The Beeline Broadcast, #20

My Full Circle

I am happy to announce that I have accepted a job offer at a community college in the Northeast! I will be a staff assistant in the Admissions Office, and my primary task will be to manage the newly purchased texting & email marketing system. I’ll also continue to work with students in the dual enrollment program.

I remember sitting with the vice president after accepting the offer. I stared at her dumbly. “So I can tell people now?” I asked. She laughed and said yeah, I could tell people. It’s a sealed deal.

There are so many positive points that ultimately impacted my decision, like a state job, a diverse student population, an institution that’s open to new ideas and changes, professional development opportunities, and having the ability to learn something entirely new and implement change on huge level. My role is incredibly tecchy and not at all what I envisioned myself to be doing once I graduated. The opportunity, however, presented itself and I couldn’t say no.

I did understand that I would sacrifice the opportunity to work one-on-one with students. A large part of my experience as a graduate assistant (at a private institution) was supporting students individually by building rapport and teaching them how to academically succeed. I absolutely loved it, and I’m truly going to miss it. An advisor position opened at my assistantship around the time I was moving forward with the community college position, and it was suggested that I stay with the private institution. Ultimately though, I want grow, and I will have the opportunity to experience such growth with the position that I just accepted.

Looking back on my job search, it was bizarre. I applied to 25 jobs, and I was pretty much rejected by all of them. I had a phone interview with one institution that never called me. I nearly had a phone interview that never happened because I accidentally noted that I was bilingual on the application. I had one formal interview with a department that I interned for and wasn’t offered the job. I had a second informal interview for the same department and landed myself a job. Both offices that I interned for encouraged me to work for them. It’s weird, and I feel very lucky that this worked out the way it did.

I want to wish the best of luck to all my colleagues that are still navigating the job search. You will be ok. You are educated and you are qualified, and you got this.

All the best, -b