Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Reflections Mid-Career

In my career as a student affairs professional, I did not take the most direct route.  Like many in the field, I was an active student leader and served as a resident assistant and as a programmer for the campus activities board.  Through my involvement in student activities, I met my two best friends and learned many skills that I still use today.  I did not consider student affairs as a possible career path because I did not hear much about it.   As a first generation student, I was focused on finishing school and finding a job that would pay off my student loans.  Graduate school seemed like a luxury at the time, so I looked for full-time employment after graduation and stumbled across an interim assistant director of student activities position at a small liberal arts college.  I submitted my resume, interviewed, and was very surprised to be offered the position.  I started two days after classes began and hit the ground running, unknowingly beginning a career that would offer much personal and professional satisfaction.

My path continued to meander the longer I worked with students.  I decided that in addition to working the crazy hours of a young student activities professional that I would start my Master’s degree part time at a nearby university.  I worked diligently for three years to earn my degree and was not only appointed assistant director on a permanent basis, I was also promoted.  I spent seven years in student activities before taking another interim position as assistant dean of the coordinate women’s college where I worked.  I loved my job before, but something about working with women just spoke to me.  I remember immersing myself in the literature in order to inform my work, which was inspiring, challenging, and at times, incredibly difficult.  Part of my position required planning orientation for new students, and as time passed, I began to truly understand the transformative nature of the first year experience.  It was a powerful time, but just as I felt settled, I realized there was more that I needed to know in order to be an effective practitioner.  One of my best friends and colleagues was completing her doctoral studies, which seemed like an insurmountable task to me.  As I watched her progress, I started looking at programs to satisfy my curiosity and before I knew it, I was taking the GREs and completing applications.  I decided to leave my position and go to school full-time in order to truly immerse myself in my program.  I attended a large public university that is steeped in tradition and felt so very fortunate to be there.  It was the hardest I have ever worked, but I was committed to seeing it through.

And then, life stepped in to change my best-laid plans.  Once I began collecting data, I took a director position at a small liberal arts college out of state and worked while I finished my dissertation.  I really enjoyed the college, the students, and my colleagues and everyone was supportive as I completed my PhD.  It was around this time that I discovered I was pregnant.  My partner and I had many long conversations about what to do, and we decided after much evaluation that I would leave my position to stay home with our son.  At this point, my career was put on hold as we navigated the experience of becoming new parents.  Nothing could have prepared me for what it was like to experience labor, delivery, and really, that whole first year.  I recall that one of the hardest things for me was not being a member of a working community, as I had been for so many years.  I had no colleagues to turn to on a daily basis and felt very isolated from the field.  I realize that my experience was something I actively chose and welcomed, and I am very fortunate.  But I missed student affairs.  I missed my career and the identity I had as a professional.  I felt rudderless.

How do we, as a profession, support those who leave the field to start a family?  When someone walks away, how do they return?  I have found addressing this gap in my resume to be very tricky.  Do I address it in the cover letter?  I can speak about it in an interview in general terms, but I have struggled with exactly what to say when I am asked about the time I spent away.  Another level of complexity is that I am currently working in academic affairs.  Though my education and training have prepared me well for this work, I am frequently asked why I am not in student affairs anymore.  I see the linkages between what I have done in the past and the work I am currently doing, but I find it to be a bit difficult to illuminate the similarities for certain colleagues who have neatly grouped our work into silos. 

At present, I find myself in a time of transition.  I have done a great deal of reflection and am exploring opportunities where I can meld the experiences I have had professionally with my aspirations.  I am taking calculated risks when appropriate and am reconnecting to colleagues near and far so they can help me navigate whatever may come.  Persistence and passion have gotten me to this point, and they will carry me to whatever awaits down the road.

Janelle Perron Jennings, PhD, is a past WISA co-chair who currently works as associate registrar of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.  A proud Wahoo, she can be found on Twitter at @jpj_phd and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpjphd.