Job Hunt: Infinity

As October comes to a close I think it's time I write my thoughts about Careers in Student Affairs month. As a (hopeful) professional, I'm always surprised when this month comes around with all of the blog posts and tweets reminding me about the "awareness". I'm not aware of this month of awareness for my profession until it is upon me, and that is probably a problem. I don't think we should have an "awareness month". There. I said it. I think an awareness month for a career is stupid. Who do we do it for? We do it for ourselves and no one else; the students we work with are aware of us as professionals, and if they aren't then we should reevaluate how we work with them. The university, at least most of it, should be aware of us. They might not like us or agree with the work we do, but they know we exist. Our parents might think we're professors or babysitters or whatever else, but if they don't understand then, again, we should reev...

My name is Chelsea, and I am a trailing spouse. But you haven’t moved! Well, no, but we did buy a house. We made a conscious decision to be in a place. But you have access to two job markets! Yeah, and? The market is so saturated with Master’s degrees and people with experience. I’ve been looking on-and-off for three years, applied to over 100 positions, had less than 10 interviews, and 2 job offers. So, you could move, right? Your husband has skills and can be employed elsewhere, right? Yes, but then we’re both unemployed. I need to make enough as an entry-level professional to support us as we move. But you have experience! Yes, but no. I have experience serving tables, which means customer service. I have experience working with students, but not in a one-on-one capacity, and many positions require that in the job description. I have no staff supervisory experience, as I only supervise student workers. So where would you move? Well, I could make decent money in Fl...

The past few months have put me in some new positions to observe different leaders in different situations. Some of these leaders, are supervisors or managers, but all are put in positions of leadership, regardless of if they uphold the ideal traits of a Leader. We all have our ideal Leaders, people we think are great at not only managing people, but leading people professionally and personally. They are the people we want managing us. Forbes has a list of the 100 Best Quotes on Leadership Here are some of my thoughts on what makes a “good” leader and some downfalls that can happen to “bad” leaders. Be Confident Good : A good leader is not only confident in themselves but also in the people he or she leads. It’s ok to make mistakes, it’s ok to fail, and it’s ok to succeed, but a leader needs to be confident that the outcome will be ok, regardless of the process. Fake it til you make it. Bad : If the leader doesn’t believe in his or her people, decisions, and company how ...