I’m going to try to do something I never do, and that’s write a concise blog post. The title of the post is what it is because my day really was just ripped out of the textbooks from my higher ed master’s program. As many of us are probably doing at this time of year, my days have been focused on counting down the days until finals, dreading another conduct meeting, and preparing for a move to another building in my department. After almost a full year working full-speed at UW-Madison, I’ve needed something to remind me why I do what I do and what compels me to continue my work in student affairs. Here’s a quick rundown of today:

I started the day off hosting my Feelin’ Tingley radio show and this week my guests were two amazing students from the Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE) student organization at UW-Madison. We were talking about Sexual Assault Awareness Month and why we should educate men on how they can prevent sexual assault. I continue to be amazed by the students who come on the show to discuss these topics with me. It’s the best way to start the week.

Then I worked with the wonderful Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) Learning Community Program Coordinator to interview candidates for our peer mentor program. One of the candidates spoke briefly about how great it was to hear from a professional woman of color on campus (who happens to work in student affairs) about wearing her hair naturally at work. It was even better for me to learn that this professional is a woman I worked with at UW-Milwaukee and is someone I look up to as a mentor.

Later in the day I got to connect with another Program Coordinator for our Creative Arts & Design Learning Community (The Studio) about a thrift-store meets Project Runway program for residents of The Studio. A student in our ResLife office overheard our conversation and volunteered to be our model.

For our WISE seminar in the evening we went to a community MakerSpace in Madison called Sector 67 where 19 women in WISE got to play with 3D printers and scanners, a laser cutter, and watched as one member used a hacked knitting machine to print the WISE logo. The best part was getting to see these women be in a space where they could completely embrace their self-proclaimed nerdiness.

After coming back from seminar I stopped into the building I’ll move to over the summer and I saw one of my future staff members and we had a pretty typical conversation about class and sleep schedules. As I’m leaving the building I noticed what looked like a professor sitting in the lobby with a student teaching him phrases in Italian.

All of these things alone are well and good, but what makes them ‘so student affairs’ is the fact that each of these students were doing what we know makes them more successful; they were engaging with their campus! The young women from PAVE were talking on the radio about a topic they’re passionate about. Our peer mentor candidate had connected with a University staff member based on their shared identity. Our learning community students had a chance to apply what they’re learning in class to actual projects based in the Madison community and the students who live with us are getting one on one attention from faculty and staff. These are all things we talk about that should be happening, but it’s rare to really notice in the span of one day.

I’m not exactly sure why I felt the need to write about this; if anything I needed to document for myself that it happened. Hopefully if other people are reading this it does for them what it’s done for me and it gives them another reason to do what they do. It’s really easy to get caught up in all the small things we don’t like about our day-to-day work, but when we see the things that really impact students it becomes easy to see why we stay.

photo credit: http://eraucso.wordpress.com

It is now 2013 and many of you are already starting your job search for Fall 2013 in Student Affairs! In the past I’ve written some advice posts  for people who are in the job search process and are attending a placement exchange as part of their job search. For those of you who are Twitter inclined a lot of great advice can be had if you’re just following and interacting with the right people and searching for some well-established hashtags. Today I’m going to give you a short list of those people, accounts and hashtags on Twitter and maybe even some advice for you social media savvy searchers. 

Alright, if you’re going to a placement exchange, you should be following and maybe even interacting with their Twitter accounts and save a search on Twitter for their hashtags. First, let’s talk about how to use Twitter accounts (@username) and Twitter hashtags (#topic) when interacting the placement exchanges.

• Send a tweet to an exchange using their account (eg. @opeinfo) to ask a question and get a fairly quick response, or just to spread some love to the people working behind the scenes.
• Use a hashtag (eg. #ope2013) to talk about the exchange in general or share some excitement. Just be careful what you tweet. Being excited is okay, but sharing specific information about an interview or complaining is not something you should do on Twitter while job searching.

• @OPEInfo: This is the official account for the Oshkosh Placement Exchange, hopefully still run by the amazing Andy Schumacher. You should follow this to get updates and reminders about what’s going on at OPE and even some advice about how to best use your resources at the placement exchange.

• #OPE2013: This is the hashtag that candidates, employers and OPE people use when talking about OPE.

• @TPECanServ: This is the official account for The Placement Exchange Candidate Services. This is a very well run account and you can expect to get quick answers and support. Especially as we get closer to TPE.

• #TPE13: This is the hashtag that candidates, employers and TPE people use when talking about TPE. There’s not a lot there now, but it’ll get crazy as TPE approaches.

Those are the basics for placement exchanges, now let’s check out some other accounts and hashtags to keep in mind:

• @higheredjobs & @higheredcareers: These are accounts from higheredjobs.com. They often tweet new job postings and advice about conducting a job search in higher ed. This was actually the site I used to find my current position. It has a lot of great features and can be extremely helpful in your search.

• @The_SA_Blog: This is the account for The Student Affairs Collaborative, the people who run #SAChat and helped establish #SAJobs, a hashtag people use to post Student Affairs Jobs. You can find general information and original content about the field of Student Affairs coming from this account and on their blog. As it gets closer to job search time, the topics generally shift to conducting a successful search.

• @greatresume: This is the account Jennifer Hernandez created for her site greatresumesfast.com. She posts great information for job searchers in any field.

• @cornonthejob & @jobhuntchat: These were created by Rich DeMatteo, the founder of CornontheJob.com and the #JobHuntChat. He shares some excellent information about job searching, and #JobHuntChat can be a great resource for general job search questions.

That is a pretty short list about the resources available to you on Twitter. As always, trust your gut and your network and you’ll be in pretty good shape. Take a second to check out my previous placement exchange posts and follow me on Twitter; I’ll be posting things too.

If you want to learn more about how you can use Twitter and other social media in student affairs and higher education check out these cool people:

Liz Gross: @lizgross144 and http://lizgross.me

Ed Cabellon: @edcabellon and  On The Go with Ed Cabellon

As I sit here a full 7 days away from the start my first professional position in student affairs, I cannot help but think about the people who I’ve relied on over the last 7 years to provide me with guidance, support, encouragement and more recently, some necessary tough love. I recently had the opportunity to go back to Milwaukee on a mini staycation. While I was on campus I ran into the people pictured above: Becca, Jen and Warren who are all leaders in student affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, my undergrad.I’ve known Jen the longest;  she’s the Director of the LGBT Resource Center and I worked with her when I was LGBTQ Issues Director for the student government. Since then, she has always been a phone call away when I have random ideas about research or need an opinion on a professional move that I want to make. Warren is the Assistant Director of the LGBT Resource Center and he was someone who taught me how to form effective partnership. I’m not sure that he knows it, but when I was an undergrad I usually looked to him during meetings to see what I should be doing or what I missed in the conversation; now I have the pleasure of reading his hilarious Facebook posts and learning about how to be a better social justice advocate.

Becca who is currently the Interim Assistant Director for the UWM Student Union was my supervisor in the Union Recreation Center for three and half years, but I first got to know her when I was working for event security in the Union. Becca was the person who told me that working in student affairs was a possibility and the one who helped me create a plan to be come a professional in the field. A lot of the things that make up my supervisory philosophy come from things that I’ve learned from Becca and I know that my supervises have benefited from her supervision of me.

Another person who I know from UWM who isn’t in the picture, but really should be is Liz Gross (check out her blog). Liz used to head the marketing office at UWM University Housing but is now the Director of Marketing & Communications at UW-Waukesha. When we were both at UWM, I used to drop by Liz’s office to talk or get advice or just to cool off. As I started planning to pursue grad school and an assistantship, she gave me valuable advice that helped me land my assistantship. Since then, she has put up with my slightly neurotic texts and phone calls about my latest job search and I get to hear about her experience in a doctoral program.

The reason I’m writing this is partly to acknowledge a few of the people who have helped me along the way and also to remind anyone reading this to thank the people who have helped them. Regardless of your field, I’m sure all of you have a mentor to thank and now might be a good time to send them some gratitude.

Yesterday, hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco released a single off of his upcoming album Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Part I. The single is called “Bitch Bad” and I initially thought “okay what is this going to be about,” but when I actually listened to the song, I fell in love with it and thought we may have a hip-hop artist who is also a feminist. Here’s how it starts:

Now imagine there’s a shawty, maybe five maybe four
Ridin’ ’round with his mama listening to the radio
And a song comes on and a not far off from being born
Doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong
Now I ain’t trying to make it too complex
But let’s just say shawty has an undeveloped context
About the perception of women these days
His mama sings along and this what she says
“N***** I’m a bad bitch, and I’m bad bitch
far above average”
And maybe other rhyming words like cabbage and savage
And baby carriage and other things that match it
Couple of things that are happenin’ here
First he’s relatin’ the word “bitch” with his mama, comma
And because she’s relatin’ to herself, his most important source of help, And mental health, he may skew respect for dishonor.

The song is all about the confusing message that typical rap songs and society in general sends to young men and women.  If you’re a follower of Lupe’s story you know that his music is all about being a conscious citizen and challenging social injustices. I felt the need to share this today because you rarely see anyone using their medium to stand up for women, especially in the hip-hop, rap and R&B realm.

This reminds me of one of my favorite TED Talks from Tony Porter called “A Call to Men.” In his talk, Porter shares some life experiences and challenges men to analyze their actions toward women and other men. He focuses on the misperceptions of men and women based on gender roles and the socialization of their relationship. He calls into question what we define as manhood. Both Fiasco and Porter offer inspiring perspectives through two very different forms of media.

I think the reason I asked myself if Fiasco was a feminist is because we have lowered our expectations of what it means for a man to advocate for women. I’m not saying that what Fiasco has created isn’t great and I strongly believe in his message, but the concept isn’t new. In basica terms, a feminist could be described as someone who believes women should have the same rights as men. Does Lupe believe that? I don’t know, but it certainly sounds like he’d like to see the misogyny in rap music disappear.

In a world where politicians are silencing women for using the word “vagina,” and taking away reproductive rights and where two young women were shot for being lesbians it’s about time we had someone speak up for women, and I’m extra happy that their men.

If you want to learn more about masculinity, misogyny and the socialization of gender in hip-hop, check out Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes by Byron Hurt.

This is a guest post for my friend’s littlemamajama blog, make sure you check it out!

If you’re reading this today, you’re probably someone who (either now or in the future) wants to raise their child in a world where people are respectful of each others’ difference and where we continue to bridge the gap between those who have power and those who are marginalized.  Now I’ll confess, I’m not a parent, but I am an uncle to 4 little ones and I’d like to provide them with some understanding of what seeking justice in society means. I’m sure some of you may be thinking “I don’t understand social justice, so how can I teach my child about it.” Many parents that I know have fallen into this mindset and think that it’s too complex an idea to share with their children. In a way, they’re right. Social justice as a system challenging, sometimes cliché term is sometimes complex, but the ideas behind this movement are not.

Let’s start at the beginning because you’re right, you might not want to talk about social justice if you don’t know what you’re talking about. The idea is pretty simple when you break it down to the original Jesuit principles of justice and equity for all people. There is an analogy that I’ve heard many times about what social justice is (and isn’t) and I’ll share it with you:

Imagine walking past a river in your community and you see someone drowning. Of course, you jump in and save that person and drag them to shore. The second you get up, you see two more people drowning and you pull them out too, this keeps happening until you’re too exhausted to help anyone else without drowning yourself, so people keep coming down the river and you can no longer help them. When you did this, you were providing a service—and that’s great. Providing service to those who are less fortunate is great and it helps those people for a short period of time. Think about that same situation, but instead of continuing to dive into the river you walked upstream and noticed that there was someone throwing people into the river. This time you walk up to that person and convince them to stop throwing people into the river—you were then acting as an advocate for social justice.

The basic idea of social justice is knowing who you are and what your privileges are (white, Christian, educated, heterosexual, male, able bodied, etc.) and recognize that simply because you are those things, you are afforded opportunities and access to resources that others are not simply because they are not white or not able bodied or not heterosexual.  Now, how do you have this conversation with your children?

If you’ve read down this far in the post, you’re probably already doing many of the things that will prepare your child to be someone who is in-tune to their identity and is an advocate for those who are different from them. As you already know, many of us adopt the values that were shared with us as a child and if you value these things, you’re most likely passing these ideals on to your children. On the flip side, that also means that you should be aware of the language you use, the jokes you tell and how you choose to frame your conversations about people who are different. There are some resources out there to help you have these conversations like this great book list on Amazon.

It is highly likely that if you introduce topics about inclusion and individual difference, having deeper conversations with your child as they get older will be much easier. Something I do with students who live in residence halls is a cultural blob activity to help them understand their identity. This activity could easily be adapted to use with a child who is a little older to talk in basic terms about who they are. Here’s a link to download the instructions. If this is a topic that interests you, I’d also suggest picking up The Social Justice Handbook. It provides some easy explanations and definitions of justice and helps explain the several different issues that contribute to injustice in our society.

The biggest takeaway for you should be to continue doing what you’re doing by modeling an inclusive environment at home. You can enhance this by learning more about how you and your family personally benefit from privilege and then sharing that understanding with your children. The resources that I’ve listed above can help frame the conversations that you have in your family, but it really comes down to the day-to-day reality you create for you and your family based on the language you use and the judgments you make about those around you.

If there’s anything more that you’d like to discuss or want me to elaborate, leave your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to talk to you about it.

Myself and another Graduate Hall Director working the Moonlight Breakfast

So it’s winter break time here in Mankato, MN and I’m back on campus as the Hall Director on Duty for the next few days. It’s turned out that this time has been very productive as I’ve started my job search for a full-time ResLife position, done some pre-planning for next semester and have had some me time to dedicate to my hobbies, which I’ll write about in a subsequent post. As you can see in the rest of the post, I’ve also had time to clean out my closet!

As I was doing my winter cleaning, I found a number of shirts from throughout my experience in student affairs that I wanted to save and together they tell a story about my journey in the field. After gathering all of these shirts, I thought it would be interesting to write about each one and form that timeline in this post. Below you’ll see a gallery, each picture has a caption describing the shirt’s significance. If you also have time this winter, take a second to check them out!

After working for a little over a year in Residence Life and observing the dynamics between supervisors and staff while “living-in,” I’ve noticed how important creating strong boundaries is to the work that I do. For me, creating boundaries between myself, my staff and the residents in our system creates a structure that upholds my integrity and makes it easier for me to be a supervisor. I was thinking about how I’d want to articulate the boundaries that I’ve set and I found a list of best practices for social workers that seemed to fit for me too, so I’ve adapted that list:

Understand what professional boundaries are.

• In a professional relationship, you can be friendly with your staff/residents, but not your client’s friend.
• As a Residence Life professional you are responsible for modeling healthy boundaries for your staff. For example, when you inform your staff from the first meeting that your relationship will not extend into their social lives, they will be less likely to expect to have a nonprofessional relationship with you. You should be clear on your limits as a supervisor.

At this time last year I was finishing up my undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and had accepted a Graduate Hall Director Position in Residential Life at Minnesota State University, Mankato. For me, it was a dream come true–I had never worked in Residential Life before and it was my goal to cross over from Student Activities on a new Student Affairs adventure. Now, I’m in the purgatory between the end of my assistantship contract and the beginning of summer classes and I’ve had some time to reflect. I’ve come up with five lessons I’ve learned during my first year in Residential Life and my first year of a Master’s program.

Maintain relationships with your personal “Board of Directors”

During training, our wonderful Director of Residential Life had us write down our “Board of Directors” or our support network. I’m going to steal that phrase and talk about how this was one of the most important lessons I’ve learned. I left Milwaukee with a fantastic network of Student Affairs professionals and friends who have continued to support me throughout my first year. In moments when I was questioning my decision to move to Minnesota or the graduate program that I was in, it was invaluable to have these people just a phone call or Tweet away. You know who’s in your corner and which relationships matter. Make sure to spend time keeping in touch with the people who’ve got your back.

Find an outside ear

This may have been one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn this year. Another saying we learned in training was the “Pit of Pain,” which is used to describe someone who is in some sort of distress and the lesson is to not get into the pit with them, but to find resources to help get them out. When working with the same group of people that you live and socialize with, it can be hard to not find yourself in the pit. In such a small group, small talk and gossip can become ugly and divisive and it can make your life a living hell. You will find that some people have a hard time separating their work time and social life. Before you know it, a private conversation becomes a game of ResLife telephone with people changing your words and ends up as an agenda item in your weekly meeting. It’s important for everyone to have someone to confide in, but it’s important for incoming grads to make friends with people outside of their assistantship so they don’t find themselves in the pit of pain or in a circle of negative gossip with other grads.

Take time to focus on what matters

This sounds like a no brainer, but it was something that I needed to make a conscious effort to do when I struggled in my position and in my personal life. I’ve spent time recently thinking about what my biggest struggle was and I think it was not being present in the moment and taking time to focus on what matters at this point in time. I spent time this year thinking about what I’d be doing next, trying to maintain a blog and write a book and build relationships with my staff. What I should have been doing is focusing on my time in Minnesota and making the most of it. I’ve come up with a tool that works for me to remind myself what’s important. Above my desk and on the inside of my apartment door I have a simple statement: “I am here because” and once in a while, I write something down like “Student success is important to me” or “people believe in me.” These statements help remind me what the important things are help reassure me when things get tough.

Take advantage of professional development opportunities

When I started getting information about professional development opportunities I found myself thinking that they weren’t for me because I wasn’t a professional or that I wouldn’t have time, but then when I was at a regional ACUHO-I conference our Associate Director encouraged me to be on a committee for the conference. I’ve found that it’s been an awesome experience and has lead me to improve skills that I don’t always get to work on as a Hall Director. I’ve also met some great people in the field who have inspired me to change up the way I supervise my staff. Keep in mind that not all ProDev is done at conferences, participating in #SAChat or being in a committee on campus could also have similar benefits.

Schedule your free time

In your year, you will have a week where there’s a paper due on Chickering’s Vectors and a conduct meeting about a couch in an elevator shaft..or something like that. In crazy weeks like that, it’s easy to forget that you need time to breathe or watch an episode of Modern Family or find some other way to relax. One method that I started using was scheduling meetings with myself in my calendar so that I have a block of time every few days where nothing is planned. Even if it’s just an hour, that free time can be a life saver when things get crazy.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Happy summer!

It’s getting closer and closer and by it I mean the 32nd Annual Oshkosh Placement Exchange (OPE). At the end of this week, hundreds of anxious candidates will descend upon the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh hoping to get a magical letter in there OPE mailbox asking them to visit a campus. For me, it was an amazing feeling to check my mailbox on Sunday after my last interview and see a few envelopes in the box–it was even better to open the envelopes and read my campus visit offers. In a previous post, I talked about managing the campus visit process by asking employers for their hiring timelines and putting them on a calendar. This practice can really come in handy at this time.

In your campus visit letter, the institution will most likely offer a few date ranges for their campus visit days. If you have an idea of when they want to have hiring finished or when they start making rolling offers, it helps you figure out when you should go to campus–especially if they’re one of your top schools. If you didn’t plan out these things in advance, it would be a good idea to ask employers when they start making offers when you communicate your campus visit decision. It’s important to get in touch with these employers as soon as you get back from OPE so that you can show your interest in the position. Keep in mind that they may not be able to get back to you as soon as you would like because other placement exchanges tend to take place right after OPE.

So now you’re getting ready to go on your campus visit. These visits can be a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings, but there are some things you can do to prepare yourself for these extended interviews.

Take a deep breath and consider “best fit”

This may sound like a no-brainer, but it is really important to sit back and think about the people you interacted with at OPE and if you could see yourself working with those people and at that institution. During OPE you will get a small snapshot of what it would be like to work at the institution you’re interviewing with and that should help you decide if you’ll fit in with that team. If you get more than one offer to visit a campus there will be many things you have to consider before accepting, but if you cannot picture yourself at the institution you may not want to waste your time or theirs.

Take advantage of non-interview experiences

I think I write about this in every single post, but being yourself is a really important component to having a successful on-campus interview. Employers invite you to campus to see how you interact with people on their team and to get a better idea of who you are. When you’re not in an interview, you’ll most likely be given tours of campus or participate in activities. During these times you can take a second to relax and not feel like you have to list your qualifications to the staff hosting your visit. The employers will still be looking to see how you interact with people when you’re not in an interview so take this time to actually talk to the people you’re with and share your experiences. Ask questions about the campus when you have them and take an interest in what these people are showing you. In a packed interview day these little breaks can be a good time to show who you really are.

Use alone time effectively

Depending on where you go for your campus visits, there’s a good chance that you won’t have a lot of time to yourself so you should use this time wisely. First and foremost, you should use this time to relax and rest. You need to be rested and prepared to interview during the day so if you get a night in a hotel make sure you have a relaxing night in that room and go to bed early so that you can wake up full of energy. If you have some time after interviews it may be a good time to take down some notes on the school while the information is still fresh. When you’re visiting multiple campuses it will be important to weigh the pros and cons of each institution and taking good notes will help. You can also use this time to connect with someone in your support system to help calm your nerves and reassure you of your talents. Whatever you style is, make sure to do something during this time to help you relax so that you can show your best self during interviews.

Ask Questions

During your visit you will be exposed to a lot of information and meet many different people. If you have a question about something don’t be afraid to ask. The people you’re with don’t expect you to know everything and they might sometimes use Student Affairs jargon that you aren’t familiar with to describe how they operate. Asking questions is also a good way to interact with other candidates on the visit or the staff members who are guiding you during your time on campus. By asking questions, you show that you are interested in what these people have to say and that you are committed to learning about the campus.

DO NOT consume alcohol

Again, I would hope that this is a no-brainer, but do not drink on your campus visit. There are some schools who really won’t care if you drink or not, but to be on the safe side you shouldn’t be drinking during these times. Think about it, would you order a drink during an interview?

The bottom line

Really, the bottom line is that you know you’re a great candidate. You are the only person who knows you the best and knows what makes you great. Don’t be afraid to be yourself and show your enthusiasm for the field. If you can focus on these things instead of being anxious, you’ll find that a campus visit can be an enjoyable experience.

It’s that time of the year again and I have had the opportunity to pass on some knowledge that mentors shared with me about navigating a placement exchange. There’s not an exact science to being successful, but there are some guidelines to follow that may help you be successful. Last year I wrote a post titled “Looking Back on OPE” with some tips on being successful at the exchange. I want to write a followup post about what you can do both at an exchange and what to do after your interviews are over. First things first, this isn’t an exhaustive list and by no means am I saying that you won’t be successful if you don’t follow these tips, I just want to share some information that may help candidates be successful.

Don’t talk about your interview at the exchange.

Let’s be honest, it’s rude to talk about people behind their back, but it’s also not a great idea to talk about how your interview went in the halls of the exchange. You never know who’s around you and this Student Affairs world is incredibly small. If you badmouth someone and it gets overheard, there is a very good chance that it will get back to your interviewer and it doesn’t make you look very good to the people around you. It’s understandable that you’ll want to talk to someone about your experience, so go back to your room and wait till you’re alone to call someone and vent about your experience.

Don’t worry about what you can’t change.

Don’t over-think the interview you just had because it’s not going to help you do well on the next one. After your interview, take a few minutes to think about what you did well and areas that you can improve on. Make an effort to address the areas of improvement in your next interview, but don’t worry about your past interview so much that you can’t focus on your current one. Instead of spending time thinking through what you said in your interview, spend some time doing some research on your next school so that you can go into the interview calm, focused and prepared.

Use thank you notes

Many exchanges are going paperless (finally), but it is still an unwritten rule at others to write paper thank you cards to employers after an interview. Some employers will request that you not waste paper and send them a note, in this case you could just send them an e-mail after your interview thanking them. When you’re in an interview, make sure that you write down each interviewer’s name and the correct spelling so that later when you’re writing out your thank you note or e-mail, you can make the card personal.

Be honest and proactive with your post-exchange timeline

After leaving an exchange, you will undoubtedly be contacted by several schools requesting an on-campus interview. You will never know how this will turn out in the end, but there are some steps you can take to try and estimate what your timeline could look like. During interviews, ask employers what their timeline is for on-campus interviews and make sure to take notes on this. Bring a blank calendar with you on your trip to mark down each employer’s timeline so you have an idea when they might want you to come to campus, should they call to schedule a second interview with you.

Sometimes, the school that is your last choice will contact you first and you’ll want to wait to schedule an interview until other schools call you. Employers understand that you will be contacted by many schools, make sure that you’re honest about where you are in your search and ask them how long they can give you to make a decision. This could look something like this: “Thank you for contacting me regarding this opportunity with your institution. At this time I am still reviewing materials from other institutions and I would like to know what your deadline for me would be to accept and on–campus interview with your department,” it’s not the most polished response, but you get the idea.

Do some follow-up

This goes along with sending employers thank you notes, but you should also touch base with the people who interviewed you after your time at the exchange has come to a close. If your resumé changes or you have more questions, it would be a good idea to contact your interviewer and touch base with them. Keep in mind that many interviewers are going to multiple exchanges and may not have time to get back to you until they return. If you haven’t heard anything from an employer two weeks after your interview at the exchange, send them an e-mail to politely ask where they are in their search process and if you’re still being considered as a candidate for their position; regardless of what they say, it will be good to know if you should still factor that institution into your decision.

That’s it for now folks. Next I’ll cover on-campus interviews. Good luck at your exchanges and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email feelintingley at gmail dot com or comment on the post.