Guest Blogger: Careers In Student Affairs Month
October is Careers in Student Affairs month. We at SJG-The Spelman & Johnson Group are very excited about being invited to be guest bloggers for ACUHO-I this month to talk about those aspects of career advancement and job search strategies that have relevance to student affairs professionals throughout their careers.
SJG-The Spelman & Johnson Group is an executive search firm that serves colleges and universities. We have conducted hundreds of searches for directors, deans, and vice presidents within housing, residence life, and student affairs. We will share our experiences all this month as we tackle a variety of topics starting next week with a discussion of resumes. The following week we will talk about cover letters, the third week in October we will cover references (the most underestimated part of the search process), and we will close the month with job interviewing.
Throughout the month, if there are specific questions you have or topics you wish us to address within any of our four themes please comment!
But to get this conversation started, for those of you that may be currently conducting a job search or if you are considering a potential move, here are some things to consider:
- Do an assessment of your strengths and understand what energizes you!
- Have a career goal –if you don’t know where you are going that is where you will end up.
- Think broadly about career paths within student affairs—options energize your job search.
- You don’t need to have a linear career path but you need to be able to explain your career path!
- Do your due diligence about a position and institution and trust your intuition about the fit.
- You can stay at an institution too long!
- You need to make sure your online brand/social network information represents you as a professional (we don’t need to see THOSE vacation pictures).
- Your new job starts the second you decide you are a candidate.
- And, you can’t turn down a position you have not been offered.
Next week we will dive right into to the topic of resumes and here is a hint as you pull out your resume to review it: Have you updated the information about your current institution?
