Fall is so here. It's the start of September and today, the sky drizzled just a bit. I didn't experience it myself, but I definitely felt autumn hitting my face when I walked out of work today. The sky's all gray and cloudy, windy but still warm, and there's a sense of spice in the air. I don't know where that last part comes from, but it's not hard core summer, whose heat hits you with such severity and constancy that it melts in its own heat. Autumn is like poetry, whereas summer is Huckleberry Finn fiction.
Follow the cut to my thoughts on entering a new job, and a reflection on this summer at my first, full time position.
The office spent the last hour of the day discussing their interviewee candidates for a new position here at Stanford Conferences. It was an eye-opening experience to listen in on the conversation. Some of the staff judged candidates on very emotional and social terms, and then there were those executive minds who judged a person on what they thought the job could do for them. They were critical on those new to the higher education environment, questioning and probing them about how they thought they might transition from a hotel environment to a college campus. Interviewees did not do well if they thought about the job in general terms, approaching it as the next challenge of their abilities to work with people, multi-task and event plan. Their interlocutors wanted to know why they felt that working on a campus, working with organizations that are seeking to improve the quantity and quality of education in our country today, matched with their personal goals. It's easy to list off your skills and talents in previous jobs and in general terms because the former provides evidence while the latter proves your versatility, but those interviewing you have painted a background of the job and are searching for the right figure to stand in it.
Concern yourself with the job, and imagine yourself in that job doing the tasks it entails. In this case the company is looking for someone who will settle into this role with a sense of permanence, who understand that they will carve a second home from that building not because the work days are lengthy, but because the goals of the institution are their goals, too. It cannot be a stepping stone for someone to build their second career. What I wonder is if there are any employers who will accept those searching for an entry way into their choice career by starting somewhere. I'm scared that might be the case, and I'm uncertain if I have the skill set needed to jump straight into the projects I care about (a little voice in my head says this is where internship and free work comes into play).
I lost much of the Conference center's main goals as I was deep within summer work, but coming out of it I've realized that event planning is not a position for me, or any position where I am assisting. I need to create something, I need to be at the center of a project and have a focus in my mind as to where I'm trying to shift everything around me. From that center I can reach out to people and be a team player; I can deal with difficult clients and participants; I can be accommodating yet firm; I can pay attention to details and problem solve the obstacles that crop up. But I can't be motivated to do any of that unless I have a driving force in front of me, a muse, a vision of what I want my world to be like once I'm done with the project. So I'm going to grapple with big, life-long projects with the hope that when I'm done going through all the little steps and layers it requires, I'll have made a difference somewhere, somehow.
And I'm hoping working in other countries as an international traveler will be the sort of work I need.
Tomorrow's the last day of the summer season, and I'm free to stop working next week, but I'm going to stay on part-time for another week. I won't work fall and winter quarter, since I'll need to spend winter quarter setting up summer plans and applying to Australia for next autumn. I may come back part time in the spring, but we will see.
For now, I'm really looking forward to camping next weekend :) Then going back to school the Monday after, and seeing everyone again.
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