Is your student affairs career on track?
Is your student affairs career on track?
Student affairs careers can often get a bit muddled. Some people come into the field from other industries. Some enter a master’s program right out of undergrad. However, everyone eventually get involved in the student affairs job search and lands their first position. Then, they begin to grow and learn more.
That’s’ when most people’s careers begin to become a little bit muddled. You may have entered the field knowing that you wanted to work in residential life; student activities; or academic advising. But now you’re having second thoughts. You’ve been a coordinator or an assistant director for years. You start to ask yourself questions. You begin to determine if you want to move up to the next position or try something new.
This article will review the student affairs career track to determine if you’re on your way to getting where you want to go. This article covers a review of your current position and what you’re doing now; professional development opportunities to grow and expand your capabilities; as well as a few warning signs that you may be stagnating in your role.
Your current position
One of the first things that you should do to determine if your student affairs career is on track is to look at your position’s goals. First, you need to determine what they are. You can often find it in the job description you reviewed when you were hired. The next step is to determine the steps that you’re taking towards accomplishing those goals.
Some student affairs positions get entrenched with “position drift.” That’s where the description you were hired for is no longer what you do on a regular basis. That’s why it’s important to determine what you are currently doing NOW and what you spend most of your time on.
Then it’s time to consider the context of your responsibilities. Specifically if you are still excited to do the work that you’re doing now. Has your excitement waned? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It could be that you’ve mastered the challenges of this position. But it could also mean that you no longer have the heart to pursue many of the difficult and ever evolving demands of the field.
This outlook can affect your engagement in your work. Then you must ask yourself: “Is this something that I want to keep doing?” If so; are you engaged enough to continue pursuing and solving the many different challenges in student affairs work?
Your answer to this question will help inform the next. That is “what role does work play in the life I want?” For some that circles back to the age old adage: do you live to work or do you work to live? Unfortunately the answer that many student affairs professionals come up with is live to work. But that can bring up some critical work/life balance issues that may end up hurting you in the long run.
In addition, your ability and desire to take consistent and decisive action at work can shed some light into your current mastery and engagement of your position. If you often find yourself wishy-washy on decisions or need to consider routine responsibilities more deeply; then it could be a sign that it’s time to reconsider your current career path.
Here’s something I’ve often shared with many student affairs professionals. I challenge them to take out and review their current resume or LinkedIn profile. Once they do so, I ask them if they can name at least one notable accomplishment they’ve added to their resume in the last year. If they can’t; then they may be floundering in their current position.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to grow your own capacity by mastering your student affairs career. Doing so ensures that you’ll keep up with the responsibilities and duties of your current position; while also expanding your horizon for new initiatives to take on.
Professional development
I can’t overstate the importance of professional development throughout your student affairs career. The investment that you make consistently and early on will pay you back dividends in the future. Often the biggest connections that you can make early on through networking will help you for the rest of your time in the field.
Your networking activities should provide you with a wide group of individuals to develop relationships with. Some of your most fruitful relationships should form the basis of a mentorship. That mentorship will help you throughout this and the next stages of your career.
You should also continue to develop your own competencies and skill sets in addition to networking and mentorship development. Remaining committed to up skilling will be paramount to your future success.
Ask yourself if you are learning at least one new thing every day or every week at your job. While this could come from interactions with your colleagues; co-workers; or students; it doesn’t always have to. You could learn new things through reading new literature; connecting with colleagues at different institutions; or consuming professional development materials in the form of videos; books; or podcasts.
This constant dedication to learning new things will help you identify current trends that you can see at your institution; in the field of student affairs; and higher education. Those trends could serve you in multiple ways. Specifically in determining where you’d like to be in five years as part of your professional development plan.
Through your own reflection you may come to the conclusion that it’s time to make a pivot towards something new or different. Some professionals choose to work in residential life for their whole career. While others only stay in that functional area for only a few years. Some student affairs professionals make the jump to corporate training; others to the faculty; while still others move to a different functional area while remaining in the field.
No matter what you choose to do; you should first evaluate your current role to determine if there are any warning signs that your student affairs career might be stagnating.
Warning signs
While there are many things that may be amiss in your current position; the following warning signs may be clear indicators that your career is stagnating and in need of a review; a pivot; or a restart.
One of the first warning signs is that you haven’t learned or applied any significant new skills in your position. These don’t even have to be big skills. Learning how to navigate a relationship with alumni relations; communicating with frustrated parents; or working with the registrar’s office on new student orientation are all examples of areas where you can grow your skills and experience. But if you’re doing the same level of work now that you did during your graduate assistantship; then you could be stagnating.
Another warning signs is that you haven’t gotten any new responsibilities or changed roles in the past three years. While working in student affairs is definitely challenging; it is also easy to stagnate when you have mastered certain responsibilities and are no longer challenged in your role. While some student affairs professionals may be tied to a specific location; geographic area; or institution, you can still work on expanding your capacity in your current role.
An unresponsive network to your outreach and inquiries could be another sign that your career is stagnating. That is why it’s important to make regular and consistent contact with your closest connections on a regular basis. The best time to start networking was yesterday. The second best time to start networking is NOW. Not when you need someone’s help further down the line.
Lastly; one technique I’ve asked student affairs professionals to employ is to ask other colleagues “What am I good at? ” If their answers are nebulous; or uncertain; then this could be a sign that your skills are not that noteworthy. That means developing skills that place a greater focus on outcomes could be a good place to start.
Takeaways
This article reviewed the student affairs career track to help you determine if you are making progress in the direction that you want to go. The article covered your current position and responsibilities as well as professional development opportunities to expand your skills and capabilities. Warning signs were also discussed that could be indicators that you’re floundering in your current role.
I hope that you found this article useful! If you need some additional help on your student affairs job search, then check out the eBook The Student Affairs Job Search: A Comprehensive Guide available here.
Happy searching,
References
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Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2019, November 25). Is your student affairs career on track?. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/11/25/is-your-student-affairs-career-on-track
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