My name is Sarah Craddock, and I am an academic advisor for the Mechanical Engineering department at Colorado State University. We are part of the College of Engineering, which falls under the Academic Vice President/Provost. CSU has about 29,000 students.
As for myself, I currently have a B.A. in Sociology from Minnesota State University Mankato and a M.S. in College Student Personnel from Western Illinois University. I am also working on a Ph.D. in Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. I had 4.5 years of professional full-time experience when I started working as an academic advisor here. If I remember the job posting correctly, a bachelor’s degree was required for application, a master’s preferred. I believe they were looking with someone with at least one year of experience in higher education (though it didn’t have to be in academic advising).
My major responsibilities include advising about half of the undergraduate students in Mechanical Engineering, including a subsection of students working on dual degrees with Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. It involves quite a bit of direct service to students – everything from meeting with prospective students, advising incoming students at Preview (our orientation), meeting each semester with all undergrads continuing on in the major (as well as those that may now meet entrance requirements), and even working with graduation contracts to ensure students have met all criteria for graduation.
My department is the 5th largest major on campus, with about 750 undergraduate students for the 2011-2012 academic year, so we have two full time professional academic advisors (myself and one other woman). I do not supervise anyone. My colleague coordinates our mentoring program, and supervises the students employed through that (about 3-5). My boss is the Associate Department Head for Mechanical Engineering, and is a full faculty member within the department. His supervisor is our Department Chair for Mechanical Engineering.
My typical day…oh, in advising, there’s not a typical day. There is a LOT of ebb and flow in this field. For example, during the summer, I have a bit more down time – but I am still working with prospective students and advising incoming students at Preview. I’m also working with students to continue to manage their schedules for next fall, including working with students who didn’t pass a necessary course, or are taking courses over the summer at another institution. However, in a month like October or April, I’m scheduled pretty much every half-hour, meeting with current students to help them determine which classes to take prior to the next semester’s registration opening. The beginning of the semester often includes students panicking about their course load (too much, not enough, times not working,etc.), and the end often includes students panicking about course grades that they’re on the fence for.
I actually think I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into before I started. I don’t know that there’s anything that’s come as a surprise to me. My time, like I said, ebbs and flows – I guess I wasn’t quite aware of just how much and how intense peak advising times can be (but I love it!).
Most important survival skill…flexibility, and prioritization. You’ve got to be able to judge quickly whether something is a real emergency and needs your attention now – and if so, what can move around, and if not, when it can be addressed. Also, a detail orientation is CRUCIAL in advising. You’re managing a lot of paperwork with substitutions, waivers, prerequisites, etc. You’ve got to have a way to manage that.
Committees and Tasks
After I started working here, we have begun to have a monthly academic advisors meeting within the college to talk about common issues. I also participate in our Professional Advisors Network and Key Advisors network to learn more information about what’s going on on campus. Because a friend of mine works in Greek Life, I’ve also helped them out with a few things (like end of the year awards).
The biggest piece of advice I have? A few things: detail orientation. Figure out how you best manage details (in general) before you start so that you can figure out a game plan quickly once you begin. Care about students. A monkey can follow a checksheet – an advisor works with the student to figure out what’s best in their situation – full time, part time, double majors, minors, etc. Finally…though many academic advising positions don’t require a degree in higher education (such as my M.S. in College Student Personnel), I would still STRONGLY encourage you to look at some student development theory and to connect to the professional organizations available and their subcommittees (NACADA, athletics advising, honors students, STEM, etc.)
At some point, many educators find themselves looking at career options outside of academia. There are many reasons one might consider doing so…feeling stuck in a career rut, a change in interests, new opportunities that arise through networking, or perceptions of “greener grass” just beyond the academy walls.
But how should you go about deciding on a career outside of higher education? What do you need to consider in putting together a plan for making a successful transition?
In this week’s edition of the podcast, we’ll get perspectives from Dr. Laurence Shatkin, who made a successful transition to the corporate world after several years as an adjunct.
The episode will air at 11 a.m. ET this Friday. The interview with Shatkin is being pre-recorded due to a scheduling conflict, but the rest of the show will be hosted live. Please call in with your questions and comments. The call in line is (347) 989-0055 or you can connect via Skype from the episode page, once the show is on the air, by clicking on the Skype “S” click-to-talk logo.
Check out The Sequel and other titles on Dr. Shatkin’s page on Amazon.Com (affiliate link).
Many professionals start strong but struggle to define themselves when they arrive at the “middle” of their career tracks. Early career moves may have pointed them toward other paths than they imagined, or obstacles may keep them from where they would like to go. This could mean taking on new responsibilities, supervising and mentoring young professionals, pursuing further education, or taking different approaches to your career altogether.
So what can you do when you arrive at the midpoint of your career, to successfully manage career transitions?
We’ll talk about mid-career transitions with Caroline Ceniza-Levine, career expert, writer and speaker, co-founder of SixFigureStart. Caroline has 16 years of experience in professional services as a management consultant and executive and corporate recruiter. She has recruited for leading companies in media, financial services, management consulting, pharmaceuticals and technology. A career columnist for CNBC.com,Vault.com, Wetfeet.com, and Forbes.com, as well as an adjunct assistant professor of Professional Development at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Caroline is the co-author of “Six Steps To Job Search Success” and of the best-selling “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” Her career advice and job market insights have been quoted on CBS, BusinessWeek, CNN Money, NBC News.com, Newsweek.
Please join us at 11 am ET Friday!
SixFigureStart offers career coaching by former recruiters. Their coaches have hired thousands of people and know firsthand what employers really want. Founded by two professionals with over 40 years of combined HR experience. More information can be found at the links below.
Adjunct teaching positions occupy an interesting space in the higher ed job market. As such, the advice you might get about how to identify potential opportunities, and how to make a case for your candidacy is likely to be different than advice you might get when looking for tenure-track faculty posts or administrative roles.
Add in the reality that many administrators look toward adjunct roles to get teaching experience, that experienced faculty who are not in tenured positions are likely to be competing for the same jobs, and that persons with industry experience are sought after in some disciplines, and the adjunct search can be mysterious and confounding.
In this week’s episode, Higher Ed Career Coach Sean Cook will talk with Sharon Thomas DeLay, the founder and president of Adjunct Solutions, LLC. She has over 15 years professional experience as it relates to education, training and human resources.
Adjunct Solutions is a niche staffing agency focused on building a candidate pool of pre-qualified, experienced, and enthusiastic adjunct faculty and other higher education professionals.
We’ll discuss the nuances of the adjunct job search, and get perspectives from Sharon about how candidates can put their best foot forward in the job search, and how institutions can benefit from working with a staffing agency to fill open positions.
Incivility in the workplace can take many forms, from verbal abuse and harassment, to manipulation to acts of violence. 1.4 million employees experience it each year.
It has tremendous costs, as well. According to Dr. Rajashi Ghosh, an Assistant Professor of Human Resource Development for the School of Education at Drexel University, incivility costs the U.S. economy $23.8 billion each year. And academic environments are not immune.
On this week’s podcast, I will air an interview with Dr. Ghosh , who was the author of a recent article on the “incivility spiral” in mentoring relationships, which was published in a special issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources, which she also co-edited. In this article, Ghosh examined how different acts of incivility between mentors and mentees can devolve into negative relationships.
With mentoring programs being one of the popular ways that we seek to develop up-and-coming professionals, Ghosh recommends that institutions (and their Human Resource Officers) provide structured approaches, including codes of conduct for mentors and mentees, better orientations for both sides of the relationship about roles, boundaries, and conduct, formal processes for reporting inappropriate behavior, and better follow-up from HR and management.
Drexel will host a Human Resource Development Symposium September 17, “HRD’s Role in Addressing Workplace Incivility and Violence. Online registration is now closed, but if you are interested in attending e-mail Dr. Ghosh at rg429@drexel.edu expressing your interest in being on the waitlist.
We’ll also talk about my upcoming webinar on Creating a Killer Résumé on BigMarker, a new free webinar service, Hiring for Hope events, and I’ll take your comments and questions on dealing with incivility in the workplace.
Work with Sean. I help higher ed professionals take control of their careers with tailored services including resume and CV development, LinkedIn profile optimization and networking strategy, interview coaching, and one-on-one career guidance.
