Weekly Update - Post #10

Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Personal Temperature: Underwhelmed

So, I'm feeling a bit underwhelmed at the moment. Perhaps that is due to the fact that I am sitting here watching American Idol and the first three singers have bored me beyond belief. At this point, I would welcome Sanjaya just so I could laugh a little. I digress...

Well friends, I have been feeling a little guilty about my blog lately. The Husband says that I have been acting like a Debbie Downer and after re-reading my blogs, I see what he means. I really have to get a better attitude about this job search thing. So, in an effort to snap myself out of it, I thought I would write a blog entry that would hopefully help those of you who are reading my blog and plan to one day do a dual job search. So, here are some internet websites that I have found helpful in my journey:

www.chronicle.com - By far the best website for uptodate jobs in all areas of Higher Education.

(Okay...quick digression...Sanjaya just came on. What the hell is going on with his hair?!? And he just forgot the words to the song!!! Okay...if he isn't kicked off this week, I think I will have to stop watching the show.)

www.higheredjobs.com - Again, a great website for jobs in Higher Education. In my experience, this website often times has more jobs posted than Chronicle. For instance, I have found several academic advising jobs or admissions jobs posted on higheredjobs.com that were not on the Chronicle. There definitely seems to be more entry-level and mid-level positions posted here.

(Okay...another quick digression...I just can't help myself. Idol is so blah tonight. Haley Scarnato about put me to sleep and she did in fact put The Daughter to sleep, which is saying something since she is Miss Crankypants due to teething. I am not sure if I can keep watching tonight...but I must tune in long enough to see Miss Doolittle.)

www.studentaffairs.com - Great website for fabulous blogs! =) Not to mention, this website is great for those looking at jobs only in the Student Affairs field. It is nice to have a place to search where you don't have to weed through faculty positions to get to the applicable stuff.

www.academic360.com - Probably the best website ever for those of you who are doing regional job searches. This website allows you to click on any state and then lists out all the universities in that state. You click on any university and you are taken to their Human Resources webpage. This has been a huge help for me, especially since it has linked me to colleges that I didn't even know existed. Awesome, awesome, awesome resource!

www.acuho-i.org - Looking for a housing position? This is the website for you! Not only can you find nation-wide jobs here, but you can also learn more about regional opportunities such as conferences and professional development.

And, of course, you can always check out information on the ACPA and NASPA websites.

Hopefully some of this information can help you in your quest to find that next great job!

Fear Knocking at my Door - Post #9

Date: March 21, 2007
Personal Temperature: Scared

The fear is creeping back. This dual job search thing is not going well at all. To date, I have two applications out there...one at my "dream" school and one at my current institution. The initial review date of applications at my "dream" school was March 15th, last Thursday, and no word yet from them. I am trying to stay positive...I am trying to stay focused...I am trying to remember that fear will only lead me back to Cheese Station C where the cheese is starting to get moldy and depleted. But let's be honest folks, this job search stuff is hard enough when it is only you...let alone you and another person. I keep invisioning myself three months from now, jobless and my little girl sick and we have no health insurance and living with my parents or The Husband's parents! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! It is usually during one of these depressive rants that my husband begins to laugh at me and tells me to "Lighten up. We will find something. We always have." Sometimes, The Husband's light mood really helps me to get through the fear and other times I just want to give him a piece of my mind and say, "You are right. We have always found something, but this time is different. This time we have to find something together at the same time in the same place. This time, it is not just the two of us we have to watch out for it is also The Daughter. This time we have to think about finding jobs that don't require us to give 50-60 hours a week each so that we can be there for our little girl. This time we are in a time crunch and I have to let my current institution know if I am coming back soon so they can hire someone else or commit to another year working here and stop looking for jobs. This time around, I'm scared."

And lets face it, there is the crux of the issue. Fear! Fear can make people do crazy things, and right now, I can feel the fear of not finding a job closing in around me and making me want to crazy things like 1) committing to another year here at my current institution, 2) throwing our values out the window and looking for jobs away from family, 3) apply for positions that I am not even remotely interested in just to have a paycheck and health insurance and 4) consider leaving the higher education field. One of the readers posted a comment after my last entry asking if you really can do a dual job search with such restrictions. I'll be honest, at the beginning of this journey, I was 100% confident that the answer was YES! YOU CAN!; but now, I am waivering. The cold hard truth is that no matter how qualified of a candidate I am, no matter how much I want to serve an institution, no matter how interested I am in a position, I can't do anything if either a) there is no position posted in the area I am looking at and b) the hiring committee chooses not to give me a look. These past two weeks, I have been thinking more and more about the reality of our situation and wondering if we have set ourselves up for failure by limiting our search so much. But then I go back to the fact that family means so much to us and we want our parents to know our child and future children and we want to be near enough to attend family events. These are huge aspects of our life that impact our greater happiness, but then so does finding the right jobs.

I think another reason I am beginning to panic is because I am watching those around me have so much success in their searches. All my graduate students are headed to numerous on-campus interviews. My co-workers are headed off to the joint conference in a week with tons of interviews scheduled. And here I sit, with two irons in the fire...neither of which seem to be getting hot. And The Husband, you ask? Well, still no change in his status. To date, there have been no jobs posted for him to even submit an application for. I hate to say it, but I think the writing may be on the wall. I think we may have to broaden our search and look beyond our desire to be close to our extended families for the sake of our little family of three. How much longer do we let good opportunities pass us by? And how much longer will my current institution wait for me to give them an answer?

Lost in the Maze - Post #8

Date: Friday, March 9, 2007
Personal Temperature: Guilty

So, I'm afraid any day now the fabulous man who gave me the go-ahead to do this blog will email me and fire me because I haven't posted recently! (Sorry Stuart!) Friends, things have just been nuts lately. 'Tis the season in Residence Life...the hiring season that is. I have done more graduate assistantship interviews and Resident Assistant interviews than I care to count in these last two weeks...and they just keep going and going and going. I passed the energizer bunny about three days ago! Anyway, I'm back in action now, so let's get down to business.

Here is the latest scoop...I temporarily got lost in the maze recently in my quest for new cheese. I lost focus on my priorities and in a moment of sheer professional selfishness I applied for a job that was fabulous but would take me further away from my family. I lost track of that number one value that The Husband and I have agreed upon (getting closer to both our families down south) and saw a wonderful professional opportunity and let my excitment for new cheese overwhelm me. The result? I applied for the job, received a phone interview, and cancelled the phone interview and withdrew my application all in one week. Am I nuts or what?!? The more and more I thought about moving to this city, the more and more I realized how much I didn't want to do that. So, I had to refocus, swallow my pride, and do the right thing.

Fast forward to present time and here is our dual job search status. The Husband has applied for zero jobs and I have put in my application for THE job at my alma mater and today put in my application for a position here at my current university. The review dates for both positions are mid March, so hopefully I will have some news (good?) to share with you soon.

In the meantime, I feel the need to digress. This is my blog after all, so I am entitled to have a little rant now and then. So, there is the phenomenon going on in our profession right now that is quite disheartening. I am in charge of recruiting new graduate students to my university and I have been shocked, SHOCKED at the number of up and coming staff members who are not being mentored when it comes to appropriate communication to potential employers. So I feel the need to do a little internet mentoring. Future professionals...now here this...if an employer takes the time to email you and ask you to submit your resume and cover letter for further review, common courtesy and professional etiquette dictate that you do one of three things a) submit your resume and cover letter; b) respond to the employer and explain that you are going to take time to research their position and university and get back with them; or c) repond back that you are not interested in their position. Doing nothing should never be an option. Okay, off my soapbox. I just had to get that out of my system, because I truly have been saddened by the amount of people who don't respond to emails. It makes me fear for our future.

More to come....