like to help students work through the decision-making opportunities they have during college.â
I have noticed a change in how others receive and react to my answers. I often get a much more interested look from the inquisitor. Sure, there are some who will still politely nod and then go tell their loved one that they sat next to a teacher on the plane ride. But, more often than not, my new answers elicit additional questions. They want to know more about what I hope to do, how I got into this kind of work. Rather than sharing with them the job title Iâd like to have someday, Iâve given them a better picture of who I am and the kind of positive impact Iâd like to have on the students with whom I will work.
For those of you out there that are searching for a job right now, I want you to think outside of titles, functional areas, and job descriptions when youâre asked the questions,
âWhat do you do?â âWhere are you searching for work?â
#SASearch Chat Transcript - Evaluating Job Openings, 2/22/12
Check out the transcript from our chat on evaluating job openings, after the jump.Â