Align with the Job
Align with the Job
Align with the Job
So you’ve found yourself in the small pool of candidates that have been invited to interview on campus. Congratulations! This is an exclusive club! Only the top candidates in the student affairs job search are invited to interview on campus. But now you have a new responsibility: preparing for the on-campus interview.
Preparing for the on-campus interview requires multiple steps. The first of which is determining how well the position’s responsibilities align with your own excitement and relevant experience.
But how do you determine positional alignment for the on-campus interview? How can you use what you discover through this process? How can you anticipate and prepare for the kinds of questions that you’ll receive during the on-campus interview?
This article will review the positional alignment section of the briefing book preparation process for the on-campus interview. We will review what the positional alignment is and how well it informs how you would fit into this role. The positional alignment chart includes four columns: responsibilities, excitement level, experiences, and the summary. This article will review each column in depth as well as how you should prepare your own positional alignment chart. Finally, we will close on how to use the positional alignment chart as part of your briefing book interview preparation process.
Positional alignment
So what exactly is positional alignment? Positional alignment means taking the position that you’re interviewing for and breaking it down into its requisite components. The most critical part of the position is the description. Here, you’ll determine the most essential parts of the job’s responsibilities; what your most relevant experiences and skills are; and your excitement level for taking on those responsibilities.
Afterward you’ll write a summary based on the posted responsibilities;your excitement; and your experiences. Positional alignment is crucial in determining where your strengths and weaknesses lie in your skill sets for the position. The positional alignment chart will also help you identify where you can emphasize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
Where do you fit in this role?
So why is this positional chart important? It’s important because it helps determine where you fit in this role and how closely your background, education, skills, knowledge, personal preferences, and abilities fit with the opening at the institution.
The positional alignment part of the briefing book includes three major areas: reflection, analysis, and preparation. In this part of your briefing book, you’ll take all of the information about the position in question (duties, responsibilities, and requirements) and separate them into individual lines for analysis.
Responsibilities
Your positional alignment chart is made up of a grid of four columns. At the top of the first column write “Responsibilities.” Below it you’ll write the individual responsibilities for the position that you’re applying for.
Most job descriptions make this easy by providing a bulleted list of the different responsibilities required for your position. You can simply cut and paste that information into each individual row of your positional alignment chart in this column.
Sometimes your job description won’t include a bulleted list. This isn’t a problem. Simply review the job description and separate each complete sentence into a separate line. Then copy and paste those separate lines into the different cells below the “Responsibilities” header in your positional alignment chart.
At the end of this you should have a chart of four columns. In the first column labeled “Responsibilities” you should have multiple lines listing the individual responsibilities for this position. Next to each responsibility you should have open cells for the other columns. We’ll cover what goes into those other columns now.
Excitement level
Next to the “Responsibilities” column you should write “Excitement” in the next column. In this column we’ll review each one of the responsibilities and determine how excited you are to take on those responsibilities.
What I like to do is rate how excited I am based on a scale of 1-5 (1 = dreading this work and 5 = absolutely ecstatic about it).
You don’t have to use my 1-5 scale. You don’t even have to use numbers. But the most important part of this process here is to make sure that you’re honest with yourself about how excited you are to take on that work. Total honesty is necessary in order to determine if this role is a good fit for you. Not all roles will 100% fit what you want to do. But many will come close. Use this column to determine how excited you are to take on the challenges listed individually in this role.
Relevant experiences
Now your positional alignment chart should have two completed columns. The first column has the header “Responsibilities.” The second column has the header “Excitement.” You’ve gone through each of the responsibilities listed in the first column and indicated your excitement for them in the second column. Now write “Experience” under the third header.
The third column is your applicable experience. Review the responsibility listed in the first column and you compare it to some professional, volunteer, internship, or assistantship experience that you have. Make sure your experience is comparable to what they’re asking in the job description.
If a position details that you’ll work with a first-year residence hall of 200 residents, then you should write your experience in this column indicating that you were a resident assistant and had 50 residents. If you don’t have any residential life experience, then look for some key terms like “develop,” “community,” and “administer.” Then consider other relevant experiences you may have had that would help you address those responsibilities listed in the description.
Developing this cross-functionality is how student affairs professionals from student activities can get into residential life work. They just need to demonstrate that they’ve had enough experience developing a community through programming. Likewise, career development professionals can enter the community engagement functional area if their programs worked with local businesses and organizations.
Make no mistake: This is your time to get creative!
Summary
Now your positional alignment chart should have three completed columns. The first column has the header “Responsibilities” and lists the responsibilities for the position below it. The second column has the header “Excitement” and lists your excitement for each one of those responsibilities below it. The third column has the header “Experience” where you’ve written your applicable experience for each one of those responsibilities. Now write “Summary” under the fourth header.
In the fourth column, summarize all of the information from the first three columns. First look at the responsibility; then compare it to your excitement level; and lastly, review your applicable experience. This is where you’ll determine if there is good alignment between all three characteristics.
Summaries don’t have to be verbose or lengthy. You can just write something short like “excellent” or “OK.” Sometimes you’ll see that there is some misalignment in some areas. In this case you can write something like “Enthusiastic but No Experience” or “Not Excited No Experience.”
Again, like your excitement, it’s important to be honest about your experiences in this area. Successfully completing this chart will help you better prepare and navigate questions about these areas later on during your on-campus interview.
How to use the positional alignment chart
You should take time to review the entire chart, but focus most of your energy on the “Summary” column.
Areas that are not in alignment will be red flags during your on-campus interview. You will need to prepare significantly to answer questions related to those responsibilities.
Areas that are well aligned with the job responsibilities are green flags. You should be prepared to talk about your extensive experience and enthusiasm in this area.
Takeaways
This article reviewed the positional alignment section of the briefing book preparation process for the on-campus student affairs interview. This article reviewed what the positional alignment chart is as well as how you fit into this role. The positional alignment chart includes four columns: responsibilities, excitement level, experience, and the summary. This article reviewed each column in depth as well as outlined specific steps for how you should prepare your own positional alignment chart. Finally, this article closed on how to use the positional alignment chart as part of your briefing book interview preparation process.
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
Eng, D. (2019, July 1). On Campus Interview - Job Hakr: Student Affairs Job Search. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/6/26/4-steps-to-navigating-the-on-campus-student-affairs-interview.
Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2020, January 07). Align with the Job. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/1/7/align-with-the-job
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