by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Aug 19, 2009 | Career Skills
Andromeda Galaxy
I work in Residence Life. This means that there are several times of year when I spend more time on campus getting ready for students to arrive than I do with my family. Right now, for example, it’s almost 1 a.m., and I just finished getting some projects done in my residence hall commons to hopefully move us toward being ready this Friday for Fall Arrival and Welcome Week.
Every year, I say I am not going to do this to myself, and every year, that promise to myself and my family falls flat on its face, exhausted, sighing, and maybe even snoring. But despite being really, really tired, and somewhat overworked, I find a strange energy in being here and I know in my heart that it is something that I am both good at and meant to do.
In his book Wherever you Go, There You Are, Buddhist author and mindfulness guru Jon Kabat-Zinn tells the story of Buckminster Fuller, who contemplated suicide one night after business failures got him feeling that people would be better off without him.
As Kabat-Zinn recalls the situation, Fuller instead decided to live his life as if he had died, to divorce himself from investing his emotional energy, time and effort in particular outcomes, and instead to do the things he knew how to do because it made sense, and was in service to the universe.
Working in higher education requires a similar mindset. Not so much from shooting for certain outcomes (this is pretty much the point of education in general) but instead by accepting that in the process of learning, the teacher isn’t the product. It’s not really even the information. It’s the process.
In my department, I am often involved in the interview and hiring processes, and so I’m regularly asked by candidates the usual sorts of questions that candidates ask to see if they will be a good match for the position, or to gauge if they will fit in well with our organizational culture. In answering these questions I spend less time talking about skill sets. . . they are on the resume, or they aren’t. . . and by the time the interview happens, whether a candidate has at least the basic aptitude for the job has pretty much been settled.The resume gets you the interview, the interview gets you the job, and your approach to the job very much determines whether you will do the job, or the job will end up doing you.
It shouldn’t surprise candidates, then, that hiring committees are more interested in determining “fit,” than looking at a portfolio of your previous work, or hearing that you are a superstar of some sort when it comes to one aspect or another of the job.
When interviewees ask “what are you looking for in a candidate?” some seem surprised when I reply that I am not looking for a particular skill set, or something obvious, like being a team player, but instead for someone who understands that working in higher education is a lifestyle, not just a job, and that the people who are most successful are those that can see beyond what they want from a situation and instead can clearly see where they fit into the big picture. In short, those who understand that it’s about the process, it’s not about them.
So, returning to the idea of “fit,” it’s perhaps not as nebulous as one might assume. If you spend your time asking questions like “What should I be doing right now?,” “How will my actions affect others?,” and “What makes the most sense in this situation?,” you are beginning to understand your “fit” at the university, in the career field, and maybe, as well, in the universe.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Aug 17, 2009 | Take 5
One of the key differences to having a job versus having a career is simple enough: taking an interest in current topics and trends. There are plenty of sources for information and inspiration out there, so I will periodically give you 5 quick and dirty takes on websites and resources you can visit, to keep up with issues and trends in higher education.
Inside HigherEd (Magazine and Website that covers a wide variety of issues on campus.)
Top 10 State Issues in Higher Education (Report from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.)
Diverse Issues in Higher Education (Magazine and Website exploring diversity in higher education.)
Top Ten IT Issues in Higher Education from Educause. Technology seems to drive innovation in higher education. Lack of access to IT training and resources can stifle that same innovation. Here’s an overview of current IT issues in higher ed.
On Higher-Education Spending, the White House and Congress Agree, to a Point An interesting read on the different approaches Congress and the President are taking in relation to higher ed funding. From the Chronicle of Higher Education.
So take 5 minutes to skim the articles above, and if they interest you, bookmark them to Delicious or Evernote, so you can revisit them later. I hope to make “Take 5” a recurring article on this blog, to help readers keep up with happenings out in the broader world of higher education.
Thanks for stopping by.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Aug 16, 2009 | Career Skills
A good question to ask yourself before you jump in to a career in higher education. . .
Are you assertive?
You really better be. Whether you are a professor or an administrator, you will likely be faced on a pretty regular basis with situations where a student, a student’s parents, or even the majority of a class takes issue with something you have said or done, and drags you into discussions about policies, prioritites and plans. It’s important when these things come up that you hold your own in your interactions with co-workers, students and their parents.
If you need a refresher on assertiveness, take a look at a presentation I did for Residence Life Coordinator staff this summer.
http://prezi.com/142448/
I hope that you will find it useful.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Aug 8, 2009 | Career Skills, Job Search, life purpose
I’d put safe money down on the possibility that most of us working in higher education didn’t have that dream as kids. As for me, I wanted to be Evil Kneivel , then I wanted to be Elvis.
Growing up in the ’80s, my attention soon turned to the yuppie lifestyles of the day, and I started college with dollar signs in my eyes, and dreams of a BMW. My first two years, I was a management major, but I really studied partying more than anything else. Calculus wasn’t my friend, and first semester my sophomore year, I earned the first “F” I made in anything. (But it was a high “F,” almost a “D,” and one of the hardest grades I ever earned. I was in hall council, because I liked pizza at meetings and cookouts with the women’s halls. By the end of sophomore year, I made two big decisions…changing my major from Management to Political Science, and applying to be a resident assistant.
The change of major was first a nod to the reality that calculus was a pre-req for several other classes later in the curriculum, and I just wasn’t that good at it. I chose Political Science because a.) politics always interested me, and b.) I thought is was a good background for law, and if I couldn’t be part of the big yuppie revolution through the glories of corporate management, I had heard that Political Science was a good background for law, and everyone knows that lawyers make SCADS of money. The RA thing grew out of two interests…doing cool programs and having fun, and the hope that being an RA would keep me out of trouble.
My junior year, I defined myself as an excellent programmer and jumped deeper into the whole student life realm, by becoming a peer health educator. It wasn’t where I saw myself coming in, but it was pretty good. Senior year, I kept enjoying life and the RA job, but somewhere along the way, I lost sight of the fact that I was going to need a job after college. I drank way too much, and one particularly bad evening, I overdid it and ended up getting arrested. Aimless is as aimless does, I guess.
The aftermath of this one event would stay with me, not because it destroyed my future, or caused me to be dismissed from my RA job; neither of those things happened. Instead, I learned that people were there for me, even when I made mistakes, and that some saw potential in me that I didn’t see myself. It wasn’t until this time that I started to understand that these people in Residence Life and other parts of Student Affairs weren’t just holding down jobs, they were answering a call, living out a higher purpose. In giving their time and energy to students like me, even when we faltered and arguably didn’t deserve the compassion, they were perhaps even performing a sacred duty.
Somewhere along the way, this message started to stick with me, and I started to think about going into Student Affairs. I was lucky enough to get an assistantship with Health Education, and I packed those 2 years of my M.Ed. program with activities in Housing, Health Ed, and Student Development; I came to know some great professionals and some great students, many of which I have kept track of in one way or another, as my generation passed into adulthood and another came to college.
There are days I ask myself why I wanted this, when an endless stream of issues waits at my door, or comes barging in, unannounced. It’s then I remember an aimless wanderer, and the people that pushed him back onto a path; I see myself in both, and it’s then I know I was meant to do this work.
So much for being Elvis.
by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Aug 4, 2009 | Coaching
Sean Cook
Whether you are a student or a seasoned professional, you’ve probably pondered the unique challenges of working in higher education…choosing the right graduate program, the right university, or the right position; figuring out the differences between a resume and a curriculum vita, so you can write a really good one; preparing for all-day (or longer) interviews, and filtering through generic career advice and deciding what holds true for higher education, and what to ignore.
It can be really confusing, and it’s not always easy to use friends and family members as sounding boards, because they may not understand what you really do for a living. Colleagues at your level in the organization might not be the best sounding boards, either, because they might still be figuring out how to plan their careers and prepare for interviews. Wouldn’t it be great to have an experienced professional to guide you along the path?
Thanks for stopping by my new site. My name is Sean Cook, and I have been a student affairs professional for just over 15 years. I earned my Masters in Educational Guidance and Counseling from Clemson University, with a concentration in Student Affairs in Higher Administration in 1994. Since then, I’ve held a variety of student life positions, starting with a Residence Life position at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, then positions working in Residence Life and academically-linked student organizations at Penn State.
Over the course of my career, I have screened probably a thousand resumes or so and conducted several hundred interviews, for staff at all levels, from undergraduate student to director. I’ve advised many students and young professionals about their job searches, graduate school applications, and interview strategies. It gives me great satisfaction to help people explore their motivations for working in higher education, examine their interests, and plan the next steps in their education and careers.
Working in higher education provides some unique challenges when it comes to career planning and job searching. With 15 years of experience in the field, I am uniquely positioned to help you explore possibilities, evaluate options, and make plans.
You’ll find more information about my own career track, management philosophy, and perspectives elsewhere on this site. I hope they will give you a clearer picture of who I am as a person and a professional. If you are interested in working with a career coach to explore possibilities and make plans for your next steps, send me an e-mail at sean@higheredcareercoach.com and we can arrange a time to set up a free introductory coaching session. If you aren’t interested, or just aren’t ready, then feel free to visit the site and read articles and posts about pursuing careers in higher education.
Thanks for stopping by, and please visit again soon.
