The Great Fishbowl Quest #2

When Cohorts Can Co-Hurt
So today I got asked the question that I’ve been dreading.

“Hey, can you send me a copy of your resume?”

The issue here wasn’t a matter of not wanting feedback; I’ve gotten enough of that to consider myself an expert in receiving “thiscouldbe” (“This could be tweaked/amped/deleted/shredded”) comments. The issue at hand was the person asking.

Oh, yes. It was a cohort member.

For those of you who don’t know me (which is hopefully everyone reading this blog), I am a strong advocate of cohort-style programs. I have relied on my cohort since day one and I believe cohorts can provide unparalleled relationships beneficial to future collaboration and career-building. With that inspirational comment made (feel free to quote me), cohorts provide some real issues. Issues that anonymity (good thinking, StudentAffairs.com) will allow me to talk about.

Cohorts develop very distinct personalities with unspoken “rules” and attitudes that develop with time. Well, there’s been plenty of time for my cohort and many rules have been established. So for the first time ever, I’ll do my best to list the rules as I know them (drum roll, please):

1) Cohort members will act to protect the cohort’s integrity as a whole.

2) Cohort members will act to protect each individual’s professional integrity.

3) Cohort members will keep each other informed on general progress related to job work, course work, and other work related to the profession. In this manner, cohort members can make choices on how to use their insufficient supply of time (still only allotted 24 hours in a day). It is our belief as a cohort that knowing the accomplishments and progress of our peers, we can gauge our own work to maintain Rules #1 and #2.

I’m sure all of you could add far more to this list, as I could as well, but for the purposes of this post, I believe this captures the spirit of my cohort well. Up to this point, we have functioned well with these unspoken rules and have sufficiently impressed our faculty, department, and other professionals that we interact with at conferences.

But now…now we reach a problem. We all happen to want jobs. And I’m apparently interpreting our “rules” differently than at least a good part of my cohort.

The first sign of “uh-oh” was when a peer that I worked with on a project asked to see how I described the project in my resume. He held the belief that we should describe the project in the same (exact) manner so that it presented the same image to potential employers. My jaw dropped (I never believed that actually happens, but it sure did.). I tried to explain that employers appreciate collaboration, but I don’t think they view collaboration on resumes in the same light. I’m pretty sure this is not a group project.

I hoped that would be it. Isolated experience. Today, though, I got asked directly by another cohort member for a copy of my resume. She wanted to compare it to her own. A third person in the cohort e-mailed me an hour ago asking me how to word something.

My strategy at the moment: Provide as little assistance as possible to evade directly breaking the “rules” of the cohort. I’ve heard how these things can turn out, and it seems that things can get ugly quick. Not so bad, except that I plan to room with my cohort at conferences; I rather not have to choose my interviews based on who will give me a six-month pay advance, and we all know you can’t afford to job search alone.

Have any advice, I’m the guy sitting at the computer researching “How to Remove Oneself Safely from an Angry Mob.”

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Job Update
So this weekend I successfully accomplished reviewing and ranking approximately 30 institutions with my wife. It seems like an insane amount of work, but I'm finally at the point that I can begin contacting institutions that will be interviewing at TPE. I've been holding off with the fear of contacting too many institutions too early and missing some great opportunities that present themselves closer to the conference. With a list in hand, I can focus my cover letters and applications in a more organized manner (because as my writing partner put it, time is getting filled with mundane tasks like coursework and the present job). I'm up to having scheduled...get ready for this...a total of 3 interviews (aside from the phone interview that I'm waiting to hear back on). I think the number will jump this week now that I'm actively pursuing.

Here's hoping...