Every once in a while, you meet someone who has a definite impact on you. It could be because they are kind and encouraging. It could be because they are damn smart. In the case of Ann Marie Klotz, it’s both.
I had a great opportunity last week to interview Ann Marie, a doctoral student from DePaul University (and Director of Residential Education at that institution) about her thoughts on a couple of great topics. The first topic, “Trusting the Job Search Process” was the subject of last week’s podcast, and it was well-received by listeners and came well-recommended by several other higher ed aficionados, including Eric Stoller.
Our conversation covered a lot of ground, and I was able to ask her about another article on her blog, annmarieklotz.wordpress.com, related to her doctoral dissertation research, which examines roadblocks that women commonly experience in climbing the ranks toward a university presidency. “Understanding Our Impact” delved into ways that higher education professionals can reflect on the ways our influence stays with students well beyond their college years, and is based on Klotz’s reading about the reflections of female university presidents on their college experiences, and the role of mentors in supporting or discouraging their achievements.
Today’s post is part 2 of a series about the purpose behind HigherEdCareerCoach.Com and the different ways the site and my business are evolving to meet the needs of higher ed job seekers. Consider it a rough draft “blog manifesto” or sorts.
What you need to know about me:
I believe that my purpose in life is to help others along their life and career journeys.
I’ve helped many, many people get jobs and get into grad school, and to figure out where they are going in their lives and careers.
I am mostly interested in helping educators, artists, musicians, and other creators, who keep pushing people, discussions and our culture along.
I believe that knowing your purpose is not enough. You have to find the right way to express it.And for some of my clients, the answer is to not work in higher ed, go to grad school, be an artist or a musician, but something else. If I can help point them away from a wrong turn and be okay with the alternate route, I’ll be happy with that, as well.
I got to a point a couple of years ago where I knew that I enjoyed doing this coaching thing more than the job I was doing, and that it was time to move on. There were other personal motivations, too, including decreasing my stress, spending more time with my partner and kids, and living closer to our aging parents and the rest of my extended family. I want to help people who may be similarly stuck know that it’s okay to change your plans and do something different.
Residence Life is a high burnout field, and I got to a burnout point with it. Then I got over the burnout, and was happy. And people were happy with me. And I felt like I had done what I came to Penn State to do. And I wanted to leave on good terms, because I love that place, and the people there, just like I love my family (dysfunctions and idiosyncracies notwithstanding.)
Once I set a few things in motion, before I knew what had happened, all the sudden, it was time. So I took a leap of faith. And I am happier in my life and career, and get to focus more on what I am meant to do on this Earth, and how I am going to do it. I’m read to help people explore their moments of career serendipity, so that when things come together, they can be ready to take their own leaps.
Which brings me to the whole business thing. Like I said, I have money. It’s not about money. But on principle, I can only justify following my dreams if I maintain the quality of lifestyle my family has, and have a stable enough income to retire one day. I have room to wiggle now, and to figure it out, but I really don’t want to spend my retirement (if there ever is one) living on the street.
So here are the critical points you need to know about me, my sites, and my business.
I’m not motivated by money in the strictest sense, but I do want to have a sustainable business that delivers value and creates regular income, because (like most people), I value stability and want to give that to my family. They deserve it for putting up with me!
The articles and advice you get on the blogs will continue to be free as long as I can manage to keep putting good content out there and justify the costs of hosting the sites. In some cases, I pay my writers, because this is a business, and their writing keeps your eyeballs on the page and gives my business exposure while actually providing you some value, through different perspectives and ideas. In other cases, I trade posts with other education bloggers and coaches, or accept submissions based on a particular topic (for example: Monday Morning Quarterback columns.)
Other services will cost you money. (Resume reviews, coaching sessions, webinars, publications, and eventually one or more members-only sites and coaching programs.)
I’m not outrageously priced, but I am not cheap, either. I do have “friends and family” discounts, package rates, and a variety of products and services, either currently available or in development, and I’m developing more short-term and one-time opportunities to meet the demand for low-cost services.
I will continue to have some sorts of advertising on my site and more often than not, this advertising will be for affiliate programs I am a part of, for products that I use, have used, want badly (like an iPad) or just think are good. If you buy something from a link or an ad on my sites, chances are, I will earn some money from the transaction.
I’m going to stop hinting and start selling, because I want to stay busy with the coaching, help people and support my family. In other words, it’s time to really move from being an aspiring businessman to an actual one.
I’m going to enlist your help. Why? Because I believethe assistance of my readers, professional community, and other people and websites I admire can help me improve the sites and give you more of what you want and less of what you don’t, because I don’t want to annoy you and I do want you to keep coming back.
Here are some upcoming things you will see on the sites, as a result of the “course corrections” to get my sites and my business moving forward:
I will be placing more prominent links and buttons on the sidebar to encourage people to consider working with me as a coach. No more hinting. If you are a job seeker in higher ed, I want your business. But if you only come to read, that’s cool too. But if and when you are ready, I want to be at the top of your mind. If you know me and trust me already, then that’s a good start, and I’ll take it.
You’ll continue to see e-mail list sign-up forms in the sidebar and I do use pop-up forms as well. I’ll try to give you incentives to join the list. For the e-mail list, I am linking them to some auto-responders that will deliver free e-mail mini-courses over a set period, as well as regular newsletters, and the opportunity to get “blog broadcast” summary newsletters. New subscribers who sign up at Higher Ed Career Coach are currently getting a mini-course on “Planning Your Career in Higher Education” in exchange for signing up. This autoresponder mini-course has weekly topics and exercises to help you flesh out some of the steps as you plan your career journey. It isn’t really a “self-coaching” program, but it should help you get started. This mini-course will be available for the next month or so, but will be taken down and replaced by another topic-related mini-course, probably in early October. Afterwards, it will be offered (probably with some modifications and feedback) as a paid product.
This month, I will begin offering some low-cost webinars on career topics and you will see registration widgets on the site, as well as articles about upcoming opportunities. Some of these will have set per-seat prices, and others will be offered as “Tip Jar Webinars.” This means that you pay according to the value you receive. There will be a suggested donation but if you think the seminar was useless you won’t pay anything. If you get something out of it, you’ll be encouraged to support the development of the series by “tipping” based on the length and format, number of presenters and value of the information. (Probably between $5-$20 would be an appropriate tip for most seminars)
In the next few months, you will see offerings for e-books and for a book I am contributing a chapter to, called “101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career.”The book is a cooperative book project from SelfGrowth.Com and that means I bought into the project to get published alongside 100 other career authors and to have books to use for giveaways and promotions, as well as selling them. There is a screening process, so hopefully my article won’t get rejected, now that I am telling you about it. So let me make it clear. I do realize this is a glorified ad in some ways.
I’m going to revise my affiliate advertising strategy, and the first step will be to get feedback from you about what you would prefer to see, and what you might buy. I will only continue to participate in affiliate programs for products I use, would use, want or believe in. And if you have a bad experience with one of these programs or think I should stop my affiliation with a group or company, I want to know that, because I only want to advertise products and services that readers would actually use.
Thanks for reading. I’d love your feedback about what I can do to improve the sites, focus my business strategy, and better meet the needs of higher ed job seekers. I’ll be starting later this week with a brief survey about the site features and advertising/affiliate programs.
Questions were posed last week on“Monday Morning Quarterback” related to accountability, institutional change, and what institutions of higher education need to learn for the future. These are very critical and timely questions, given the current status of the economy, and its impact upon institutions of higher learning.
Here are five lessons that institutions of higher education (IHEs) need to learn:
1. How to better provide for the global developmental care and success of its students.
It is my contention that IHEs need to learn how to better provide for the global developmental care and academic success of their students, which in many ways has been lost. When I say “global developmental care,” I am referring to intentional and planned initiatives to help students successfully transition into adulthood in all aspects of their lives: emotional, spiritual,vocational, intellectual, physical, financial, etc. I think everyone can agree that a college career naturally lends itself to much more than simply book learning. It truly does indeed touch every area of a student’s life. And I think I can safely say that most college and university mission and vision statements were originally written with this in mind.
Unfortunately, it has been my experience within the realm of higher education that there is a growing sense that the ultimate developmental care and academic success of a student is “somebody else’s” responsibility: a veritable “tag-you’re-it” type of mentality. Once the admissions folks get them in the door, everyone and no one is responsible for that student. However, when a student has a goal, we should ALL share it. If a student has a problem, we should ALL own it. Student success is systemic, and we ALL have parts to play in it. As they say, it “takes a village” to raise a child. I urge that it “takes a village” to develop a successful college student.
Additionally, with a fever-pitch consumerist mentality of parents amidst an ever-increasing litigious atmosphere, IHEs in many regards have been making decisions that may be antithetical to educational success. Now this is not to say that every professor and administrative staffer needs to be on their desk inspiring students to vehemently recite “O Captain! My Captain!” Furthermore, this does not mean that a student is not ultimately responsible for his or her own success. But I think there needs to be better coordinated efforts between all institutional employees, to develop S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Limited) outcomes and corresponding educational interventions and programs for our students.
2. How to be more transparent about the perils of higher education.
Additionally, I feel that IHEs must also be more transparent and forthcoming about the challenges that a college education can bring. While admissions personnel are hard-working warriors for their team’s cause, I have witnessed (and have personally experienced) admissions staffers veritably telling parents and students what they want to hear so that they attend that particular institution. But in the 18 years that I’ve been in the higher education environment, I’ve never heard an administrator talk to a visitation group about the statistics related to post-secondary education, including low graduation and large attrition rates, the staggering amount of debt a student can face after college, and the possibility that their student will not find gainful employment in their field of study (or any employment at all!) Also, the pitfalls related to alcohol and other drug use are rarely discussed either.
While making students and their parents aware of the perils and pitfalls related to the college experience, administrators can balance this discussion by also providing strategies for how students can be more successful, including the possibility of advising NOT to go to college, attend at a later time, OR attend another institution more suited for a student’s particular goals.
3. How to promote reasonable expectations.
It should be the duty of institutions of higher education to establish a set of rights and responsibilities as well as fully explain what students and parents can expect from their institution. The online shoe and apparel company Zappos is well-known for offering employee trainees $2,000 to NOT work for the company. They do this to ensure that all employees that work for the company are there because they truly believe in the vision of the company, and that they will truly contribute to the company’s culture and core values. Although I’m not advocating that colleges and universities offer money to potential students for not choosing to attend their institutions, I think it is crucial to be honest and up-front about what is expected of a student at that particular institution AND what the student can expect from their school. This conversation should be revisited throughout a student’s time there, if they choose to attend. Thomas E. Miller, Barbara E. Bender, John H. Schuh and Associates offer more insight on how institutions of higher education can align student and institutional views of the college experience.
4. How to make the experience prestigious and sacrosanct again.
It was not all that entirely too long ago that college and university students would all go to class in business casual wear. Going to the cafeteria was almost a formal occasion in which students would dress up and be on their absolute best behavior. And I’m not simply referring to the elite Ivy League-type schools. This also included public institutions all around the country. Now students go to class un-showered, adorned in pajamas and flip-flops. Granted, you don’t have to be clad in a suit and tie to learn the liberal arts, but I think there is something to be said about the perception that colleges and universities once conveyed. Aside from a smattering of “old school” institutional culture across the country, that sense of prestige and formality is all but gone.
Anyone that can fill out an admission application (and not necessarily accurately) and pay a fee, has the ability to attend numerous institutions without any question. Does it dilute the product if anyone can attend (especially when statistics illustrate that many high school graduates are not all that ready or prepared for the experience)? Does this become a more salient issue when more tax-paying dollars are being spent on individuals that are not taking the experience all that seriously (potentially depriving more worthy students, who may have a greater financial need)?
5. How to capitalize upon educational psychology and student development theory.
Theory should inform practice. However, there are scores of administrators and faculty members alike that do not have a grasp of the literature that illustrate how students best learn, develop, and benefit from the college environment. With an ever-growing, diverse student body attending our nation’s colleges and universities, it is crucial for all higher education employees to have a working knowledge of student success research.
Does a mechanic need to know how to drive an automobile in order to know how to repair an automobile? Not necessarily. But knowing how to drive an automobile will offer other insights that can indeed lead the mechanic to troubleshoot an issue more quickly, and potentially repair the automobile more soundly. In regard to knowing student development and learning theory, I would say the same would hold true for physics professors, admissions and financial aid counselors, theatre arts professors, maintenance personnel (yes, they are responsible for student success as well!) and every other employee at the university.
Some may balk at this assertion, but in actuality every interaction at the institution is a potential learning opportunity, and shaping the institutional environment will ultimately affect what a student takes away from their college career. This is not to say that every higher education employee needs to have a doctorate in ed. psych or college student development; but again, there needs to be a coordinated effort of institutions to have EVERYONE participate in the student outcomes discussion.
Conclusion:
American higher education has recreated itself many times since the 1630’s when the first college was established on our shores. Given that there are multiple competing priorities in today’s economic climate, higher education is going to have to again reinvent itself before the bubble bursts. With that being said, institutions of higher education will indeed have to learn many things quickly in order to avert a potential crisis. What else do institutions of higher education need to learn?
Our first "Monday Morning Quarterback," Scott Helfrich.
Scott M. Helfrich has been a full-time higher education professional for the past 10 years and has presented nationally and internationally on Student Activities, Student Government, Residence Life, and mental health-related topics. He has been published in the Journal of College Student Development, Student Leader Magazine, Programming, and has been a training module developer and writer for various colleges & universities, online companies, and higher education organizations. He has also been recently accepted to be a guest blogger on the Huffington Post College blog. Scott is currently a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the higher education program at the Pennsylvania State University. You can read more of Scott’s work at studentlifeguru.wordpress.com and connect with him via Twitter at @studentlifeguru
“Monday Morning Quarterback” is a new regular feature on Higher Ed Career Coach. Every few weeks, we’ll introduce a topic related to higher education, student affairs, and/or career development, and dedicate the next 2-3 Mondays afterward to allowing guest bloggers to share their insights on the topic. If you are interested in writing a column for “Monday Morning Quarterback,” contact sean@higheredcareercoach.com.
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.
Every once in a while, you meet someone who has a definite impact on you. It could be because they are kind and encouraging. It could be because they are damn smart. In the case of Ann Marie Klotz, it’s both.
