Thankfully Employed

*Note: I'm starting this MUCH later than I anticipated so I may post it in pieces if I start rambling or nodding off to sleep.*

After nearly a full year of job searching, I have found a job in a most unexpected place. It may take a bit to explain so let me start near the beginning. Hopefully, you'll see why it's been a while since I've posted anything of relevance.

At the start of June, I completed a on-campus interview with Florida Gulf Coast University. I really loved the campus and felt that it would be a good fit for me to utilize my experience as well as further develop professionally. Unfortunately, they felt that another candidate more strongly suited their needs. However, while I was in transit to Fort Myers, I received an interesting call from one of my friends.

Meghan has been teaching 3rd grade at Peak Preparatory in Dallas for a year now through Teach for America. She always talks about how much she loves the school, staff and students and how comfortable she feels working with the administrators. While flying, she called and texted me and seemed to have something important to pass along. During a layover in Atlanta, I called her back and found out that there was a unique position being developed at Peak that she thought I might be interested in pursuing.

Essentially, one of the principals was taking on a new role as Executive Director for the entire K-12 school and was looking for an assistant to help balance out her workload. Meghan knew some of my work experiences (we've worked together in a variety of roles so she's got a great idea of what I'm capable of as well as areas of growth for me) and offered to contact me with the possibility that it was too far out of my interest level to appeal to me.

I've mentioned on here a few times before, but lately, I have had a hard time facing the reality of not finding a job in higher education just yet. With that in mind, I decided to at least take time to contact Teresa, the new Executive Director, to get a better idea and make a more informed decision. After a bit of phone tag, we finally connected with one another and had what I still can't classify as an interview - it was honestly more of a conversation focused on filling the position.

Teresa mentioned that though she had an idea of what role this position would take, it was fairly fluid based on the needs of the school and the person who is hired. I discussed my concerns about coming from an entirely different background and needing a supervisor who is willing to help acclimate me to the new area. After nearly an hour and a half, most of my fears were allayed and it seemed as though hers were as well. Well, I had collected a great deal of information about the school, staff, position and Teresa which left me with a lot to consider in addition to a great deal of time to wait out the process.


Okay, that seems to be a good stopping point for this evening. I'm hoping to finish the rest of the story tomorrow sometime!

I OFFICIALLY HAVE A JOB!!!! More to come later tonight!

6 Months in Review

"And finally, the job search continues perhaps more intensively than ever before. Perhaps it's that whole, having nothing to do during the day without a job or school. I'm trying to not be extremely picky though I want to find something that I'm at least vaguely interested in and that I can see myself working for at least 3-5 years." (December 24th)

"On a slightly different note, unemployment has provided me with a bit of spare time that I've tried to capitalize on though it hasn't always worked out well. I have been cooking more than usual and trying some new dishes. I've also been reading much more for leisure than before including an entire book in a night!" (January 11th)

"I've built a good network here and know that there are great things to come for this area. So far though, only 6 of my 16 jobs are in those states and 4 of those have the potential to be in my areas of interest. Honestly, and this is something that may be totally mental for me, I simply don't know how ready I am for this inevitable change." (February 9th)

"I've really come to value the connections that I've made with student affairs professionals over the last few months. It was great to talk to people in Louisville especially those that have or may have job openings at their institutions. It's also exciting to hear from friends randomly about jobs that are available or will soon be available. It's glimmers of hope like this that make waiting for the right position worth it." (March 28)

"She also asked how I broke my ankle in the first place. My response, though not as descriptive as the whole truth, is still an honest statement- "I was in a restaurant and lost my footing. My ankle rolled and broke in 2 places." Technically, the place is a restaurant a much greater percentage of the time than it is considered a bar or club. And yes, I was dancing when I lost my footing, but it was lost nonetheless." (April 5th)

"There were a few jobs that I consciously chose not to apply for because they were out of my geographic or skills comfort zones or because I honestly shouldn't settle for much less that what I'm qualified to do. This may not be the best policy; however, I feel pretty strongly that I can find a great job that offers me a great opportunity to move up without having to start at the absolute lowest level of the higher ed hierarchy. (May 24th)

"One interesting thing to come out of the interview was how one of the staff members described me - as a "conduit." After hearing my present and meet for a bit in a small panel interview setting, she gathers that I have a tendency to channel the thoughts and emotions around me to move the creative process." (June 6th)

I see your True Colors

Over my time as a student and working in higher ed, I've had a lot of opportunities to take personality assessments and work style inventories. Two things have become fairly apparent - I've definitely grown and developed over the years and I have a tendency to stick to the middle of the road.

With those tests that I've taken more than once, I almost never score the same thing more than once. Most people would attribute this to a change that allowed me to grow further as a leader or professionally. It's good to see that laid out and charted whereas it's often hard to pinpoint progress in progress. On some, particularly the Bird Test (which very similar to True Colors), I've been all of the possible outcomes.

That brings up the other commonality that I've seen. On most assessments, I tend to score nearly even on most levels or near the center of the grid. I think it's because I don't like the wording of some of the questions. No, of course I don't ALWAYS respond to a situation in this way or I can't say that I NEVER react like that. Darn you Likert scales and your lack of flexibility!!

The reason, I bring this up is that on my recent on-campus interview the students were very excited to have taken the True Colors test as part of their training. They asked what my color was and, honestly, I had no clue. I had taken a test based on True Colors years ago and was sure that I wasn't the same anymore. I took it online tonight and scored fairly evenly across all areas. My strongest color was Gold followed closely by Blue and Green. Orange was the lowest, but not by much. Right now, I'm reading through the information packet that came with my results and thoroughly enjoying finding out more about myself and how I operate!

I really hope to be able to use this assessment in the future and definitely encourage everyone to try it out. Let me know what your color is if you do!

I Con-du-it

I've been back for a few days from my interview in Florida, but I'm going to hold off on my feelings about it for a bit. I will say that I felt very comfortable and relaxed throughout the day and left with knowing that it was my best interview to date.

One interesting thing to come out of the interview was how one of the staff members described me - as a "conduit." After hearing my present and meet for a bit in a small panel interview setting, she gathers that I have a tendency to channel the thoughts and emotions around me to move the creative process. I took it as a good thing (and I'm not just saying that because she stumbled upon my blog during her prep work for the interview.)

Regardless, I appreciate the description and will gladly adopt the analogy for the future. It's an easier way to discuss my observant nature without it seeming negative or a hindrance to productivity. All in all, I'm happy to have had the opportunity with someone who was able to get such a read on me and describe what I haven't been able to quite put my finger on myself.

A Confession

I must admit that I have a bit of a ritual following an unsuccessful job search. It's not quite an obsession, just my curiosity getting the best of me at times. For whatever reason, I really want to find out who the chosen candidate is. So far though, only 2 of my 4 on campus interviews have led to announced hires--one school is re-opening the search and the other hasn't updated their website in some time. Oh, and it's great to run into the new hire at conferences and such... makes for an interesting introduction. I guess I just want to see what qualities employers are really looking for, beyond what they list on job descriptions.

I spent the better portion of today (off and on for about 7 hours) job searching. I found as many position openings that I thought might be interesting and set them aside to apply for after some quick research. At the end of the day, I applied for 5 and have 4 more ready to be mailed as soon as possible. Today brings my total of active applications to near 35 and rejections to date to nearly 30. That's kind of a disheartening fact, but I'm hoping to be able to keep the first number higher despite the dwindling job market. There were a few jobs that I consciously chose not to apply for because they were out of my geographic or skills comfort zones or because I honestly shouldn't settle for much less that what I'm qualified to do. This may not be the best policy; however, I feel pretty strongly that I can find a great job that offers me a great opportunity to move up without having to start at the absolute lowest level of the higher ed hierarchy.

Over the last few weeks, I've gotten a few reassuring calls from some colleagues regarding the feedback I recieved from Delaware and my job search in general. It's good to hear from the perspective of those that have worked with me. It also helped me to see that part of the concerns from the interview are simply parts of my personality that I have to work to overcome or deal with in that setting (particularly my observant nature coming off as shyness or discomfort).

I've got a phone interview with a small school in South Florida on Tuesday for which I'm still preparing. I haven't heard from LSU still which, to be honest, isn't the best sign. I'm not comfortable contacting the department or chair of the searhc committee, so I'm just going to operate on that deduction. Hopefully some new interviews or information will come in this week as it's probably the last week before most school's get into their summer orientations.

All Quiet on the Southern Front...

Not much has happened lately so there hasn't been much of a job search update necessary. I've interviewed with a few schools over the last couple of weeks and am waiting to hear back from them. I haven't seen many orientation, first year student, or family programs positions posted recently as many schools are beginning their summers (which is busy season for this field).

I've never been one to give up easily, but I am a realist. I understand that I can't expect to stay unemployed for much longer (after I'm back on my feet) despite my goals. Now, I just have to weigh my options and ask myself the tough questions that I have maybe been avoiding for some time.

Should I stay here in Baton Rouge or move closer to where I'd like to work and continue searching there? What can I do for work that is relevant and would offer strong, relatable, transferable experience to higher education? How long can I keep applying and job searching in this field before I need to look to something else?

Hard Pill to Swallow

I asked for feedback from Delaware and it was a bit difficult to hear that some of what I thought were my strengths didn't go over quite so well. I'm planning to use this and work on my interview skills as much as possible while I prepare for future on-campus interviews once I have time to thoroughly process the response. I'm probably going to have second thoughts about this later, but I want to share the constructive part of the feedback here and welcome any suggestions particularly from those that I've worked with in the past.


In comparison to the other applicants we interviewed, you certainly seemed to have more orientation experience on paper, but in person I felt as though you didn’t share very much with us about your specific skills and more importantly specific examples of how you put your skills into practice. I think being able to give specific, concrete examples when answering interview questions is pivotal and shows the interviewers that you have actually done or put into practice the more theoretical concepts you’re talking about. At times, It also seemed as though you weren’t as prepared or polished as some of the other candidates we saw. I would recommend utilizing a mock interview with a career counselor if you’re able so that you can really observe yourself in an interview. It may help you to identify areas or question answers that you can strengthen.

Also, the feedback I received from some of the people you met included reservations about your ability to multi-task and handle difficult situations/conversations. It may be that you were unprepared for their questions, but because so much of orientation work requires these two very important skills, I would recommend thinking about how you could provide more detailed explanations and examples of your abilities in these 2 areas.

The student leaders really connected with you, but several of the professional staff commented that they didn’t feel you had much energy or charisma. I can appreciate that you may have been exhausted due to your injury, but I think your energy level may have affected the way you were perceived. Overall, you seem like a great person with really solid orientation programming experience, but I think you need to really sell yourself and have confidence in your abilities.

Job Search Count

Active Applications: 25ish
Rejections: 18ish
Phone Interviews: 7 (and one on Wednesday)
On-Campus Interviews: 5
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This is not a fun process to go through the first time around. People say that it's much easier after the first time since "you'll have a job while you're searching." Being somewhat unable to get around easily (read: almost entirely unable to get around easily) doesn't help the situation much though it has given me more time to search each day.

I interviewed at LSU last week and think it went well although I'm not the best judge of how these things go. Also, I heard via email this morning that the Delaware position went to something with "a stronger interview overall" and more professional experience. How can I gain professional experience if I can't get a job?!? Oh well, later this afternoon, I set up an interview with the University of Arkansas for Wednesday. Apparently, one of my close friends and soon-to-be-fellow-former-Orientation-GA, Ryann, is interviewing for the same position. She's amazing and is much more qualified for this position so it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.