by Shannon Healy | Mar 1, 2010 | Job Search, The Placement Experience
I’m finally back on my home campus, trying to adjust to life after OPE. The conference itself was only three days, but it felt like a week and a half! The drive back from Oshkosh to West Michigan was quiet. My passenger and I decompressed a bit from the crazy schedule we had just functioned on, and looked back on how our preferences had changed, our prospects had changed, and how important personality really was.
I heard a lot beforehand about how you are interviewing a school just as much as they are interviewing you. I think this was good to know, and possibly not stressed enough. I know lots of people in my cohort are worried about finding a job, any job, but how well you could converse with the interview team during your 30 minutes with them was important. There were some interviews where conversation flowed well, but didn’t necessarily go so well at the social. There were some schools that I hope I redeemed myself with at the social because the conversation was much better.
Socials are very overwhelming. I definitely felt like the introvert in me was just in pain this whole time. Packed into a room of 500+ people, trying to smile and weave through the crowd, trying to catch the eye of that elusive school that you love. I tried to not look like I was on the prowl too much, so if representatives from a school were currently tied up in conversation I’d try to do another loop of the room and come back to them later. I spent a good amount of time at the social talking to candidates I had met throughout the conference in the lounges. Not only could we be a little bit “off our game” with candidates, but we helped each other look busy while waiting and kept an eye out for our chance to hop in to a conversation with a school. It was great having people I barely knew be so supportive and not be offended at all when you suddenly said “I’m going in!”
Overall, I loved my conference experience, and I really hope that the positive energy I felt I had with some schools really continues as everyone heads back to their home campus to talk about phone interviews and on-campus visits. I wasn’t nervous the whole weekend UNTIL the drive back when I started thinking about where things could have gone better, and wondering if I’d hear from some schools. I guess it’s better than the nerves setting in while interviewing, but I’m definitely anxious about this next step and where things are headed!
My next step? Figuring out what my plan for TPE is…
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by Shannon Healy | Feb 27, 2010 | Job Search, The Placement Experience
Shannon shares her experience with the OshKosh Placement Exchange
I’m writing this from the Oshkosh Placement Exchange. It’s day 2 here, and a bit calmer than yesterday. Yesterday was a live showing of “The All RA Floor” and it was intense. A little overwhelming when you walk in and there’s not a bare inch of wall space left uncovered by posters and advertisements and fliers enticing you to apply at a certain school. There’s cheering in the lounges, and everyone keeps hugging and smiling for twelve hours straightand it’s a bit tiring. But fun, don’t get me wrong. This whole weekend experience has been fun.
Yesterday was the first day, and I had six interviews scheduled. My first was one at 10 am, and I was surprised how calm I felt while sitting in the lounge waiting for them to come call my name. I was thinking by that point the nerves would have set in, but I had the really good advice of knowing that I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me. I know that sounds incredibly cheesy, but it really did keep me calm. I knew I could go into these interviews and be myself and that any school would know exactly what they were getting. And if they didn’t like who that was, I was okay with that, because I feel really confident in my experiences.
Some interviews went really well, and it was hard to not do some fist pumps as soon as I was out of the room, or to restrain myself from dancing down the hallway back to the elevators. Some interviews just flowed nicely and I got along with the interview teams well and I had lots of personal things to write in a thank you note. Other interviews I walked out of feeling kind of “meh” about. For whatever reason – personality, hearing more about the job, having a curveball question- just left me with a feeling like while it could have been better, it probably could have been worse. There’s only been one interview so far where I walked out feeling rather ambiguous towards the position. While they didn’t seem interested or engaged during the interview itself, as I was leaving afterward they were very fun and friendly about the social and seeing me again. Out of the first day of interviews I got two second interviews, bringing my total for Day 2 to six interviews.
It’s hard to believe right now that it’s already 3 pm, yet I’m only halfway through my day. I have two more interviews this afternoon, then an evening full of socials. I’m going to suggest a future professional development on mingling, because it’s so hard for me to walk right up to someone and start up a conversation when we’ve already talked for an hour, and have been conversing through thank you notes in mailboxes. Hopefully it goes well though.
My apologies for such a rambling sort of blog post. It’s been a very long and very busy two days. You’ll all be excited to know that I did name drop the #sachat in one interview, and they were really intrigued by the concept of free, weekly professional development. So good job to all of you – the word is spreading!
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by Shannon Healy | Feb 23, 2010 | Job Search, The Placement Experience
Shannon is rocking her new suit. These are just rocks.
I am writing this while wearing my new suit, and let me just tell you: I am rocking it. And that is an especially good feeling considering the adventure that went into getting it. I am horrible at being a girl. I don’t like dressing up that much and have no idea what colors complement nicely or how to accessorize. So a week ago I went to the mall with my brave face on, ready to wander around in the career section trying to figure out how to buy a suit without the help of my mom.
I think this is a sign that I’m a true Millennial. Even at age 24 I wished my mom was there to be in the store telling me to turn around and making me stand with my arms out and pushing down the tops of my shoes and asked if they pinched my toes. So I found the most mom-like worker I could and asked her for help.
I think I made this woman’s dream come true.
She had a wonderful time dragging me around the store, grabbing ruffled tops and silk shells and all sorts of coats and things that would have taken me six hours to find by myself. She shoved me in a dressing room with two armloads full of hangers and said “Ooohh, I just can’t wait to see them on you!” About ten minutes later she came back with some more pieces, one being a single strap, bright red, sequined monstrosity that I would not wear in a million years.
After two hours spent in the dressing room spinning around for her I finally gave in to four different pieces she had picked out, knowing I would be returning them the next time I had a spare Saturday. I just can’t have someone else tell me to wear this and this and this. I’ve really got to feel comfortable in it.
This past weekend I went back to the mall and returned the crazily expensive items that had been picked out for me last week. $50 for a cream-colored t-shirt? No, thank you. I then spent a good couple hours walking around a completely different store, trying things on together, and dancing in the mirror. I think the true sign that you really feel good about a piece of clothing is if you’re able to dance like a goof in it. Everything I got is pretty basic (no stripes or patterns or oversize ruffles), but I think it all goes together nicely. And I made sure my blacks match, thanks to advice from my grandma.
Now I’m feeling even more confident about doing interviews. Things are really coming together. I guess they have to be – OPE is only four days away!
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by Shannon Healy | Feb 15, 2010 | Job Search, The Placement Experience
Deciding which interviews to accept? It's a balancing act.
Why can’t it just be that you are assigned 10 schools to interview with, you go do those, and then choose from any offers that result?
Have you ever watched a movie where the main character is like “Oh, my life is so hard, two people are in love with me!” And their funny sidekick friend is like “That must be such a horrible problem for you to have.” Whenever I’ve seen a movie like that I’ve instantly disliked the main character. Really? You’re going to complain about having more than one person that likes you? That must be just a terrible problem for you. I would instantly side with the friend, who usually got stuck petting a dog at the end as everyone else paired off. This was perhaps because I never had two attractive suitors chasing after me at the same time.
This is not meant to sound overly confident, but it is really hard when all the schools you sent interest letters to sent letters back saying “Let’s set up an interview!” Because then, in all the excitement of feeling wanted by these institutions, you set up interviews with ALL of them. Like when the main character decides to date both people at the same time. It’s stressful, it’s tiring, there’s wacky hijinks. And I’ve never felt bad for that main character until now. It actually is a horrible problem to have.
So that’s where I’m at this week. Currently trying to do a balancing act. I’m thankful to many of my amazing mentors who have been help me process it all on twitter, over email, and in their office as I came crashing in with a bag of Dove chocolates and the look of a crazy person. I’m hoping today to contact a couple schools and apologize for the change, but decline the interview. It would be nice to not stretch out the stress to next week.
Maybe I could also stop imagining myself as a character in a movie.
According to my countdown calendar there are 75 days left until graduation. Job hunting has been sucking up the majority of my time lately. I never thought that working on my thesis would be a nice, relaxing change of pace. I spent the majority of my weekend on that, other homework and just getting away from the whole job search process for a while. And the Olympics. No matter how hard a job search is, at least I’m not required to hurl my body down a mountain of snow with me feet strapped to a board.
Next time: Practice interview questions!
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by Shannon Healy | Feb 8, 2010 | Job Search, The Placement Experience
I am quite sure that I have overbooked myself for OPE. How do I know this? Last night I had a horrible nightmare where I couldn’t figure out how to use the stairs to get from the North Tower to the South Tower of the Gruenhagen Center, making me late for my next interview. Scheduling is my jellyfish this week (for those that don’t get the reference, please read #jobhunt No. 1).
Despite all the wonderful advice I received on Twitter from the professionals I’ve connected with, I overscheduled. It was partly not being sure of the whole process, part nervousness that if I didn’t schedule now I’d be behind, and partly that I was overly excited that people were actually responding to the interest letters and resumes that I’d sent out. This all added up to me accepting and scheduling 12 interviews in the course of two days.
An Emergency Kit for Placement Stress?
Pardon me while I breathe into a brown paper bag for a moment.
I did my best to schedule myself time in between all of them (usually a half hour), but there are two back-to-back interviews that are the source of my nightmares. One worry is not making it to the floor lounge on time for them to call my name. Another is not having any time to review the school and position in between interviews. Another is sounding like a robot from recalling the same situations and traits multiple times in a day. Another is forgetting my notes/coat/bag/etc somewhere and having to run back, taking more time. The list goes on and on.
What I think it boiled down to for me was just a lack of confidence in myself. In my mind, the more interviews I took the more likely it was that at least ONE of them had to turn in to a job offer. Play the odds. I have been told several times that I should be more confident in myself and my experiences, but that is something that I definitely need to work on.
I did schedule an interview with a school about an hour and a half from my hometown, and my mom was thrilled. Her basis for telling me where I should work consists of quoting MapQuest’s driving directions from the school to our front door and asking what their colors are. School colors are very important to my mom, as she has garb from every university I’ve attended or worked at. She’s a fan of green or maroon; I’m trying not to let that influence my decision too much.
Overall though, I’m still very excited about this process. I’ve been spending a lot of time looking over institution websites and specifically those of the Residence Life departments. I’ve been stalking my friend list on Facebook and my followers on Twitter to see what connections I might already have at these schools and be able to ask some questions to beforehand. Despite worries about over booking myself, I am very excited about going to OPE, talking with the search committees, and really getting a feel for the people I might be working with in the not so distant future.
Over the next three weeks I’m hoping that I calm down a little more about this whole process.
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