Nerd alert: One of my favorite professional activities is serving on search committees. I love it. I like meeting new professionals and spending extra time with my colleagues. I also enjoy using time spent on search committees as an opportunity to learn more about myself by carefully observing how applicants carry themselves through the process.

Some of the best lessons I have learned about how to adjust my own style have come from being observant to nuances such as fonts on resumes, or how people title their documents.

Little things can make a huge difference.

While looking through application materials, for example, I have learned that “ADAMRESUME2006.docx” probably is not the most professional-looking title choice. I have also developed a belief that all application materials should be submitted in PDF form to preserve formatting. And no Comic Sans allowed. If you are going to submit a personal website, make sure that it’s relevant to the position. Do not gloat.

I could go on for volumes.

Serving on search committees and paying attention can be a superb way of developing what works and what does not work for one’s personal style. There is no guaranteed recipe for application success, because committees are subjective. Yet, in a time when the economy is crunched and job competition is fierce, making a great first impression as a job applicant is monumentally important.

So, my unwarranted advice: really use search committee experience as an exercise in self-reflection and make notes about what you feel is effective and what you feel hurts an applicant’s chances. When you look at a resume or cover letter and react with a feeling of discomfort, pay attention to what exactly is eliciting the response. If something really impresses you, write that down as well. When it comes time to take the next step in your own career, you may be glad you did.

Adam J. Ortiz is a House Director at Hampshire College.

Student Affairs professionals like to talk about work-life balance. It seems elusive to so many. We present on it to packed rooms at conferences, in the office we set goals around it, we have Twitter chats exploring the topic, and many of us might say that we are constantly in search of the ever elusive magical balance or forever balancing on a tightrope.  Is it possible, though, to change how you perceive the balance of your life in order to stop searching and plant both feet solidly on the ground? Perhaps your life is in balance, it just doesn’t look like the balance you thought it might when you started in the profession. Maybe it doesn’t look like the balance your colleague demonstrates. Perchance, it is uncool to claim that your life is in balance when it seems everyone else is saying theirs is not.

Once, I was in a workshop where we were asked to draw slices of our lives inside a pie circle. As I drew my life, it occurred to me that I was not drawing even pie slices. I didn’t even want to draw balanced slices of my life on my worksheet pie. There are aspects of my life that take up more time and energy than others, which is exactly how I want it to be. Truthfully, I’m even okay with work taking up a larger slice of pie than some of my non-work slices. Work is where I have the opportunity to put my StrengthsQuest strengths to work in a way I am not currently afforded elsewhere. I enjoy my colleagues, my university, and the work we do. At work I have the opportunity to build relationships, to take advantage of professional development opportunities, and even to take care of my fitness needs. I also noticed that I put all aspects of my job-life into one pie slice, but everything outside of work was divided into more detailed slices which might contribute to life feeling like, or life looking out of balance for some. I wondered if I reassigned labels or grouped areas differently how my pie might slice. When we shared our pie pictures with the group, my pie was in balance for me, but it didn’t resemble the pies of those around me. This was a good reminder for me that balance for one doesn’t equal balance for all.

Although I’m fine with work taking up a larger pie slice, this does not mean that I abandon my non-work slices. I am committed to my volunteer work, my social life, my hobbies, and the base level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It ebbs and flows in a rhythm that fits for my life. It doesn’t look at all like the rhythm of my colleagues who may come in on the weekends or take work home or be working on a doctorate. But because it fits my life, it is balance for me. I think that sometimes we can get caught up in wanting others to demonstrate the kind of balance in their lives that we live out in our own. Because I wouldn’t come in to the office on the weekend, I’m confused by and a little judgmental of someone who would (if not required). But if it fits within the balance of their life, who am I to tell them their life is out of balance? I believe we are better served as a profession in supporting our colleagues in how they decide to slice their pie, rather than forcing them to slice it differently.

If you are going through the job search process right now, I encourage you to be mindful of how you prefer to slice your pie compared to any expectations your new supervisor may have for your time. It is better to have these conversations in the interview process rather than after your first day. A few questions you may want to ask are:
-          What are expectations for checking email/texts/voicemails while out of the office?
-          Does the university support mental health or comp days?
-          What professional development opportunities are available to me here?
-          How flexible are my work hours?
What other questions should job searchers ask in order to be prepared to meet the expectations of their supervisor and institution around work-life balance?

I believe we can move past judging others when their balance looks differently than ours which, in turn, will provide our colleagues the freedom to do balance as it best fits for their lives. As a Student Affairs professional, how can you encourage and support other professionals to claim the balance of their life, even if it doesn’t look like anyone else’s pie? What does your pie look like? I’d love to hear other people claim balance in their lives!

Karen Gibson is an associate director of residence life at St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas.

My first student affairs association conference was the 2006 NASPA held in Washington, D.C. I was graduating from my master’s program that spring, and several of us were heading East to participate in The Placement Exchange.

As graduate students, we had taken the time to figure out many cost saving measures. We flew into the cheaper airport, fit nine of us in a shuttle into downtown, and me and my three closest cohort friends shared a $99/night room in the Days Inn. (No, it was not one of the conference hotels.) The room was “non-smoking” yet we all had a slight stale smoke smell to our interview clothes, and I am still not sure if something of a questionable nature was rolled up in the carpet that sat at the end of the hall all week.

I forgot pajamas, packed uncomfortable shoes, and spent more time agonizing over what sessions I should go to instead of actually attending the sessions. I can honestly say, my conference experiences have only gotten better as I have spent more time in the field. As I started planning my conference season, I thought it would be useful to solicit advice from others in the profession to share with those attending their first conference this year. Thank you to all who shared, I think we have a great collection of wisdom to pass along. If you didn’t get a chance to share your tips, please feel free to add them to the list!

My own advice from the D.C. conference years ago? 1) If you are able to, splurge on a conference hotel. Being in a comfortable space really makes the conference more enjoyable, and being in the midst of all the happenings gives you a chance to make some great connections. 2) Pack snacks and bring a reusable water bottle. 3) Take some time to explore the city and sights around the conference location. It’s a good mental break, and a great way to find good restaurants and unique souvenirs. 4) Everyone around you may be a potential colleague or supervisor. Be kind, be courteous, and don’t get too crazy at the regional receptions.

I wish you all a successful and fulfilling conference season!

It’s that time of the year. Job sites are loaded with postings. Search committees are working their way through hundreds of resumes. And job candidates are weaving through day-long on-campus interviews.

It’s an important process. We get such a short time with candidates to determine whether they’re a fit for our office and campus culture.

Sitting on another search committee myself has given me plenty of time to reflect on the process. And if there’s one thing I would change, it’s this: The weakness question.

It’s slowly disappearing, but given long enough in any interview, it will surface. It’s a simple concept: Tell us your strengths and weaknesses (Or, for the more political, your growth areas).

But that one question can trip up both the candidate and the committee.

In their book Switch, Dan and Chip Heath talk about our human tendency to remember negatives over positives. Looking at 24 of the most common emotion words in the English language, only six are positive. When a psychologist looked at every English emotion word he could find (558 of them), he found that 62 percent were negative verses 38 percent positive. Negative emotions stick to us more easily. So for the interviewers, there’s a chance that we’ll see a great person who is a perfect fit for the job and our team, but we’ll walk out focusing on concerns about how they will “manage their time” just because it’s the first thing they mentioned as a growth area.

Candidates aren’t in a better position. They don’t want to be seen in a bad light, so they’re less likely to share that “real” things they’re working on. But they have to answer, so we end up getting inauthentic or vague responses from potentially strong, relationally aware people.

What type of weakness are we hoping to learn about? A character flaw? A task in which the candidate doesn’t excel? A task they don’t enjoy?

Usually, our weaknesses are shadows of our strengths. So if you’re a big-picture person who loves new projects and the growing edge of an organization, you’re probably going to be less energized by the day-to-day detail work. It’s doable, but too much administrative work will begin to drain your energy.

For the most part, that’s what we want. We want to make sure candidates are aware of their strengths, they’re using them, they’re aware of the challenges those strengths bring, and they’re able to manage those challenges.

Maybe instead of “What are your weaknesses,” we could start asking how they are managing the areas in which they struggle, or what areas of this job are least likely to energize them and how will they work within those areas.

So that’s my interview observation. What are yours? Any question we need to drop in the interview process? Any questions we need to ask more often?

Jon Sampson is a Program Coordinator and Residence Director at Azusa Pacific University.

I remember the first time I had to quit a job. I was afraid my boss would be mad at me, and I apologized profusely for leaving. Many of my student employees have behaved in exactly the same way. At some point you realize we have HR professionals for a reason—people will constantly be leaving jobs, and some jobs even have an average “life expectancy.” Last week I left a job that I’d held for five and a half years—the longest tenure of my young career. This time, the process was extremely positive.

How To Leave A Job

A graceful exit starts before you even have a new job. If possible, let your employer know when you’re applying for other positions so they can plan for a possible transition and serve as a current, positive reference. Even if you don’t get the job, your supervisor will know what types of positions you’re interested in; this could lead to increased opportunities at your current place of employment.

I believe this conversation should be had before you receive a job offer.  Trying to use another offer as leverage for your demands rarely works in student affairs, from what I’ve seen.  Remember: NO ONE is irreplaceable. If for some reason you think you are, perhaps you should be spending more of your time sharing your skills with your colleagues.

When you have a job offer, ask for some time to think things over. Mickey Fitch previously wrote about some great questions to ask yourself and your perspective employer.

Next, you resign (assuming you accept the job offer). This part is easy. Write a short letter informing your supervisor of your last day in the office, perhaps thanking him/her for the opportunities they’ve provided. That’s it.  Don’t go overboard; you’re not breaking up with someone.

This is where the work starts. You need to do everything you can to transfer your knowledge (and in some cases, skills) to other areas of your department so operations continue as normal. This may include training sessions, writing transition documents, and temporarily reassigning duties. For me, it also included contacting colleagues both within and outside the university to inform them of my “impending departure” and providing alternate contacts. By far the most important thing I did was empower talented student employees to take over the reins while a search was conducted for my replacement.

The last few weeks of your employment may include a lot of awkward interactions. Mine ran the gamut of “will anyone be hired to replace you?” to “no one can do all the work that you do!” My director even jokingly asked a Vice Chancellor and Chancellor to issue an executive order forbidding me to leave. I’d suggest taking everything in stride, smiling, and trusting that your department will handle your absence well. Don’t seek out adoration from others or a validation of your time at the institution. You’re not royalty; you don’t need to leave a legacy.

Resist the urge to slack off. Power through, and realize which projects you need to finish and which ones you need to hand off. I didn’t stop plowing through work until 3PM on my last day, but my hard work paid off and did not go unnoticed by my supervisor. Her facebook status that day truly humbled me:

Now, I’ve left my former institution, but I haven’t left my colleagues. I’m still forwarding relevant grant proposals, and answering a question here and there.  However, I know they have what they need to be successful.  Without me.

What advice do you have for someone leaving a job?  Did you learn anything the hard way?

From web tools to lunch breaks (or lack thereof), here are the most popular SA Collaborative polls:

In our field, a lot of time and attention is put into prepping for interviews, writing cover letters and resumes, and getting ready for the big on campus interview day. Less attention is given to teaching what type of follow up you should do after an interview to stay at the top of the hiring committee’s list of top candidates. Even worse, we rarely talk about how to “seal the deal,” by asking  questions, airing concerns, and negotiating before we accept (or deny) a final job offer.

Student Affairs is admittedly a sometimes overly “touchy-feely” field. We fear asking probing questions, or acquiesce to certain professional situations, because we don’t feel like we have any other choice, or that we are “just” a new professional and have to “deal” with what is given to us. However, in the same breath, we tout how great we are, at motivating our students to reach for the highest goals and achievements they can. Does anyone else see the disparity there?

Recently, I underwent my own mid-level job search. With the help of professional peers, my best friend, my partner (both of whom are in higher education), and family, I was able to be very intentional, thoughtful, and mindful of my situation when “the phone call” came from my new supervisor. Through this process, I’ve gathered a few helpful hints and questions to ask yourself when “sealing the deal”.

Some things that are important within your professional role and critical to consider when faced with a job offer, include:

• Availability of peers/network/team
• Peer professional context (where were they before there? Homegrown? Across country?)
• Availability of professional development funding and/or commitment to tangible professional development
• Technological resources within department/division/university
• Tangibility of higher leadership to you (dean of students, vice chancellor for student affairs, chancellor/president, etc)
• Mission/vision and goals (are they active? Is there a five year plan? Do they know where they are going?)
• What is the general “vibe” of the team? (Are they easy going? Joke a lot? Work late at night? Always late?)

Beyond the professional concerns, you should also be aware of your personal needs (and hot buttons!) that need to be met when facing a job offer, including:

• Cost of university services (parking, health/wellness center membership, meal availability, athletics tickets, theater tickets)
• Benefit packages (what is the retirement contribution/match percentage, availability of local doctors and specialists, vision/dental care, flex health benefits, vacation/sick leave)
• Where is your university/system “at” in terms of furlough, layoffs, hiring freezes, travel freezes, etc
• Proximity of university to retail shopping, groceries, and social/hobby needs
• Ability to find suitable housing for self/family/petsProximity to airport/mass transit
• What salary do you need vs. want (don’t be afraid of negotiating for a higher salary or soft recurring benefits! These extras can lead to higher employee satisfaction and productivity!)

I mentioned before about asking these questions of yourself/your institution. However, I would also encourage you to air these out with peers, partner/family, and friends. They have an objective viewpoint that you may not be able to see because of the “job offer glow”. After searching out answers to these questions, you can feel confident in the fact that you’ve done a thorough job “sealing the deal”.

What kinds of questions do you ask? Share with me via Twitter or comments below!  Best of luck to all of you getting “the phone call” soon!

Starting in mid-June, Mickey Fitch is the new Assistant Director of University Housing at University of Wisconsin-Superior. Mickey’s crafted her career around the residence life experience on the college campus. Mickey loves to tell stories and help students make the most of their residential experience on campus. On the personal side, Mickey is an avid fisherman and outdoorswoman and is currently engaged in a life-changing health and fitness journey! You can learn more about her at mickeyfitch.weebly.com or follow her on Twitter @mickeyfitch.

Related posts:

1. What Do YOU Value?

Hey readers, it’s been awhile! My last #JobHunt entry was about re-entering the job search: handling the rejection of round one and keeping your spirits up for round two. I am happy to say that this is the last blog I will ever write that can be tagged with “#JobHunt,” as I have officially accepted my first full-time position!

I feel like I need to quote the Grateful Dead here – “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” What started last January with the first postings showing up on the OPE and TPE websites has finally ended in early June with a job offer and an acceptance.

And I couldn’t be happier. I found a position that, although it’s not in my top choice for geographic area, is probably a better fit for me than anything I applied for in round one. It just took me five months of interviews, rejections, campus visits, phone calls, parking lot pep talks, and intense one-on-one time with HigherEdJobs to realize what I was looking for and how to get it.

I found a position that is half Residence Life and half Student Activities, which is perfect for my already varied background in Student Affairs. I get to work with a variety of students in a lot of different ways. I’ve met some of my future coworkers, and that was a major part of my thought process when making the decision: Could I see myself hanging out with these people? That’s very important to me when I realize I’ll be moving over 1000 miles away from home.

My biggest piece of advice to those who will be job hunting next year: Use your resources! There are so many people in the field willing to help out, by looking over a resume, sharing a job posting, helping your formulate answers to common questions, and sending you funny text messages when you visit campuses to keep you calm. Not just professionals – some of your biggest support will come from other grad students who are also out searching. You’re all in the same boat, and it’s nice to know you’re not out in the job search sea alone! Plus, the thought of sharing a high-five when you all connect at a conference is a great motivator.

(And if you ever get the chance to blog about your experiences – whether for a website or just for yourself – do it! It’s a nice way to think through a lot of things related to the job search, without having to actually search.)

I talked a lot in my first entry about finding the perfect job, but that even working on a tropical island means having to deal with some jellyfish. I know there will probably be some jellyfish to deal with in my first year, but I’m looking forward to getting started in my new position. There’s a lot to learn, and I’m excited to take all my knowledge and experience from grad school and see how it works in the real world. It may not be a tropical paradise, but I’m looking forward to a lot of sunny days!

Though this is my last entry in the #JobHunt series, don’t rule out me returning now and then to blog about my first year as a professional in the field. I’m sure there are many more stories, revelations, and interesting tales to come. To everyone who has followed along my job search from the beginning – thank you! I really couldn’t have done it without all the kind words and supportive messages! Thank you!

Shannon Healy

Shannon Healy is a new student affairs professional.

(Editor’s note: I’d say more, but she forgot to tell me where! But you will definitely hear more from her in the future, as I do hope to have her blog about her first year as a professional. In the meantime, I am sure she’ll eventually tell her vast Twitter following. Or maybe she could just post a comment below.)

Related posts:

1. #jobhunt #5
2. #jobhunt No. 2
3. #jobhunt No. 10: Round 2-Electric Boogaloo!

Much has been said lately about the value of social media to job seekers. Since you’re reading a blog post about it, which you probably learned about from a post on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or BrazenCareerist, the value of social media should be obvious. It is likely what brought you here.

So let’s cut to the chase: You know social networking can be valuable, but you just aren’t sure how to do it the right way. Here are 5 great posts that can help you figure some of this out.

Take 5:

• How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search: Using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to Job Search by Rachel Levy gives a great overview of ways to use these tools, and your blog.
• 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media by Dan Schawbel gives some unique ways to use search engines, bl ogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Video Resumes and your blog/rss subscriptions to stay on task, monitor your personal brand, an d get connected during your job search.
• This article about a panel presentation by the Sacramento Social Media Club about using Facebook and Twitter for your job search gives some simple but good advice from panelists. I also like the idea of social media clubs. If you have one in your area, this could be a great place to find people who could help you understand ways to use social media to enhance your job search and career.
• The Social Media Commando offers 10 tips on using Social Media in your job search
  
• Alison Doyle offers a good overview of networking sites at her About.Com page. Alison is a great person to follow, and her articles on About.Com are very much resource-packed. I visit often and always learn something.

And listen in the morning:

I am doing a BlogTalkRadio show on using social media in your job search tomorrow (Friday) at 11 a.m. My guest host will be Mallory Bower, Assistant Director of Career Services at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Mallory writes periodically for my other site, HigherEdLifeCoach.Com, and will have some articles on this site soon, as well. Our guests will include some of Mallory’s colleagues at UNCP, including Mike Severy, Director of Student Involvement and Leadership, and newly hired Assistant Director Becca Fick. Twitter was integral to posting the job, getting candidates and to Fick’s eventual hiring. Mike and Becca wrote great posts on their perspectives on using Twitter in the job search. Mike’s post, on the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, can be found here, and Becca’s guest post at On the Go with Ed Cabellon can be found here.

We’ll also revisit last week’s discussion on “purpose” and what it means to people working in higher education. Plus news, events and perspectives of note in the higher ed/student affairs world. Show is scheduled for 90 minutes to allow call-ins, discussion, etc., but may end after an hour or so.

You can listen to the show by following this link. And you can call in live to ask questions during the interview to (347) 989-005 or via Skype from the show page. (I’ve never really done that, but it is supposedly possible. Someone should give it a try, and let me know how it works!) Please listen in and share your questions and comments. After the show, you can call in and record your comments to my GoogleVoice comment line, 706-352-9467. (352-WINS) and I may play them on the air in a future episode.

So please check out these links, think about how you might use social media to advance your job search and career, and call me in the morning.

Related posts:

1. Take 5: Social Media Resources for Higher Ed Pros
2. Today on BlogTalkRadio: Using RSS in Your Job Search
3. Take 5: Five Resources for Your Student Affairs Job Search

Social media as a job search tool? Sure I’d heard about it but didn’t really put much faith into it beyond employer/employee fact checking and social background research.  By the time we had a position moving through our HR process in January I’d been contributing to studentbranding.com for a several months so I knew the networking expectations for both employers and candidates in the non-higher education arena.  As such, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by sharing news of our process on twitter.

While I had been engaged in the #sachat community not much came of this tweet (note no #sachat hashtag) until we progressed as a community into discussions on job searches, of course triggered by Ed Cabellon.  Here is a sequence of tweets than ensued over the course of sixteen minutes.

As promised, when our position was finally approved right before #NASPA10 I sent a tweet sharing the news and our process from that point forward.  I didn’t have a live link yet so several people requested the job description as a result of these tweets:

Several members of the #sachat and twitter community requested a job description after these tweets.  Anyone who expressed interest in the position or had asked questions about the job, university and location via twitter was on the radar for us.  As we progressed through the search, all search committee members, including me, unfollowed all of the twitter candidates to maintain the integrity of our process.  Communication with candidates became more formal and traditional – email and phone – but by that point the networking had reaped its rewards.

Twitter can change the search process

While unexpected, twitter and the #sachat community fundamentally changed the search process by decreasing the size of an already small profession.  Certainly candidates still had to successfully navigate the gauntlet of our search process but our knowledge of them through social media outlets was very informative.

As an employer our engagement on twitter, whether individually or through our office account, helped us put information in the public domain that we wanted to share about the future direction of our office and our work environment.  Knowing that I was being followed by several candidates didn’t change how I interacted on twitter but it did reassure me that when we got to the point of fit questions that these candidates were probably better informed about us than those who were not accessing our information.

As a candidate you need to think through how you use twitter and what degree of access you want to provide.  It can be hugely beneficial for employers to triangulate your professional perspective and network connections.  On the other hand it can also be detrimental, particularly related to candidate authenticity and consistency in different settings if your interviews and application materials don’t align well with your presence in social media.

Social media expertise will be a required job criteria for all future searches

Our job description listed social media expertise as a preferred requirement.  It became a more prominent factor in our search every step of the way as our discussions to balance expertise and needs within our office became more focused.  In our next search social media engagement will be a required component.

In response to:

You may be asking:

Based on our candidate pool and how they identified their skill set as it related to our job description I would disagree that most people in gen-y have them in some form.  Facebook doesn’t cut it anymore.  That is now below the minimum – fan pages, connections, etc. Different institutions will measure social media skills differently based upon their needs and the expertise currently on staff. We were looking for someone who had the interest in and ability to give us traction in areas where we knew we needed to be engaged but were spinning our wheels – Facebook a bit, twitter, and blogs. (Again social media served as only two of thirteen criteria in our search process.)  In particular, we were looking for a solid knowledge base of how to use twitter and, ideally, high quality engagement in the student affairs community and #sachat in particular.

Very few candidates provided social media information on their resume or in their cover letter (the best approach for me – hyperlinked to your profile in a PDF resume).  Even some of the candidates we knew were on twitter didn’t identify that knowledge in their application materials.  If you are engaged in the #sachat community your knowledge base sets you apart from the general student affairs community and you need to market that knowledge.  Again, different institutions will measure social media skills differently based upon their needs and the expertise currently on staff but why make the hunt for that information difficult and allow employers to make inaccurate assumptions about your skill set?

In January I never would have guessed the impact social media would have on our search process.  I’m a believer now though.  Without getting into further details of our search I’d be glad to discuss your process as it relates to my perspective on social media and the role it can play in a successful search process for you.

What do you think?  Make it a good day.

Mike Severy is the Director of Student Involvement and Leadership at UNC Pembroke.  You can connect with Mike via Twitter.