Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be.... #14

Wow.

There isn't much more to say than that. Atlanta is amazing.

The city is beautiful and bustling with activity. Our hotel is right downtown, and it's awesome to look outside and see everything going on. I've already been sight-seeing, with more planned. The weather was beautiful (up until the rain that started today) but at least it's still warm. You can feel the humidity already - I have no idea how people stand to be here in the summer.

Today was the first day of interviews. I came with a total of 10; I've added one other first interview and got asked back for a second interview already. The bulk of my interviews so far have been really good. I'm surprised how easy some of them go. A few have been not-so-thrilling, but I wasn't expecting everything to be fantastic. The placement center seems a lot calmer than what it was last year. With everything very separated out this year (unlike the Joint Conference last year where the majority of everything was crammed into one large room) there's a lot less noise and it feels like a lot nicer of an atmosphere.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to make it to any sessions or not. I haven't even cracked the book yet to look at what's out there and when. I have plans to make it to the opening session, if nothing else. We'll see what happens. I'm very glad that my extreme nerves of last night have subsided. I was eerily calm this morning, and it lasted all day long. I'm currently exhausted. Even though it's Saturday night and I have plenty of time to go out and about, I'm not sure that I'll actually make it. It's hard work talking about yourself all day long and sounding absolutely employable :)

Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be.... #13

Since the start of the week it seems like things have exploded.

My inbox is still getting interview requests, and now they've started via phone. I'm up to 9 scheduled interviews for the conference, with two more email requests hanging out waiting for my response.

I have another institution that's trying to set up a phone interview. Time constraints on both sides have pushed this off until after the conference, thankfully.

I scheduled an on-campus interview yesterday. Not the one I've previously mentioned; I'm waiting for a reply back from them. This is another one, who apparently isn't doing phone interviews....or else I made beyond that round with just my experience. This one is an interesting one because of where it's at, and I think everyone is surprised when I tell them that I'm interviewing. Hell, I'm surprised. But it would be fun and enjoyable and I'm not going to turn down an interview for reasons that I don't feel are really worth giving up this type of opportunity.

I feel like I'm standing still and watching everything around me fly by. Most of my prep for ACPA is done, there's just a few last minute things left to finish up. I'm saving all of my packing and outfit configuring until Thursday, mainly because I'll have no time to do any of that until then. I am sure I will spend the evening trying to cleverly fold and maneuver everything into one suitcase, one carry-on, and my purse. I'm refusing, at this point, to check two bags and increase the risk that one or both of them won't make it to Atlanta. My flight leaves Friday morning and then this whirlwind weekend begins.

As for the actual conference....at this point I'm betting that I won't make it to very many sessions. I haven't looked at what's being offered, but I know that there will be things that I'll wish I could be at and won't be able to get to. The greater good is finding a position that fits me.

So, I'm off to start my day and make long lists of all the things I need. I feel like I'm preparing for some huge event that will change my life. Despite my tendencies to wax philosophical about things, I think this time it's actually true. Good luck to all my other job search companions out there -- ACPA, here I come!

Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be.... #12

It's a week until the conference and suddenly my inbox has exploded with interview offers. I'm getting multiple invites a day and it's getting overwhelming. The good thing is that I'm starting to actually get a little picky, and so it's easier to decide who I will meet with and who isn't really interesting. I still just have the 6 interviews for now, but I'm planning on setting up at least one or two more before I head off next Friday. I'm working on setting up the on campus interview that I received last week and I also just got an offer for a phone interview with another institution. The weeks of silence are now yielding a lot of hoopla. It's exciting and overwhelming, but at least it means that people are interested.

A lot of the more recent ACPA interview requests have come from places much farther away than I ever thought I might end up. Some I can easily dismiss - either the place is just not one that appeals to me at all, or the institution doesn't really grab my attention - but others are becoming harder to ignore. The one interview that I mentioned a few entries ago (the one that I was struggling over accepting because of where it's located) is the only "far away" one that I've accepted as of now. I gave in because of how amazing the institution is, how fantastic the students seem to be, and how beautiful the campus looks. The latter was the real kicker. I'm completely won over by atmosphere every time. I could meet these people at ACPA and immediately know that it's not where I want to be.....or I could fall in love with them and the position. We shall see, but I'm keeping an open mind.

All of my stress and anxiety is finally taking a toll on my body. I started getting sick a few days ago and I'm pumping myself full of cold medicine to try and head it off before it turns into something big. Being sick next week is NOT an option. I'm consuming lots of juice and yesterday I slept so much that I'm not really sure how I'm actually still tired. None of this makes my to-do list any shorter, and so I'll finally venture out of my apartment today and try to rejoin society.

I hope to update again before leaving for the conference, and definitely (if time allows it) while I'm there. The more entertaining bits might be any stories I have of the airport and the flight. I'm not the most calm flyer and I still don't really understand how everything at the airport functions, so there's bound to be something mildly embarrassing to share. I'm also hoping that Atlanta is somewhat put back together by next week. I've been wondering if everything is still set for the conference, but I got an email a few days ago saying that the hotels and conference center are ready to go. I just need to make sure that I am, too.

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.

The Great Fishbowl Quest #9

Posting two days in a row?! I promise not to make a habit of it.

I’m leaving in less than two hours to drive to an undisclosed set of institutions to unofficially check out their campuses and communities. The job search process gets trickier when there are two lives to consider instead of one. With an on-campus interview scheduled for Monday, it seemed to make sense to make the most of the trip and check out other institutions nearby. By doing this, if I am offered any other on-campuses, my wife will have already had the opportunity to check out the schools and communities. It will also give me something extra to talk about when I travel to NASPA next week.

Despite the amount of last-minute work I’m doing to get out of here on time (although I found time to sit and blog…where are my priorities?), I feel very optimistic at the moment. Multiple institutions have offered on-campuses and I still have one more exchange to attend; I’m getting to get away from campus and get some good old-fashioned road-trip therapy; and I only slightly panic when I think about comps which are within three weeks that I am not more than 10% prepared for.

Thoughts about my on-campus are somewhat mixed. I am very excited about the institution and have only heard good things from those that have worked there and professionals nearby. I believe that I typically do really well at on-campuses and look forward to the chance to get a real feel for the place.

Only question I currently have: What does “open interview” mean? My itinerary does well at telling me the variety of people I will be interviewing with during my stay; however, I have two hour-long “open interviews” scheduled back-to-back in the same room. My guess is that professionals and staff will be made aware that a candidate will be on-campus and available to meet and question during those two times.

When I find out, I’ll let you know. I'm hoping that hearing the song, "Suddenly I See," as I type this is a good omen.

Good luck to those of you recruiting and being recruited at OPE this weekend and good luck to those attempting to prepare for TPE at NASPA which is quickly approaching.

For those of you attempting to do both OPE and TPE, may God have mercy on your souls.

The Great Fishbowl Quest #7

I have a handful of good problems I’m dealing with at the moment. I much rather have these issues than others.

1) I did really well at SPE last week (it feels like it happened a month ago). Out of the twelve institutions I interviewed with, five expressed a high-level of interest at the exchange and two others have contacted in the past week. Where’s the problem? I’ve already scheduled two on-campus interviews. My goal is to not take more than five on-campus interviews total, and there’s at least one more institution from SPE that I hope to get contacted by this next week. That means that I’m going to TPE with the goal of accepting no more than two on-campus interviews. I guess it comes down to the worry that I’ve committed too quickly to two on-campus interviews.

2) Some institutions are pursuing fast. I shoot to be the top candidate (as everybody should) and get the first offers. Having attended the first placement exchange of the recruiting season, there is a real potential that if I do well, I may receive job offers prior to attending TPE. I don’t know that this will happen, but if it does, I need to be able to say, “I won’t be accepting an offer until (fill in the blank) date.”

3) I’ve got no clue about which institutions will jump to the top of my list at TPE. At SPE, my #1 quickly became my #0 and an institution that was low on my list jumped to #1. It makes it hard to accept and decline interviews.

4) This whole job search is getting expensive fast. I have an on-campus next week that’s an eight-hour drive away. I’m not flying for a couple reasons: last-minute plane tickets aren’t usually cheap and my wife won’t be able to check out the place unless we get two tickets or drive. Institutions (reasonably) won’t pay for my wife’s travel and they won’t reimburse if they offer and you don’t accept. I hope to do well enough to receive multiple offers, which means I won’t be getting reimbursed one or a few times.

5) With my recent success at SPE, I haven’t been motivated to get ready for TPE. I rather by a second plane ticket and treat Boston as a min-vacation with my wife. My wife, however, is far more sensible, and doesn’t want me to pass up opportunities that may land us at our dream home that we don’t know about yet.

Needless to say, all of those are good problems. Not-so-good problems include the fact that I have an inner-ear infection that makes me fall to the left whenever it feels like it, we may have to rent a car for this on-campus road trip next week, and coursework is piling up on all sides of me.

The cohort that I often refer to do is doing well for the most part. It seems that those with some type of job search parameters (geographic, benefits, etc.) are doing much better than those open to anything. The ones open to anything are truly taking whatever interviews are offered first and are filling their schedules. Those with parameters have been declining more interviews than accepting. I guess we’ll see how it turns out at the end.

I've got to stop writing and get to work. Today I need to write cover letters for all of the institutions that I currently want to interview with at The Placement Exchange at NASPA. I’ve never attempted to attend more than one placement exchange, and I’m not sure that I’m a big fan. However, after spending $400 on a plane ticket, I find myself committed to the idea.

Keep up the work, you candidates and recruiters.