Job Hunt: Infinity

Part II - Experiences on Campus While there is current research being done on support services for student veterans, “there is little or no information to assess whether the efforts by institutions to provide targeted programs and services are helpful to the veterans and service members enrolled in colleges and universities.” (Kim, Young, & Coles, 2013, p. 1). Also, there may be a problem with student veterans accessing those services, because some student veterans may not self-identify (Vacchi, 2012). Student veterans, even if they do identify, may not ask for help or want to feel like a burden (Vacchi, 2012). College campuses come with their own red tape, much of which can be difficult to navigate for student veterans (Vacchi, 2012). Some of this red tape can come from VA benefits, such as tuition payment that may come after the end of a billing cycle which can have consequences on campus (Vacchi, 2012). Another is health insurance, since most campuses require students to hav...

Job Searching Job searching is such a pain. It’s a long, lengthy process with very little transparency. You apply, spend at least an hour on an application, and the worst that can happen isn’t a “no”, it’s nothing. It’s never hearing from a person again. My biggest advice is to not compromise. Apply for jobs you want, not just ones that will build your resume, not just ones you qualify for, not just ones you could do for a few years. Apply for jobs you want to do. I repeat: do not compromise. Don’t take a job to get your foot in the door (hint: it probably won’t work). Don’t take a support staff position so you can “gain skills” (hint: no one cares about your support skills). Just don’t. My story is real, it’s frustrating, it’s not linear, it doesn’t have a happy ending (yet). Trailing and Leading Spouse On top of just job searching for myself, I also need to consider my spouse. Most of my searches were regionally bound due to my husband’s stable job. He carried the benefits and most o...

Career Sustainability I currently work in a position that is not part of a career ladder. I am considered support staff, so there is no clear path for me to make it to a “professional” position. Even if I were to be hired as an advisor, there is no path from there. You can be promoted to Senior Advisor, but (from what I can tell) there isn’t much difference. Even if you work in a position that is part of a career ladder, that ladder gets considerably thinner (and harder to attain) as you move up. There is only one SSAO (maybe) at each institution, we all can’t be SSAOs, it just isn’t possible. When we make the choice to stay in higher ed, when we choose to take part in ladder climbing, we need to be very realistic about what that means. We also need to understand that some people are going to leave student affairs, and that’s totally okay. Again, not all of us can be SSAOs. The big problem is, when is our profession not sustainable? When are we educating too many professionals for too ...

Sphere of Influence I have trouble staying within my sphere of influence. It took me a very long time to realize I can only control my behavior (I really blame Daring Greatly for that one). My job is small, my actions, however, are not inconsequential. My actions affect my office suite, colleagues, and students. Being grumpy, unforthcoming, or rude doesn’t serve anyone. I can control my behavior, how I react to things, how I think about them, how I implement suggestions, and how my office operates. I can’t control much else. And that’s ok. Really. It is. Be a positive force in the universe, and others will appreciate you and want to work with you. That’s how you expand your sphere of influence. Values Say you believe that all gifts should be wrapped in shiny blue wrapping paper. You truly believe this. You act on it consistently, you’ve shared these beliefs, and you will continue with them. Some may say you value shiny blue wrapping paper. Your employer, however, may believe ...

I am not in student affairs. I have never worked professionally in student affairs. I have no experience on my resume in the student affairs category. I don’t know if I’ll ever work in student affairs. So, why, you may ask, am I posting about Careers in Student Affairs Month? It’s a great question. A wonderful one, really. Sometimes I ask myself about why I call myself a student affairs professional often, sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes all the time. Sometimes I have other things on my mind and I don’t think about student affairs at all. I think about student success. I think about that more than student affairs. I think about how we define student success, how we encourage success, how we measure success, how important success is, the milestones of success, and the headlines about success. I think about silos, too. I think about how we silo people so that they can’t share resources, goals, or expectations. I think about how those silos affect our work with students, and eac...

Part I: What can we do? We should be offering services that are veteran-friendly, such as orientations just for veterans (Ackerman et al., 2009). And we should be offering accurate information in those services, especially when it comes to recruiting (Schnoebelen, 2013). David Vacchi also suggests that we provide transfer credits and offer thorough evaluations of non-traditional education that student veterans possess (2012). More specifically we can create (and attend) training programs focused on student veterans (Schnoebelen, 2013). Advisors of student veterans should be made aware of the challenges veterans may face, including potential transfer credit issues (Vacchi, 2012). Some of these issues could also be from experiences while in the military, such as sexual assault (Ackerman et al, 2009). We should also be working with faculty so that they are aware of the culture of classrooms and how that may affect student veterans (Vacchi, 2012). Some institutions have done a...

July has been particularly hectic and August will calm down for a bit before Orientation. I've been trying different things in order to make progress on my massive to-do lists. First, I closed Outlook. Just closed it. And it was a miracle. No more interruptions, no binging or flashing whenever I got a new message. There was a downside to this: my calendar also didn't interrupt me. I missed two appointments. So then I went into Outlook and turned off all non-calendar notifications. I know, I know: everyone says to do this. I thought it was stupid. I thought I wanted  to know when I got a new email. Turns out, I don't care when I get a new email. I check it strategically throughout the day and I feel so much better . My other "new" strategy is called "do one thing at a time". It's also not all that ground-breaking. In fact, it's what I used to do in grad school. Shut off the tv, close the browser, focus on reading, or writing, or researching. S...