The Great Fishbowl Quest #21

My wife and I got to check out our apartment and were super-excited with what we saw. I'll talk about my thoughts on my job next week. With people leaving, this post will be focused more on the cohort than the job search.

For those entering grad programs, I strongly recommend the cohort system. Early in my blogging I talked about some of the rules that seem implied, but overall, the experience has been a beneficial one. Throughout the past two years, I have established great relationships and learned from many of my student colleagues. I've also learned to actively defend my opinions and have learned what battles to fight and what to pass up. During this past semester, everybody's professional identity seemed to be fired into a finished product. At the beginning, it was hard to distinguish any of us except by our previous institutions. By the end of the program, though, everybody's strengths and weaknesses seemed to be highlighted and known.

Many close friendships were formed, but the good also comes with the bad. I think, though, that this is a characteristic of a healthy program. There were many people in the program that formed relationships that will benefit them both professionally and personally, while there were others who seemed to be focused on getting the "free" degree for the least amount of effort.

I know that assistantships (especially in Housing & Residence Life) often bring people who aren't necessarily interested in doing graduate level work or making a career in student affairs. Overall, though, I think that more good is reaped for the profession and that those who aren't cut out for the profession will often weed themselves out--or be weeded out when found.

With that in mind, I haven't sorted out my feelings on everybody getting hired, but they did (or at least have offers on the table). It doesn't surprise me that we all landed our jobs; our program has produced qualified professionals with great attitudes and ethics (if I do say so myself) and our alumni are appreciated by their employers.

My hope is that all of us leaving keep our good name in mind and continue to open the doors for others that will be following us. In some unflattering terms, I hope we spread like a virus, are saught after like addictives, and live as long as cockroaches (who I hear can survive nuclear blasts).