The Other Side of the Desk: A former recruiter’s perspective #21

Better Late Than Never

I know it's a few days overdue for my post, but for good reason: I GOT A JOB!!!! 

Turns out my pro-bono career center gig at my home institution is going to become something permanent and I received my offer letter from the Director yesterday. The position I will be accepting a position as a Program Director of Career Foundations, which will primarily involve advising students on career development resources, but will also involve managing a staff of student peer career educators, and potentially teaching a career development course. 

I actually had the offer letter sitting in my personal email inbox for 3 HOURS! I had been so used to only checking my school email account that when I finally did check, and saw the email, I let out a loud laugh and shook my head at myself. Whatever the case, the news is better late than never so I am overjoyed to say the least. 

The position is extremely fitting for my background and I am excited that I will have the opportunity to continue working directly with students, managing a staff, and teaching - all of which I had opportunities to do during my grad school career. I am also excited about the opportunity to work in a career center that has a lot of potential for new ideas and growth, an amazing director, a very collegial staff, and an immense amount of backing from the university's senior leadership. This position was definitely at the top of my list in comparison to some of the other positions, but the process was so touch and go because of the red tape that could've potentially stood in the way. 

I cannot tell you how happy I am that the search has finally finished! I applied for 10 positions total, had 2 phone interviews, and 1 on-campus interview. Certainly there are many out there who put in more job applications, but given my targeted search parameters (location, position, functional area, and pay), I think I made out pretty darn well!

For those of you who are still on the search, I wish you luck and know that the job hunt is all about being able to tell your career story in the most comprehensive and compelling way. It's a lot of work, but like any great novel, it's takes a lot of drafts to create a masterpiece. 

May the odds be ever in your favor!

The Other Side of the Desk: A former recruiter’s perspective #20

Patience is a virtue 

So my counterpart blogger has found a position and for that I say congrats! It seems as though the hard work paid off!

I am too getting a lot closer to having something in the bag I think, but I don't want to jinx it. All I will say is that I had a positive conversation with my supervisor for my pro bono job and things are moving quicker, but still some red tape to go before I can celebrate. I'll leave it at that for now. 

Otherwise, there's zero activity happening otherwise. The career services position that. Interviewed for a few weeks ago has yet to follow up with me, which is pretty uncool. There was talk about on-campus interviews about around this week, but the radio silence is telling me that it's going to be dead in the water. If that's the case, fine, but at least communicate with me! 

As a famous pop diva once said, "time goes by so slowly to those who wait, I'm tired of waiting on you". That's exactly how I feel about this job process, but no matter how I feel, I have to keep going, and going I shall! Happy hunting fellow job seekers!

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

The Beeline Broadcast, #19

Witty Title

I apologize for my delayed update! I recently had a death in the family, and that coupled with last minute research papers and finals has led me to feel like I'm moving too fast to function. I can't believe that last weekend was my graduation. I can't believe that I'm finished. It has yet to sink in, I think.

I had an impromptu interview for the internal position that I applied to. I was happily sitting at my intern desk when I was suddenly informed that I would be interviewing at 1pm. A few hours later I found myself in a room interviewing with a group of people that I've interacted with over the past year. To be honest, I was really distracted by upcoming funeral arrangements, so I don't even remember what I said during the interview.

I must have pulled it together though, because the search committee asked how soon I would be able to work full-time. I guess things are finally moving forward.

The Other Side of the Desk: A former recruiter’s perspective #19

Yes, No, Maybe

Another week gone by, and I still am no closer with good news on the job front, surprise surprise.I did however receive the lovely news that I could potentially be unemployed by July, thanks to a revelation from HR. The sitch is that despite being hired for a 12-month graduate assistantship from August to August, since I am graduating they technically term my status at the end of June...awesome. I did have a reassuring conversation with my supervisor that she would look into it and find a way to keep me at least until August, but yeah, the frying pan is heating up. I'm trying to keep my cool as I have faith that everything will work out the way it is supposed to; however, my dwindling funds in my bank account will only last me so long, so something has to give, like yesterday.

I have lined up a couple new positions that I intend to apply for this week, one in study abroad and the other in alumni relations. The study abroad job sounds the most exciting; it's more of a coordinator position working remotely with resident directors at various study abroad sites and providing assistance with the logistical and programmatic needs. While it definitely seems interesting, something tells me that this position probably requires some late nights and early mornings with the time difference. I'll give it a shot anyhow and see what happens with it.

Lastly, the internal opportunity form my pro-bono work at my institution's career center is moving at a glacial pace, but movement nonetheless. The latest is that they are moving forward with posting a position that will backfill the responsibilities of the recently departed team member I mentioned back in post #14. Problem is that since it's a full-time position, they have to do a full out search, so that will delay things certainly be a while, and not to mention actually having to compete for the position. It's a headache, but will be worthwhile if I'm able to have the satisfaction of something full time in the end. Fingers crossed. Why can't it be just like in elementary school where if you liked someone, you wrote them a note with the boxes: yes, no, or maybe? Blargh.

The Other Side of the Desk: A former recruiter’s perspective #17/18

Alive and Kicking (and maybe screaming)

Hello world! I apologize for disappearing last week;  I was mired up to my neck with remnants responsibilities involved with the last few days of classes. On the upside, I can happily report that I am officially through with all grad school classes foreva eva foreva eva!!!! A.K.A. as in until I go back for my PhD in 5 years.

Anyhow, I am still on the job hunt :(. I just received word today that the Associate Director of Employer Relations position passed on me, but I am by no means disheartened by the news. As I mentioned prior, the management style of the Director really concerned me, and if they had made me the offer, I would have had a difficult time figuring out how I would have turned them down, now I don't have to. The only irksome detail was that instead of giving me the courteous to deliver the news in a meaningful way, I received a canned email from the institution's HR system. Really? I wash my hands of it. 

In more positive news, I happened to get a call to interview for a Career Counselor/Assistant Director position for a private liberal arts institution located about 2 hours south of me. I anticipated getting the call mainly because through my networking at ACPA, I happened to meet someone from this institution who told me about the potential opening, and they contacted me a few weeks ago to notify me that applications were being accepted. I applied, and lo and behold, I had a phone interview last Thursday. I had to interview with 5, count em 5 people! The five included the director, several staff, and a faculty member.

It was the first phone interview I have ever had with so many people, and I definitely had to pace myself to calm my nerves. Because of the number of people, I tried to make myself as conversational as possible, but alas the interviewers were pretty stone cold. Nonetheless, I feel as though it went over fairly well as the Director shared with me the next steps, which will involve a half-day visit and a presentation. Intuition tells me that if they weren't interested they wouldn't have told me the next steps. More to report on it shortly I hope, but to be truthful, I am on the fence on this one too because I really don't want to move to another city. I love where I am, but if I don't find something, my love for the city won't outweigh my bills. I have this sinking suspicion that I'm going to visit this campus and fall in love with it. Hmm.

Lastly, there's no news about my internal pro-bono job at my institution either. They are moving.so.slow and it's killing me. I have had several conversations with my "supervisor" and every time it's full of something and nothing at the same time. The latest is that there seems to be financial budget for the role that I would be considered for...however, there are four other positions that are technically ahead of this position. Therefore, there's no clear forecast on when things will move. The bureaucracy of being at large institution is rearing its ugly and unbecoming head at me, and I don't like it at all. I will try to hold out, but something has to give. I'm good for it, so c'mon hire me!

Anyhow, I appreciate the process and know that things will work themselves out. To a better tomorrow and hope for better news. Happy hunting!

The Beeline Broadcast, #18

Ray of Sunshine

Prepare for the revelation of my super secret opportunity: An internal listing was recently posted for the office that I currently intern at. It's an entirely new position, and I've heard rumors regarding this position for months. The job would include a lot of the tasks that I already perform in addition to managing the new email communications management system. The listing will close May 16, so wish me luck!