Where Are They Now?

One book that I have been meaning to read is Job One. Job One follows a group of SA Grads AFTER graduation. Kind of like this blog does…except. It only follows me. While this book is nearly ten years old, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on where my classmates now are in their careers.

A lot of my classmates are in the same boat as me – they found jobs somewhere around graduation, started, and they are still there. I keep seeing a ton of Facebook statuses about everybody hitting their one year mark. For those individuals not in ResLife, I see a LOT of apartment searching right now. Why? People quickly signed leases since they NEEDED to move and now that they know they are staying longer, they are looking for a nicer place or they are moving in with friends they’ve made.

Two classmates went back to school. Well, one just kept on trucking and started doctoral classes WEEKS after we graduated. The other wound up getting a job at a school with a doctoral program and enrolled after she finished her first year. While another degree isn’t on my agenda anytime soon, I am very proud of these two for continuing.

I have a few classmates that did not hit their one year mark for a variety of reasons. All but one finished out the academic year at their institutions but have recently started at their new jobs. Their reasons for moving included wanting to be closer to significant others and family. One got a job at Grad School State – although in a different department than where she worked while we attended school. And the one who didn’t make it through a school year? He had some MAJOR life changes. Shortly before Thanksgiving, his wife was offered a job on the other side of the country. They could not turn down this offer, she makes a LOT more than he does. His wife moved out before Christmas and he followed in January. He was going to start looking for jobs but then they found out that she’s expecting! He’s decided that he’s going to be a stay at home dad once the little one arrives this fall, so finding a job for just a few months didn’t make sense.

There were some people that didn’t get job offers last summer. One just kept doing temp jobs at Grad School State before getting offered a job at a school a few hours away. Another moved to a pretty remote area of the country with her fiance where there really aren’t a lot of job opportunities. A third wound up with a job offer sometime last fall – but not in Student Affairs. He took it and he enjoys what he’s doing and he definitely applies the things he learned in our program, just to a different set of people.

I really want to get my hands on this book. I’m interested to see how my classmates compare to the students in the book!

Training

Once upon a time when I was a lowly graduate student, I entered my first “job” (aka my assistantship) with several other individuals and we were all trained together. The returners were there to both mentor and make fun of us. A wonderful time was had by all.

Fast forward a few years. I decided that after years and years of attending/working at large schools, I wanted to give a small school a try. And I love it. I do. I’ve probably said it a hundred times (well, at least here). But one thing that was kind of a bummer was training. Well. I should say the lack of training.

I was the only one hired in my department this year, so there was no formal training. No time where I was sat down and told “this is how we do things here”. I had a brief orientation with HR, sat down with my boss to go over my job responsibilities, and then hit the ground running. It wasn’t so bad in the summer when things were kind of dead and I could ask questions without bugging people, but now that we’re in the swing of things, everybody is busy with meetings and I can’t find people to ask them questions and when I do, I almost feel bad.

I know it’s not my responsibility, but if there are any new people in my department while I’m here, I’m going to make sure that they are adjusting okay and know some of the stuff they NEED to know. How did you all feel about your job’s training? Anything you would want to improve?