The Great Fishbowl Quest #11

So much to write about, so little time. I have comps in eight days and we have recruitment going on for both our graduate staff and our undergraduate RA staff. I think for the purposes of today’s post, I will focus on what I learned from NASPA’s TPE and hopefully that will help my blogging buddy and others going to ACPA.

This was my second placement exchange of the season. I think I have now attended one of the smallest popular placement exchanges and one of the largest. People kept telling me how different it was going to be and to be quite honest, I didn’t see too much of a difference. Yes, it TPE was a lot larger than SPE. Instead of one waiting area, there were seven. Instead of 100 mailboxes there were 1,000 (maybe less, maybe more…I was too busy to count). Overall, though, you could use the same pattern of: interview, write your thoughts, prepare for your next interview, interview, etc.

The biggest difference I noticed immediately was the other candidates. It seemed as if I walked into the wrong conference: not one person was smiling. I understand and appreciate professionalism (I’m not one of those people that get excited about glitter or training themes), but I felt as if I had walked into a union meeting of the Cubicle Corporation. This, of course, made me smile and slow my pace as I walked. It was a perfect opportunity to exude my warmth and optimism! With “poker faces” racing by on every side, I took the time to make eye contact as I strolled through the main hall and the reaction was great: it kept me calm and it got others interested (at least curious) in me.

This is not to say I was the James Bond of the conference. I most definitely messed up an interview one night (yeah…night); apparently I could no longer translate “student affairs” speak into English. The mistake that bothered me the most occurred in a second interview. It was one of those interviews that you feel like you can’t get any “points” in; the goal is to stay at zero and avoid negative points. Well, I was doing well until I was questioning the employer and asked about a program that wasn’t in place at their institution (it was most definitely a program I had learned about at that bad interview the night before). I think, typically, employers would say something simple: “You must be thinking of something at another institution.” Instead, the employers chose the most awkward option and said nothing about my mistake. They simply answered the question in a very vague manner. Quite honestly, it created some concerns to me when they weren’t willing to address that I made a mistake: I make a lot; I could have handled it).

With both placement exchanges done for me, at this point it is working out who I will accept on-campus interviews with if offered. I have one completed that went well. I believe, at most, I can pull off five more on-campus interviews this semester. My concern is that I’m interested in seven. Strangely enough, there would be some level of relief if two or three of these institutions that seem interested decided to pass me up. Of course, though, I want 100% of the schools I’m interested in to offer on-campuses and jobs.

We’ll see.