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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by Shannon Healy | Feb 2, 2010 | Job Search, The Placement Experience
Shannon Healy, Guest Blogger & Job Seeker
Let’s just get this bit of nerdiness out of the way from the get go: Yes, I am using a Twitter hash tag as the title of my blog. I wouldn’t have the task of blogging about the adventure of my job hunt if it weren’t for Twitter, so it’s a bit of a nod to Sean Cook and Higher Ed Career Coach for letting me take up space on their site.
So who am I? My name is Shannon Healy and I’m in the final semester of my grad program in Student Affairs. So in the midst of writing a thesis, attending class, working an assistantship and job hunting, I’ll also be blogging to tell you all about how that last process is going. I currently work for Housing and Residence Life on a college campus as an Assistant Living Center Director. I’m a Millennial, so the idea that all these people will be logging on to read about ME does excite me a bit, I won’t lie. I’m also a worrier, so the idea that all these people will be logging on to read about me also scares me quite a bit. I also worry about what I’m getting myself into conducting my first actual job search.
Thankfully I have been able to connect with a wonderful network of Student Affairs professionals on Twitter who have been telling me tips and tricks for placement conferences, sharing encouraging quotes, and giving me their pieces of advice. Best advice I have received so far? “There’s no such thing as a dream job. Heck, even the guy who won the job of living on a tropical island ended up getting stung by a jelly fish.”
Since being asked if I was interested in writing a blog, I have started the job search process. Step one: narrowing down where I wanted to search. Fifty is a lot of different states to choose from. I knew I wanted to include the Midwest in my search. I like winter. I’m not sure if I want to leave behind the snow just yet. Then we had a few days of negative temperatures and suddenly California wasn’t looking so bad. I have the luxury of not having to worry about a significant other. This is perhaps the one time in my life I’m happy I’m single. But I’m pretty much free to choose where I want to go, which is nice. Having more freedom in where I can go means I can really find jobs that appeal to me in any state.
I chose 15 schools to contact for interviews at the Oshkosh Placement Exchange. Then I spent about three days writing custom letters of interest describing why I am interested in their jobs. I just sent those out this past Monday, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. After that it was just sitting with my fingers crossed waiting to hear back.
As of right now I’ve heard back from approximately half that they want to schedule interviews. I’m also being contacted by some schools that either read my resumé or are doing a mass mailing asking if I want to interview. These are pretty easy to say “Thanks, but no thanks” to, because they’re outside my geographical limits, or just aren’t the kind of position I’m looking for. What’s tougher though is being contacted by schools in my original search that didn’t make it to the final 15. Do I want to schedule interviews since I’m not hearing back from some that did make the cut? Do I want to hold out to hear from the ones I originally contacted? Right now I just kind of sit and stare at the emails in my inbox, unsure. As an inbox zero-ist, this also drives me nuts.
My biggest fear at this point is not interviews or campus visits or the dreaded “So tell me a little bit about yourself” question. It’s wondering what happens if I don’t find a job at the end of all this and have to write some horrible post about how I failed miserably. I’ll make sure to include pictures of my box of Kleenex and pint of ice cream should that happen.
Finally, in full disclosure: I have never written a blog or conducted a job search before. I’m hoping my first attempt at both goes well. And that I don’t get stung by any jellyfish along the way.
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