Jody Vaisman, Academic Director for the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies, held a workshop entitled, “Applying for Higher Ed Admin Jobs”. An interdisciplinary group of graduate students participated in the session representing a variety of programs including Anthropology, Theatre, English, Educational Psychology, Geography, and Urban Education. This attendance correlates to the growing trend in graduate students seeking jobs within the academy beyond tenure track faculty positions. This blog recaps the practical tips and resources provided at the workshop for those who have an interest in this career path. I personally found several of the activities useful for my own job search preparation.

After introductions, Jody went over the goals for the workshop, which included:

• preparation for the job-search
• developing an appropriate resume and cover letter
• strategies for the interview
• and providing guidance on relevant resources at the Graduate Center

We then were asked to participate in a brainstorming activity using the Zoom whiteboard feature. The question asked was: Where do you find available jobs?

Participants came up with a variety of answers including:

• personal networks
• email listservs
• cuny.edu
• and higheredjobs.com

The higheredjobs website was the answer that led us into the next activity. Jody shared that this was one of the most common sites used in the academic job search.

The Job Search

Workshop participants were asked to visit higheredjobs.com. You, the reader, may follow along and do your own job search as you read this blog!

Once on the website homepage, participants were instructed to search “By Category” and click on the Administrative Link. Once you click on the link, there is a large list of several administrative position types ranging from academic advising to conference and events administration to volunteer programs & service learning. You can click on the one that interests you most. I clicked on “Career Development and Services” and used the “refine results” feature to filter the results by state. There are other filters to help narrow your search further including type of college (e.g. four year, two year) and role (e.g. part time, full time). We were then asked to look into one of the listed job descriptions. If you are following along on the site, choose one of the jobs on the list and look it over. What do you notice? Jody provided some pointers for what to look out for in the job description including the listed skills, duties, and priorities.

• Do the skills listed match your own experience?
• Are the duties and responsibilities ones that interest you?
• Do the priorities of the position align with your values or personal goals?

Jody emphasized the practice of reading the job description with the purpose of understanding the professional context of the job, learning the language of the institution, and gathering information to do additional research into the institution and office.

The stated goals of this activity were to model the preparation and research one would undergo when looking into positions. Jody expressed that this was a preliminary step into the necessary research to learn about the mission and vision of the institution and how this job fits within it, the priorities of the position, possible collaborations between this job and others at the institution as well as being able to place your desired position into the operational flowchart of the institution.

Further research into the position should include whether the university is public or private, the strategic plan & annual reports that can help with understanding of strengths and weaknesses of the institution, any accreditation documents as you would want to know about accreditation troubles, student success data, organizational charts, and recent reports in any trade journals. All of this research will help you to be prepared for an interview for the position you are interested in.

Resume & Cover Letter

The facilitator provided advice on writing your resume and cover letter for a job in academic administration. She suggested that both the resume and cover letter should be viewed as a “ticket into an interview”.

She strongly advised to make your cover letter short- it should only be about three to four paragraphs. She suggested that it should be framed as only a ticket into an interview; it is not everything.

Jody advised that for roles in administration, your resume should be only one or two pages regardless of the length of your job history. It is shorter and different from a CV, which is mainly used for academic positions. She warned that in the job search today, organizations may be using AI to scan for key words so  students should take the opportunity and translate the skills language listed in the job description into your resume and cover letter.

Jody strongly advised to make your cover letter short – it should only be about 3 to 4 paragraphs. The goal of the cover letter is to “connect the dots.” Her advice was to have a thesis, include about 3 or 4 themes or points, and use those themes to talk about a few  examples. Use the prompt, “I am interested in this job because…” and continue from there.

The Interview

Once you get your actual “ticket to the interview” you can start doing some additional prep. Jody shared that hiring managers will use something called behavioral descriptive interviewing where they will ask a candidate to describe concrete examples of actions or behaviors they have exhibited in various job situations. In preparation for an interview, Jody suggested that you think of your top five skills or attributes (make sure they match up with the expectations in the job description) and create a real-life example for each. Before the interview, you should have at least one real-life example including the outcome that matches with the top five skills or attributes you want to present.

Career Services & Graduate Center Resources

Jenny Furlong the Director of Career Services & Professional Development at the Graduate Center was at the workshop and shared some of the resources from this office. GC students can:

• make one-on-one appointments with our career advisers
• attend one of the upcoming workshops
• or peruse the job seeker resource portal

An appointment with a career adviser can help you to edit your job documents like your resume and cover letter as well as prepare for the job interview. Jenny also shared that December and January, as the semester is winding down, are good times to schedule your appointment!

Takeaways

The workshop included practical activities that helped to integrate the advice that Jody provided. Participants were able to search for a real job description that interested them and think about their own job documents in relationship with the expectations and listed responsibilities. This also allowed us to bring up questions and helped to adjust our research tasks according to the specific job in which we are interested. I really appreciated how hands-on this workshop was in terms of practicing the job search actions we would undertake when applying.