The Gift of Student Affairs Interviews

So – for the last two weeks, I have been interviewing. Interviewing for jobs for pay, and interviewing for Internships that would fulfill my MSEd Student Affairs and College Counseling program requirements.

It is an exhausting process. All you job hunters know that. You have to get pumped up to sell yourself. You have to research and prepare. You have to figure out what to wear. You have to put your eyes and ears on steroids and focus, listen, learn, and get a sense of the culture, the personalities, the karma, and the office vibes. If you don’t have a GPS, and you are as directionally challenged as I am, you have to leave a good half hour for getting lost.

During the interview, you have one hour to collect enough data to decide, do I belong here?

After the interview, you process the experience on different levels. I find myself spending more time thinking about the second person in the room who said very little. The few questions she asked were incredibly focused. She also had the opportunity to sit back and observe me as I was engaged with the Director who was asking most of the questions. I’ll just bet she got a really good read on me.

This is my encore career and I want to make it count. I want to be happy, challenged, and find people and students to work with that light my fire. And I’m no dope. I know there will be good days and bad days. No matter where I land. But I want to make sure it’s at a place where it is okay to have bad day. And the folks around me will help each other out.

So guess what? Interviewing for Student Affairs positions is a gift. The self selection process means that on the whole, the people you meet on this interviewing gig are remarkable. Sensational. Amazing. They are helpers and problem solvers. They have been trained to leave their ego at the door….or to leverage it for the common good. They want to help students and they want to help their institutions. They are believers and they are excited about what they do.

My take away from this process has been the opportunity to meet many wonderful people. To all you fellow job hunters out there, what are your take aways?