My encounter with church envelopes taught me that in a career train wreck every light in the tunnel is not a way out.
At the time, my job was a train wreck pile-up of unchallenging responsibilities coupled with bickering, backstabbing, and bitter co-workers on the management team. I was frantically sending out résumés to escape this disaster and a company contacted me, looking for a manager to create infrastructure to improve their employee and customer experience. Since that was my fame, I took the bait and arrived at the interview revving to go. I immediately learned that the division created church envelopes. And the hiring manager had more passion about the envelopes than a half-naked, painted football fan in Wisconsin.
The manager effused enthusiastically about geographic areas, various religions and the intriguing intricacies of the church envelope business. His enthusiasm, fascination for the product and his accomplishments were clearly a thrill a minute to himself. I, on the other hand, was underwhelmed. Being curious by nature and harboring a love of problem solving, I have never once wondered about the origins of church envelopes. And yet, there I sat, listening to the story behind the churches and the envelopes with a plastered smile…wondering about the injury potential of leaping from a 4th floor window in a suit and 3-inch heels.
Church envelopes plus a manager who focused on his accomplishments while dismissing employee development to off-the-shelf tape viewings equaled what? Another train wreck? Or was I being paranoid? So I started asking questions to clarify expectations and they basically went unanswered; instead, he stayed on the course of describing his accomplishments over the years. Without a doubt, there was an “I” in his team, which meant his definition of progress was myopic at best, and more underwhelming than church envelopes. It was also clear that he wasn’t the one pushing for this new position and wasn’t on board.
At some point, I realized that jumping out the window in the middle of the interview was, at a minimum, unprofessional. But still, I had to lecture my desperate self who was urging me on, “take it!, at least you will escape your current wreck.” My logical self was saying, Girl you better RECOGNIZE that every light in the tunnel isn’t an escape, sometimes it’s just another train. I finally threw my desperate self out the window and kept sending résumés until I received a better match.
Personally or professionally, change can be a challenge. However, when your desperate self is in complete control, the results can be unfavorable regardless of the challenge. A little desperation mixed with logic is not a bad thing. Desperation can motivate you to change, and logic can help you evaluate past decisions that resulted in your current situation.
Later, I realized that the interview was a meeting of despair, where the manager was desperate to maintain the status quo and I was desperate to escape my wreck. By luck, my logical self slapped my desperate self off the train tracks which lead to better decision making by me. For the manager, I assumed he eventually got on board because for change to happen favorably, buy-in is needed-especially at the leadership level. If not, you will have a situation where someone is always waiting for his or her turn to speak, without the benefit of listening. We asked Alums…How can the Alum Associations or Career Centers improve?
For Alumni Associations and Career Centers
“Offering courses that help further develop your
professional career roadmap/skills as you transition through the different stages in your career. Helping
to evaluate what has worked in your career, what’s important, and how your path needs to change as your lifestyle evolves with work/family.”
“Offer assistance in transitioning to a career or during a job transition.”
“Do MBTI, focus on what you can
find passion in for your career.”
“Provide more outreach/services for gra
duates.”
“Go beyond the typically resume and interview tips to teaching real world tools that will keep me from feeling defeated while I am adjusting to life after graduation
“Alumni associations and career centers need to get outside their comfort zones and provide better support with career counseling before and after graduation.”
For Alumni Associations
“I enjoyed college but feel they should help students more with their careers after college. As students we invest so much in our education that I feel colleges should invest more in their students’ careers after college.”
“We have sister schools that maybe could have helped. Expand beyond your own alum.”
“Work on post graduation involvement and counseling, transition from school environment to work environment – developing skills needed to succeed in workplace (b/c it’s definitely not the same skills used in the school environment).”
“Students need to be aware of the services while attending. In addition, the emails I rec. are directed at donating funds not really speaking about the services that are offered.”
“Organize local chapters for alums who no longer live in the area.”
“Cultivate relationships with students before they graduate. And become more relevant when engaging students.”
“The Alumni Association can help with employment information.
“You already have our cash – now stick with us! The quarterly magazine doesn’t really speak to opportunities and continuing education.”
“Alum association can offer more of a variety of events.”
“Alum Associations are far more influential than career development centers. I suppose more infrastructure, more “Meet and Greets”, more direct mentoring/shadowing.”
“The Alumni Associations could work harder to connect with their graduates before graduation”.
“Provide more young alum events with reduced price tags!”
“The alumni associations should reach out more to graduates in states other than the ones in which their universities reside. Once you leave the state, the only time they seem to get in touch is when they need donations.”
“The Alumni Association website is hard to navigate and it is frustrating. We are scattered across the country but the center seems to focus on local events only- not cool.”
“It is more important than ever that students and grads have more support in the transition from college to the workforce. The Alumni Associations need to strengthen their transition support.”
For Career Centers
“I wish I had more career counseling. I am back in school in order to begin a second career. Getting “real life” experience made me better understand the type of career I wanted to pursue. I went from high school to a four year college and it wasn’t until I had my second job after college that I realized I wanted to pursue another career.”
“Perhaps by posting what opportunities the career centers have to offer to let people know how they are able to assist graduates in a career path and a job in that field of interest”
“Increase number of career fair type activities.”
“Getting students comfortable to different interviewing styles.”
“Career centers should offer internship opportunities for all students and not just those already enrolled in a major.”
“Having people from various businesses talk with the students- about jobs, the work, work hours, demands, and what they are looking for in employees.”
“Career centers should also be available to graduates who have become unemployed. They should have the resources there to help graduates improve their marketable skills.”
“I found that that career counselors were very unorganized but enthusiastic. I had little assistance from them in finding a job or even in what career path to choose. Ultimately I spent years as a waitress before I was discovered by my current boss.”