Over this semester I have been fortunate to be in a position
to hire new people and to be in the less fortunate role to say good bye to talented
professionals who leave for positions at another higher education institutions.
Throughout this process, both as someone interviewing people and when listening
to someone share what they enjoyed (or did not enjoy) about working at
Southeast, I often find myself asking the question why do I like working at
Southeast? This always comes up when someone is interviewing for a position
here so I’ve attempted to try and put in writing my reasons for making
Southeast my current employer of First Choice:
- As a first generation college student myself, I personally relate to the challenges many Southeast have to deal with.
- Within Residence Life I get to work with multiple other professional staff who have a similar commitment to students and with more than 100 student RAs. It is a unique opportunity (thank you social media) to see these students as RAs and then see what happens to them after they graduate. I get to watch as they move into their careers, travel the world, get married, start families, etc.
- The education cycle, as I call It, allows you to plan your work and by extension your life around a set number of events/dates. We know when our busy times are; we know when our students are more likely to have issues or when their parents are more likely to have issues. This predictability is a real benefit of working in higher education.
- I believe the University provides me an opportunity to try some new and some might say crazy things. How many housing offices would be given the latitude to build a Habitat for Humanity House on campus and then haul it away to be lifted by a crane onto it final foundation? We get to put on what is arguably the largest and most well attended cultural exchange program on the Southeast campus, Carpe Diem. This kind of professional freedom to try new things cannot be easily everywhere!
- Contrary to claims by some, I do think the compensation paid by the University is fair. We can always find an example of where someone has it better, but we need not look too hard and we will see multiple examples of people who have it worse.
- I like being part of an institution that is growing. While we may not have every issue perfectly worked out, the growth in students, facilities, and programs is a very positive thing. I prefer the problems of having too many students in the residence halls then having too few.
- Southeast affords me the opportunity to expand me and my staff member’s professional development. Residence Life is an active part of many areas of campus and this includes having a seat on committees and other areas of campus where decisions are made.
- I believe my decision making is trusted by the University and while I have been “corrected” on things over my career, I have never found these “corrections” to be an effort to micromanage my efforts. Of course there are cases where I disagree with a decision, but I would never go about writing about them… J
- I get to step into the classroom. From teaching in UI100, PS103, or PS014 I enjoy the opportunity to move from a staff member to a faculty member for a few hour each week.
I am sure others might claim some of the same things I value
about being at Southeast, they either disagree with or they have not
experienced. I am not making any claim
about things being the same across campus for everyone. I can only share the
view from where I stand/sit. That being said I am one of those who believe you
can influence how others impact your life/work. If you wait for something to
happen, then you can’t complain about how it impacts you. If you try and
influence what is happening then you get the opportunity to impact the
environment and the impact it has on you!
Please note these comments are that of one humble Bruce
Skinner and are not endorsed, supported, repudiated, or in any way even know by
anyone at Southeast (unless they are blog creeping on me). In which case thank
you for trolling my blog posting.
