The Great Fishbowl Quest #20

Congratulations to my blogging buddy! I finally had the opportunity to officially accept my position this past Monday. The past two weeks have wrapped up this chapter in my life pretty well. My parents and wife were there to watch me graduate this past weekend, I accepted the job I wanted at Number One Institution working for the supervisor I wanted to work for in one of the buildings I wanted to be in. What else could I ask for?

During the ceremony, I spoke to my friends (and those I didn't know) sitting around me in the front row. Everyone around me was receiving a Master's in education and I felt it was important to take a moment to remind everybody of something we tend to forget in our field. Those of graduating with a Master's have an experience that most people will never have. In our world, everybody we work with is college-educated or attempting to be. In the world outside of our campuses, though, college provides an experience that many people will only know of through television and movies. So for those of you graduating, realize the accomplishments that you have made, and pat yourself and your friends on the back (just try not to mess up the hood).

I feel extremely grateful to already have a job secured, because with that comes having a place to live secured. While just about everybody in my cohort has secured a job, I know of others that are still searching for that position. Almost everyone I know has been offered, but many offers have been turned down. I believe everybody I know will get a job, the field is currently full of vacancies. I just wish everybody the same luck at knowing when to cash in their chips.

And finally, I leave a question for anybody reading. A current discussion among the cohort is on which professional association to join (the two biggies, ACPA or NASPA).

ACPA seems to focus on the professional, while NASPA seems to focus on the profession.

By this I mean that a lot of new professionals lean to ACPA and networking and professional development sessions seem to be the focus, while NASPA seems to be a bit more based in research.

Now before I get a billion comments, I understand that both ACPA and NASPA do much of the same. I feel that both accomplish different goals, though, and I'm trying to figure out which path to take. Many have told me to join both, but I want to join one so that I can focus my contributions.

And please don't tell me to pick based on the national conference location, you might make me throw up in my mouth a little.

Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be.... #20

Just as quickly as everything came to the boiling point, everything simmered back down.

I headed to my on-campus interview trying to keep a clear mind. This was my #2 choice from the ACPA interviews and I knew I had to be fair with this. Since my #1 choice was no longer in the picture, obviously this became a little more important. My trip to the campus was fun and on a very beautiful day. I arrived, and I think one of the first things that came into my head was "Oh shit."

The campus is beautiful. Coming from an undergraduate institution that had the most amazing scenery, I'm pretty tough on other campuses about their atmosphere. This place looks like it's out of a movie. I loved it.

My interview day was full and tiring, but very helpful. I met so many people, all of whom were fantastic. I spoke to a few students and got to be a fly on the wall in the office during my breaks. By the end of the day I knew that I really liked this place, and I knew that was just going to complicate my decision. I was lucky because they were already moving quickly with the search and so it went perfectly with my accelerated timeline.

I left campus and burst into tears. In my head I'm thinking, "Great. WTF am I supposed to do now?!"

I am lucky to have supportive people all around me, and after a few hours of thinking and talking, good food, and a few drinks, I realized that I wanted nothing more than to get that job. If they passed on me, I would accept the other offer. As the night wore on, I wanted the job more and more. As I kept thinking about all the positives about the position I started kicking myself for not giving THAT much more energy and enthusiasm during the interview.

Apparently, my self criticism wasn't that necessary.

Yesterday, while sitting in the parking lot of a restaurant off of some random exit on some highway, I got the call that offered me this position and I immediately accepted. I will be moving in a few months to embark on the next leg of my journey through student affairs and to start a position that will bring me challenges and positive experiences. As my mom pointed out - I went on two campus interviews and got two job offers. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe it.

I have actually managed to accomplish what I set out to do so many months ago; I have job by graduation. This weekend I will walk across the stage and be incredibly proud that I finished this degree and obtained a position that I fell in love with back in February. I remember the moment I read the position description and thought, "Wow. This could possibly be the best position ever." The journey to get to this point has been exhausting. I finally feel like I can sleep and eat normally and not worry about what to do with my life. It's been almost exactly 5 months since I applied for my very first position. I am glad that this process was so successful for me (and for my blogging buddy) but I also realize that it's not been that way for many others. There are only a handful of us in my program who have already accepted positions and the rest are still actively searching and interviewing.

For the rest of the summer I will continue at my assistantship and keep plugging away at my second job. The packing and cleaning will start soon (Because I seriously love nothing else more than packing. Really.) and then I'll be off on my next adventure. Let's hope it's as great as I think it could be.

Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be.... #19

You would think that by now I would be used to the unexpected when it comes to my job search, but I am constantly surprised by happens.

This week I was offered an on-campus interview which I immediately accepted. This comes from an institution that really interests me and for a position that seems like it could be the best thing ever.

Two days later I received my first job offer.
I hate to say that I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't. I knew I nailed that interview, but I guess I didn't realize what kind of an impression I had made until the bargaining started after I said I'd need some time because I had another interview lined up. I am completely unprepared for feeling of being recruited for a position. Luckily, my supervisors at my assistantship are wonderful, caring people. Each one of them dealt with me in the midst of my freak out, and they all helped to talk me off the ledge.

That same day I found out that an institution I had JUST applied to days beforehand was already checking my references. I went from having virtually nothing on the horizon to multiple things going on all at the same time.

I'm losing my mind.

In all truth I am in a much better place now than I was a day ago. I felt like I was walking around in a daze, and I was. Maybe I still am. I am constantly weighing my options and trying to decide what decision I should make. I am giving this on-campus interview a fair shot, but I'm wondering what decision I will make once it's all over. If I like what I see and feel at my interview I will have to decide whether or not I have the metaphorical balls to turn down my other offer. If I'm not 100% after the interview.....I will probably take the offer. The job offer is a decent one, and it's a position that I know I would be great in. My friends beyond the realm of higher ed have all said that they would pick this job for me out of any other ones that I have floating around as options. I'm taking this into consideration, regardless of whether or not I should, because these friends know me better than most.

I've been told to take some time to do some soul-searching following my interview. Despite how busy I will be, I plan on following this advice and do some major thinking.

On the other side of the coin, my life as a graduate student is officially done. Classes are completed, coursework is turned in, my last hours at my assistantship are clocked in. I just wait for graduation and for the celebrations to begin.....with or without an accepted position.

The Great Fishbowl Quest #19

It seems that today is the day that I can no longer avoid the fact that I'm going to be sad to leave all of the relationships that I've established here. Already, I don't look forward to losing the opportunity to work with my close friends. While here, I've learned that good colleagues can be hard to come by and excellent colleagues are rare finds. I get that I'll still get to keep in contact with these people, but the chance I'll get to work with them again is slim.

This past weekend a group of us got together for a cookout and the following night my wife and I had the opportunity to have dinner with one of my faculty members and her husband. Both of these experiences pointed to the fact that only recently have we finally felt that we're at home...and we'll be leaving in two months.

The idea of starting over is exhausting.

As I type this, a few of my friends are playing some Wii together, but I had to pass as my staff needed my immediate attention. The opportunities left to spend any quality time together are quickly diminishing and "arguments" are on the table of which professional associations should be joined if we ever expect to see each other again.

I'm sure I'd be frightened if I was told the number of times I would hang out with each of my friends before one of us moved away or if I was told the number of times we'd ever have a real conversation in person again. I'd like to think that some good piece of news would come out of that revelation (that I could work side-by-side with one of my close friends again and still consider that person a close friend), but I know that's a wish made for a Hallmark card.

So for now, I'm going to attempt to handle these feelings by crawling into bed and trying to sleep them off (I know...that's a healthy dose of avoidance). Tonight my wife and I will cook dinner and say our goodbyes to the staff (that will still be working for the remainder of the week), Friday I'll say goodbye to my peers and faculty, and Saturday I'll say goodbye to grad school.

Today's a day of missing.

Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be.... #18

I have no idea where the past week has gone. I can't even claim that I've been busy everyday as my blogging pal has been - to be honest, I've been hit with a wave of laziness.

Last Friday I got one "Thanks, but no thanks" email from an ACPA employer that I liked. Then within hours after that I got another email from a different employer telling me the same thing about two positions I didn't even know I was being considered for. Unfortunately, this happened to be my number one choice and the ambiguity of the email left me wondering if I was being canned for the position that I really liked, in addition to these other ones that I was totally not interested in. I fired off as much of a professional "wtf?" reply email that I could. Then I had a complete breakdown and completely gave up. I couldn't even tell you what I did for the rest of the day besides stare at my inbox and just dare someone else to email me and turn me down.

My weekend turned hectic and interesting, and I wasn't surprised that there was a full moon. I swear, the most random stuff happens to me. So after working and dealing with many other things, I started my week. I did the class thing, I did the homework thing, I did the working thing. Today is a complete and total day off for me, and I'm planning on enjoying it. I've managed to knock out the last bit of school work that I needed to do. All is left is finishing up a few things for my internship and actually making it through this last week of class.

A bright spot amongst all of this was the announcement of an opportunity for summer employment. My assistantship (which, by the way, is the best place to work with the nicest people ever) has found the money to offer me a temporary part-time position from graduation until mid-August. This has now bought me three more months of job searching time if I need it. I can keep my second job and try to save money while still being able to pay my bills and hunt for a job. This took a HUGE load of anxiety away from me. While I'd love to find a job as soon as possible, knowing that I have a little extra time is great.

I'm also comforted to know that my classmates don't seem to be having much more luck with their searches. Some have gone to more on-campus interviews (I'm holding steady at one so far) but people are getting rejected and not really liking many of the places that they're going to. At least I know I'm not the black sheep of the program that just can't find something.

I did get a reply from my number one school who clarified that their initial email was only in regard to those two positions. I can only assume that they haven't yet made their decisions for the position that I'm interested in. I made some phone calls today and left messages for those people I spoke with at ACPA that I was interested in. Since last week I've applied for 4 or 5 more positions and I've got a few more to crank out over the weekend. I have two weeks until graduation. I can't believe the past two years have all come down to these final two weeks.

The Great Fishbowl Quest #18

So much has happened this week, I could have blogged each day. This has been my most challenging and rewarding week of grad school.

Sunday: Got back from a wedding pretty late and stayed up until I fell asleep working on my last big grad school project. Too bad half of the group members hadn't sended me what I needed to complete the project. Oh well, at this point, we still have 36 hours...

Monday: Never really went to sleep, so I never had to worry about really waking up. Totally sick; I was hoping it was just allergies, but there is a fever attached. Literally worked all day on school work, aside from two staff meetings that were excrutiatingly long. Prepped for our big presentation tomorrow. Still waiting to hear from a job. I'll be up all night, I'm fine if they call...

Tuesday: The presentation was amazing! I'm so glad we met our own expectations, we were more concerned about that then the professor's expectations. He said he felt like he was at ACPA, which means we reached our normal expectations of ourselves. We spent nine hours in one room finishing the research paper attached to our presentation. We became literally loopy with the sleep deprivation we've experienced this week. I got the call! It is still not an official offer, as it has to go to somebody like a Vice Chancellor or something, but there are four jobs, and they submitted four names. I can expect the official within 5-7 days. Just when I thought it was over, my wife became sick enough to require a trip to the emergency room. In bed by 3:00 a.m. My fever still isn't gone.

Wednesday: My body finally staged a mutiny against me and knocked me out. I slept most of the afternoon. When I wasn't sleeping, I was attempting to prep for my last two finals tomorrow. We requested them a week early for those of us in Housing who will be chained to our office next week during checkout. We had a taco night for the RAs in our area. Things are slowing down enough that I'm realizing how much I'm going to miss this place.

Thursday: Two finals, picked up my robe for graduation. Finished my classes! I'm officially done! At the closing banquet, I was awarded the GA of the Year award. I was completely surprised, but very grateful. I feel that I've made a lot of contributions to the department as a whole in my two years here, but that as a hall director, others have done more. Regardless, it was the most important award to me that I could have received.

Friday: I just found out I have a meeting in 26 minutes and I'm not ready for it. So...back to running.

I'm welcoming myself to the first full day of being a professional without being a grad student at the same time...

The Great Fishbowl Quest #17

Once again, I'm posting while in another state. This time, though, I'm in my home state, visiting family. I'm anxiously awaiting any news from the institution I'm hoping takes me in. At this point, pretty much everyone (at school and at home) knows what our hopes are. I can't think about re-entering the search process at this point; most institutions I'm interested in are close to wrapping up their process.

I just recently learned that whyen I declined my #2 a week ago, they had to reopen their search process. They had only invited a very small number of candidates onto campus and now they seem to be back to square one. I only know this because a person in my cohort was contacted the afternoon that I declined the opportunity.

I love attempting to explain how this process works. I find it hard to give advice to anybody new to the process, as it requires so many personal variables. Somebody recently asked me, "How do you decline your #2 without any assurances of your #1?"

My answer was, "Very carefully."

Our job searches in student affairs require a level of gambling (most true in entry level positions, from my viewpoint). We interview with a number of institutions, all on different timelines, choose the best fits (usually with some level of ranking), and have to choose how long to hold out for. In addition to that, many of us will attempt a level of negotiating and find leverage through offers.

I think that this is the most challenging (and most exciting...and frightening) part of the process. I had the realization last week that I've officially declined two job offers (one I declined twice) with the hope of getting the only other job I took an on-campus interview for. While I feel rather confident with that decision, there are others who have made similar choices and feel that they've put themselves in jeopardy.

Only time will tell (I'm hoping my time will be Monday). At this point, I believe only 1 of 16 people I know job searching have accepted a position.

Will I have my #1 job? Will I need to make our families cry and develop a last-minute plan? Stay tuned...same bat time, same bat channel...