My Greatest Hits, Part 1

I love to write, especially about life and career issues that people face in college, or when they work in Student Affairs.

Besides my two blogs, HigherEdCareerCoach and HigherEdLifeCoach, I am an occasional contributor to the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, I have a Vimeo Channel, an upcoming YouTube Channel and I can share presentations on Prezi.

I feel great about the progress I have made over the last year or so in leveraging social media, and with learning to network and to market myself while still being authentic. I’m convinced I have a lot to offer today’s student affairs practitioners and candidates, and that if I just keep putting out who I am, what I believe in, and what I know, that I can help people discover their specific calling or purpose in life, rather than just doing what conventional wisdom says.

I thought that one way to give you a good overview of my passions, interests and areas of expertise might be to share some articles, presentations and videos I wrote, delivered or produced over the last year or so for other venues.

For part one, here are favorite posts I’ve written for the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, the forum that reinvigorated my interest in writing and gave me the opportunity to join a network of professionals who are shaping conversations about the directions of the Student Affairs profession.

• “15 Years in Indiana as a Cocktail Waitress”-My first post on this forum, which contained musings on career, purpose and motivation. Titled after the great song by Jack Logan.
• “Fire-ing the Canon?: Are the foundations of our profession being assaulted, or are we the barbarians at the gate?” A thought piece on the culture war that the group FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) is bringing to campuses around the country. This started a long back-and-forth with some reps and supporters of FIRE and got me some interesting and unsettling e-mails. FIRE became one of my followers on Twitter! I followed up later with “FIRE takes aim at the University of Delaware-Again” The vitriolic commentary that followed both posts reaffirmed that people were reading the blog.
• “Resumistakes! 10 Ways Your Resume, Cover Letter and Application can Sink Your Chances.” Based on real observations from both sides of the interview table, this brief article just tells it like it is, and that’s probably enough to say for now.”
• “Standing at the Crossroads, and sinking down?” explores the reality that higher education will need to accept that changes in media and communication represent a huge paradigm shift in how people interact, and not just the “latest technology.”
• “April is the Cruelest Month” provides some brief perspectives on what seems to be the longest month of interviewing at many campuses, after the equally busy months of February and March, when many of the national and regional placement conferences take place. Included links to general interview etiquette and dining etiquette advice.
• “Juggling without dropping the ball on your foot:How to evaluate, accept or decline a job offer.” Offers perspectives on how to handle the decision-making process, and avoid critical etiquette blunders so you can keep your options open, should other opportunities arise at an institution later.
• “You’re the best thing since sliced bread, and that generally meets expectations” offers some thoughts on how to approach the dreaded annual task of giving your employees feedback during performance reviews.
• “Over the Hedge” advises student affairs professionals to explore other professions and interest areas for ideas and perspectives that might change their approaches to work and life.
• “The ones that got away” explored what lessons you could glean from situations where students couldn’t stay in school, or passed away.
• In  “What I learned from September 11,” I shared my personal story about how we responded at Penn State on September 11, and some perspectives I gained from that day.
• “They’re just not that into you,” gives some advice on handling rejection in your job search.
• “They wouldn’t listen to the fact that I was a genius,” offered 20 ways to blow your job interview, for those of us committed to failing in our careers.
• “Time to make the donuts!” celebrated the opening of the school year by comparing institutional efforts during arrival to the Sisyphean tasks of Dunkin’ Donuts tireless donut maker Fred the Baker.

I hope you will find these posts interesting, informative and entertaining, and that you will continue visiting HigherEdCareerCoach.com in the new year, as I work to build a site that is valued by readers for good content, delivered authentically, that provides insight and provokes conversation about pursuing careers in higher education. Thanks for visiting!