from the desk of... candidate #2
Here Goes Nothing

I'm not sure why anybody who loves sleep and peace and quiet as much as I do would choose to go full-time in housing & residential life. As appealing as 3am phone calls and hours upon hours of student conduct hearings sound, as an undergrad I was the type of person who enjoyed going to work and then enjoyed clocking out even more. But when I became an RA my senior year and was able to work with some amazing resident directors and fellow student leaders, I found myself wanting to be involved more and more with student housing and higher education leadership. After I graduated college (in a major completely unrelated to higher education, by the way) and took a year off, I realized I was comparing my jobs to how it felt to work with students and the gratification I felt. After a whirlwind of applying to grad school, getting accepted and moving farther away than I'd ever lived (all in the span of two months) I now find myself months away from finishing my program, and about to attend The Placement Exchange to find a job. My first reaction to this realization is... What?!

This brings me to now. My resume is drowning in red marks. I figured, seeing as though the TPE is rapidly approaching, I'd submit it to my supervisor and a couple senior level hall directors in my department and get some feedback before I refine it for some pre-conference emails and interviews I may get there. Apparently, there's still a lot left to learn about resume revising specifically for student affairs, and marketing myself to each individual school. It's going to be a long two months!

I just dropped $200 on a plane ticket to Seattle, $300 on new threads so I can look snappy at my interviews, and about $200 for registration, so my wallet is looking at me like, "Are you serious?!" While all this job search madness is going on, I have to do this little thing called finish my master's degree, write a thesis, and make sure my RA's don't burn the building down. No big deal, right? Right!

So I hope you'll read along as I work my way through all this craziness that will be my next few months: preparing for the NASPA conference and TPE, graduating my master's program, leaving my staff behind, and moving. I'll inevitably making mistakes and helping make sure you don't make the same ones. I'll share it all with you, so see you next time!