Pick Me-Choose Me-Hire Me #12-Mistakes or Poor Planning?
We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. ~Grey's AnatomyWell, my comprehensive exams are looming in the distance. I don't want to entertain the possibility of failing in my mind, so I refuse to discuss them at all in this post. Therefore, I shall divert your attention to the newest dilemma in my job search process. Too many interviews. Now I know what you are thinking. "Oh, poor 'Pick Me...' too many interviews. Wow, that must really suck. I don't know how you handle it!" I understand the sentiment and would probably be rolling my eyes in disgust if I was reading this post too, however, this is real life for me and I don't know what I should do. Therefore, dear readers, please offer any suggestions you may have.
The situation here is that I was desperate for interviews the first couple of weeks after I put out my applications. I started over Winter Break and so far I have applied to a total of 31 schools and have 21 lined up for ACPA/NASPA. I now realize how absurd I have been. Although I only have one time where I have back-to-back interviews without at least a half-hour break, I know that I accepted some offers for interviews with schools that I was only marginally interested in, but I was flattered and, admittedly, a little desperate. I feel like there is unspoken competition, even if it is only in my head to get interviews. Therefore, any time a school e-mailed me and asked for an interview, I was excited and flattered. Granted, as the time went on and my schedule began to fill up, I began declining offers due to the job description or location of the schools, however, I still accepted four interview offers that, in retrospect, do not in any way line up with what I want out of my first position. However, we have been told to seize the day, he who hesitates is lost, and all of that other crap that just feeds our addiction of validation.
All of this leads me to my dilemma. Since some of my top-choice schools have been a little slower in terms of their process, I have let the schools that have simply fed my need for validation as a competent emerging professional occupy my increasingly precious time slots. Do I e-mail them and tell them "Hey, I know I actively sought you out at first, or readily accepted an invitation to interview with the gusto of a starving man who sees a hamburger for the first time, but now that better offers have come my way, I realize that there is no way I would be happy at your institution and rebuke your offer to interview" ? Clearly, I am being semi-dramatic, but is there really a way to say "thanks, but no thanks" after you were so clearly starving for validation and acceptance a few short weeks ago? Plus, the whole "there are two degrees of separation in student affairs" mantra has been floating through my head at the same time. If I cancel an interview, is there a possibility that a person from that institution will know someone else from an institution that I could actually see myself at in a couple of months?
Ahhh! This is so aggravating! I feel like all of grad school has been leading up to this point of accumulating interview after interview after interview to give yourself the best possible chance of having multiple offers to choose from, instead of a single offer when you are so desperate to have a job that you simply accept because who knows if something better will come along. What happens when this state of existence could actually be hindering your chances of getting the alleged "dream job" that everyone talks about with misty looks in their eye with tones of reverence in their voices? Please, dear readers, help me out. Send me an e-mail if you don't want to add comments. You can find me at: pickmechoosemehireme@yahoo.com Sorry for the continued anonymity. You may be the person that is about to get a poorly worded, stumbling, bumbling version of my "thanks, but no thanks" e-mail!
posted by StudentAffairs.com @ 5:43 PM
2 Comments:
Having a lot of interviews is challenging, but I have found the more I do--the better I get at it. And, realize this--that if the school didn't want you--then they wouldn't have extended an offer. YOU have the goods to offer, not the other way around. Cancel if you must to find a more suitable option for yourself--and be polite and honest--you have found that you must cancel--even though you don't want to--because you have refined the type of position you are looking for and at this time the job they are offering doesn't meet that goal, thank you for your time, etc. If you got that type of letter, wouldn't you understand it, come on, why waste their time, right? Seems like you are lacking confidence in your abilities. Stop that! Give the type of advice to yourself that you'd give to your advisees. And good luck!
Someone at your institution should have given you the advice that applying to 31 schools and accepting 21 interviews is not a good idea. The conference is only 5 days or so and it also consists of a whole other side...going to the presentations. If you've done your work in your grad program and have taken advantage of as many opportunities as possible, then getting a job should be no problem for you. I've been thinking about this process similar to choosing undergrad. While there are tons and tons of schools out there, there should be only a couple that are truly a real fit with who you are. I think you should reduce the number of schools you're interviewing with and spend more time fine tuning your interview skills and what you know about the schools. Should you be thinking about quantity or quality?
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