You know what really grinds my gears???

Despite the Family Guy reference in the title, this next article is going to talk about the graduate assistantship process and how one would go about this process.  First of all, I think that the NACA National Convention is a GREAT place to interview for graduate assistantships.  With the evolution of this new joint partnership with NASPA (National Association for Student Personnel), ACUHO-I (The Association of College and University Housing Officers - International), NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) and ASJA (The Association for Student Judicial Affairs) combining to make "The Placement Exchange", it has become the ideal place for new job hunters to go and look for jobs after their graduate assistantship. 

If you think I am going to talk about the job search process, you may want to stop reading here.  Since I am going into my second year of graduate school, I have just one more year of being a student and then I must join the “real world” workforce.  I don’t know about you all but if I hear anything about joining the “real world” when graduate school is done, I think I am going to explode.  To be honest, what is it that we do then?   Is everything that happens during my assistantship surreal?  I will tell you this much the amount of hours that are put in my graduate assistants sure aren’t surreal, HA!  But, on the flip side, it’s the experience that we are being paid with, not just the VERY small amount of money.  That portion of the article is coming soon so stay tuned.  As for what to expect when going into an interview for an assistantship, just be you!  There is nothing more frustrating than interviewing a candidate that doesn’t end up coming off as well as their resume seemed to portray them.  For those putting resumes together, don’t use words in your resume or cover letter that you wouldn’t normally use in real life.  If you are trying to say something like, “I work well in a team setting regardless of the individual.” Try to stay away from saying something like, “My collaboration skills with other members of my cohort far exceed any expectation that you may have and are not contingent on the individual person that is a part of my committee.”  This is just my opinion, but I would say that the simpler you are, the better it makes you look.  If you start using words that you don’t use on a daily basis, most interviewers will be able to point that out during an interview.  I will be writing an article for NACA Magazine in the coming months about what to expect during a GA interview, so get stoked for that!

Another things that grinds my gears is this next part of the blog.  As per Minnesota State Statute, we are not able to unionize as graduate students.  I am not sure what other states are like, but I just know we in Minnesota cannot do such a thing.  I am not sure how many students would unionize if we could but going through all my classes gets me to realize the benefits of having a union, one of them being contract negotiation.  Our graduate assistant salary is a whopping $10,000 and not negotiable after that.  I was told however we got a $125 raise from the previous year which after you take that over a span of 9 months minus the taxes taken out it equates to them taking more money than they were before, HA!  Does that sound right to you?  We are required as per our assistantship to put in no less than 20 hours.  But, what happens when you habitually exceed 20 hours?  I just know that most, if not all, student activity programmers will put in over that much time in a week's span.  Why can’t we be compensated as such?  When getting into the student affairs field, it definitely is not for the money but the joy of working with students and having an impact in their collegiate experience.  Can you imagine what life would be like if we all got paid hourly??  That would be somewhat intense!  Just something to think about....almost like a Chicken Soup for the NACA Soul sort of thinking!

I just got back from Rochester, MN where I met with my fellow Northern Plains RLT and conference committee to plan for our upcoming conference in April.  It is shaping to be quite the event so I am really excited.  Talk to you soon!