Before I begin, I must give a disclaimer on a few things. First, I am extremely happy in my current position. After a long and tiring search, I was able to find an amazing job with awesome people in a great city. This position has challenged me to learn a completely different set of skills and at worst is setting me up for entirely different career opportunities in the future (though I do not plan to leave for the near future). Second, I write this post from the perspective of a white, cisgender, heterosexual man that was a member of a working class family and attended a predominately-white institution near my home in southern Illinois as a first generation college student. Third, I absolutely adore my parents, and I thank them for everything they have done to make me the man I am today. I do not mean to put them down in any way through my comments on their work, but rather to show how their positions have affected my perception of what “work” is. Finally, I do not mean to disparage any institution or individual that I interviewed with in the past. I certainly do not feel that any of you have wronged me in any way. My search was long and frustrating, and I wanted to speak generally about the struggles I faced in hopes that others may find comfort in my experience.
As we begin to enter the hiring season for Student Affairs/Higher Education Administration, I found myself reflecting on my searches in the past, both for graduate assistantships and for full time positions. Reflecting on these searches leaves me wondering how one’s background, social class, and financial stability can influence their success in the job search process.
Before I explore this in detail, I think it is relevant to examine the working lives of my parents, as I believe we learn a great deal about what it is to be an adult from the behaviors and decisions made by our parents. I have often said that my father is the hardest working man I know. He never attended college (except maybe a bowling class?) and has always worked in a series of labor-intensive jobs. When the plumbing supply warehouse he worked at years ago laid him off, he took a temporary position at a wastewater treatment plant, which thankfully turned into a wonderful full-time job he enjoys to this day. Similarly, my mother has held a series of lower level accounting and secretarial positions, with only one major job change within my lifetime.
I believe one thing is in common with both of my parents: they see work as primarily a means to an end. They approach their work not as a way to make themselves widely known throughout their respective fields, but to provide great customer service, complete the task efficiently and effectively, and, at the end of the day, to support and care for our family. Both of my parents have a large network of family and friends in southern Illinois, and they have spent most of their lives in the area. They always worked to ensure our family had everything we needed, with an expectation that my brother and I would work to cover our own expenses.
As I went through my College Student Personnel program, I began to develop many of the virtues we value as professionals in this field. I enjoyed creating campus events and supporting student organizations, so I envisioned myself working in these functional areas within Student Affairs. I saw myself as a Dean of Students, supporting a wide variety of Student Affairs functions from one position. I could possibly be a director of a student union, one who would manage and control event spaces and programming offered to students. I grew a desire to explore the country, having spent most of my time in and around Illinois. As I began searching for my first full-time Student Affairs position, and continued this search for nearly a year and a half, these desires began to fade. I felt myself falling back on the ideas and behaviors of my parents. I just needed a job to pay the bills. I saw how an inability to express myself and my desires in the context of work, a lack of understanding of my needs, and, perhaps most importantly, a lack of funds to support myself and continue my search began to influence the way in which I navigated my search.
In the following posts, I will attempt to look at how I approached various aspects of my job search, with special attention paid to how my situation and perspective on work influenced my behaviors. Below, you will find links to and descriptions of each post from this series. Thank you for taking the time to read this. To current candidates, I hope you found some comfort in any shared experiences we may have. To employers seeking new candidates, I hope you consider my experience when you are working with entry-level candidates.
“Finding the Right Fit”: A Fallacy for First Searches
A look at how sometimes you just do not have the time and resources to find the “perfect” job.
“Trust the Process”: Efficiency v. Effectiveness in Job Applications
Searching for efficiency in creating job application materials.
“What Kind of Musical Instrument Are You?”: Fluffy Interview Questions and Wasting Time
Why I don’t mind “fluff” questions, and neither should you.
“What is your perfect Sunday?”: Describing Your Needs
The struggle in opperationalizing and communicating your needs as a new professional.
Conclusion
Final thoughts on this project.
These articles were originally published to a Weebly blog in January, 2016. I moved everything over to WordPress in November 2016 to be alongside the rest of my writings.
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