New Job, Summer Conference wrap up & 2nd Masters start

Wow, it has been a while since I have blogged!

I've had a slight career change which has been awesome so far. I am now the new Social Media & Marketing Coordinator for the division of Student Affairs & Enrollment Management at North Carolina Central University. This is a big deal but not just for me but the institution as a whole. I am thankful for the opportunity to start and grow this area of the division at NCCU. I will expand on this position in a follow up post. If you have questions go ahead and comment and I will address them in that post. Thank you to all who have been supportive!

In June I attended the FREeLearning Conference hosted by the wonderful folks over at Appalachian State in Boone. This one day conference included wonderful talks/showcases from education pros about what is going on in education technology in NC. My favorite presentation was by a professor Shira Hedgepeth who is only  a few hours short of her JD talking about a Digital Imprint class she taught. It was amazing the amount of student development she obtained out of the course along with educating undergraduates on the importance of knowing your digital imprint and how to find information, computer forensic style. You can view her Prezi here. Teaching something like this is definitely on my radar.

This past weekend I attended #satechBOS hosted by the amazing NE folks at Boston University and Ed Cabellon. I also dropped in on the #edutweetup hosted which donated $1000 to the Kahn Academy from our entry fees. Yay! Ed was a fantastic moderator for the first Student Affairs unConference. I really enjoyed the organic flow of things and the amazing turnout including my fellow NC colleagues Tim Bounds from Duke and Kevin McClain of UNC-Greensboro. While I was in Boston I visited Harvard, MIT, Fenway, a cupcake shop and the Freedom Trail which were all essential to my technology immersion process. The major themes I gathered were social media examples & practices, accessibility of media and how to implement a media/communication strategy without the staff. It was eye opening for me to listen to what challenges the north east coast regions are facing in the areas of #satech. I look forward to meeting more folks at #NASPAtech in October.

Last but not least this fall I am excited to start my second masters at Texas A&M University-Commerce in Educational Technology and Leadership. Classes start August 29th so stay tuned...

Millennial effect on recruiting from within

The following was inspired by Cristina Gonzalez's article titled "Colleges Should Cultivate Leaders Within Their Own Ranks".

This is not based off of research but is a collection of my personal thoughts, speaking with my peers and observations. Basically my ramblings... sources will be sited as used.

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Professor Gonzalez discusses the desire to hire from within the college system to create stability and create a cohesion of ideas and projects among higher administration. I am not going to discuss whether this is a good idea or not but point out why this desire will become increasingly difficult.

As student affairs professionals we constantly look at the characteristics that make up the Millennial generation (our current students and new professionals). The ones I would like to highlight when looking at workplace longevity are: the need to collaborate, results and achievement oriented and more selectivity & loyalty (Sweeny, 2009).

The need to collaborate

As I start to delve into the culture of student affairs on a broader scale (i.e. twitter feeds, blogs, etc.) I am able to connect with like minded peers. It would make sense that eventually I would want to pull a King James and migrate to where these great minds are in order to collaborate on larger scale projects. I have found myself and peers making lists of where we want to work in our lifetimes and field relevant mentors we want to work with. 

As more of the Millennial generation enters the workforce I expect to see this shift in job searching and acceptance. After all networking and social media is becoming a driving force in job placement and recruitment.

Results and Achievement Oriented

Sweeny's study at The New Jersey Institute of Technology states: "Millennials are interested in processes and services that really work and really speed their interactions. They prefer merit systems to others (e.g. seniority)."

To me this says two things:

1) I would rather have an awesome diverse portfolio than wait in line to be department head, Dean or Chancellor at a single institution. (Especially when I can work with my hero, a diverse group of schools, get my Ph.D. and start my own business on the road there.)

2) I would like to create these process therefore I need to work for companies that can benefit from my skill set. Being content is not satisfactory. Especially not while I am waiting in line. It has been noted that Millennials must feel their work is meaningful and important on a professional and personal level (NAS, 2006).

Selectivity & Loyalty

"Perhaps the most important Millennial behavior is their expectation for more selectivity and options. They have grown up with a huge array of choices and they believe that it is their birthright... The converse is also true: they are most unhappy with limited choices." - Sweeny

I have constantly grown up with a fear of the cubicle and I have come to believe this is no coincidence. I spent a few moments chatting up my social networks to see how many positions those of us have held post college was an average of 4.25 , the number of moves was an average of 2.6, with the longest employment at one company being an average of 4 years. 

I would love to do this as a legitimate study... humm...

While unemployment is still high 51% of millennial do not expect job offers upon graduation (NAS) baby boomers are heading towards retirement and there is a demand for skilled workers.  Millennials are no stranger to technology and professional niches in order to help market themselves and create several options for employment. Added with the characteristic of "entitlement" there are now several options which creates selectivity on which employer Millennials will choose to work with. Especially in a competitive market for skilled workers in high demand fields.

"They expect to spend no more than 18 months to 2 years in their first job; expect constant 

practical training and useful skills; want office hours with flexible schedules; are more likely to be recruited online.  61% of CEOs say they have difficulty attracting and integrating younger workers."- Sweeny

When looking at the first two characteristics I discussed and combining them with the concept of loyalty it gets tricky. Retention is already an issue with older Millennials entering the workforce and will become a larger issue with each year. Money is not a solution to increase retention as noted by several researchers. The desire to satisfy personal and professional goals is always larger. (i.e. the key to retaining your best lab researcher is not going to be a salary increase but better support staff, access to new technology, recognition/ awards, a strong mentor, a customized career path and appreciation.- NAS) 

Wrap Up

Competition among universities is not new but in order to retain the new Millennial workforce some cultural shifts will have to occur. While the NAS document is not the most up-to-date it does maintain some good pointers about retention. 

Other thinking points:

• Will higher administration positions be plentiful as colleges re-structure?
• How will the Millennial generation effect traditional offerings in higher education such as tenure?

I don't have the answer to creating a stable higher administration staff for colleges but I know I'm not going to wait around to find out. I'm just a tweet away from working with my dream mentor and a kicking technology budget.

Millennials, Work, Technology and Education

As a self-professed Millennial I have been fortunate enough to experience technology truly BOOM. I was in 1st grade when I started learning to type in school, 3rd grade when we had a PC at home with floppy and hard disks, cell phones started entering high school, facebook my freshmen year in college, etc. You get the picture.

I recently read an article about how technology is helping bridge Baby Boomers and Millennials as we exit and enter the workplace. I took note of a few items:

1) While the recession is shaping the Millennial attitude, a recent study commissioned by the Career Advisory Board indicated that “both Millennials and their managers agree on the strengths (e.g. digital comfort) and weaknesses (e.g. impatience with established processes) of the younger generation…Millennials will manage their careers by pursuing advanced education, changing professions and work situations, and overcoming unique challenges associated with the 21st century workplace.


I'm glad to hear that studies have validated my tendencies and habits down to my strengths and weaknesses. However, I wonder if our impatience for established processes is because we do collaborate so often and in such a manner that the main theme is always progress. I feel that my weakness is not impatience as much as it is the unwillingness to be complacent. I have an internal desire to move forward, to push boundaries, to keep going to school, to explore new technologies and to find A+ Millennials I can collaborate with to create the best in educational technology and design. I would like to say that while we are eager to revamp processes, create efficiencies and progress forward we must understand the established process and then communicate our thought processes not just program them and share the end result.


2) This technology mindset also has major implications for how schools, colleges, and universities prepare them for the workforce.  In fact, this generation is driving the shift across all educational institutions as they struggle to develop teaching approaches that are relevant, engaging, and more effective than the majority of today’s traditional classrooms.


As I apply to enter a second Master's program in Instructional Design I can't help but feel immensely frustrated when I hear this. 1) It is true in my experiences with the various universities I have worked at and attended. 2) Why wasn't all of this technology shared while I was in school? Along with all of the job opportunities available within such technologies? However there are schools and 3rd party vendors that are making tremendous strides to improve the "eLearning" experiences and to appeal to multiple intelligences in order to "connect" with students.

Working in higher education I hope that I am able to create engaging and effective programs for students to learn about Student Affairs topics. I hope that someday I am able to leave a footprint in how we train our student workers on campus from Campus Recreation, Student Union/Activities, Student Government, Stu.Orgs. & Greeks, RAs, etc. Additionally, in how we interact with students on topics such as financial literacy, sexual assault, advising, FYE/Orientation, campus health, etc.

Last but not least technology is not only a bridge between generations but it is a facilitator between individual exploration and face to face interaction.

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Check this out about shifting the way we teach/learn/think to how we are. Thank you Sir Ken Robinson for "Changing Education Paradigms".