Getting and Staying Linked In

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 3 or 4 years, you have probably at the least created a LinkedIn profile, and at most used it to connect to networking contacts. Or perhaps you've chosen to avoid all those emails requesting connections with you and are feeling satisfied with your digital footprint without adding one more social media account to your repertoire.

As a career services professional, whether I'm searching for a new job or not, I use LinkedIn every single day. I use it for personal reasons, to assist students, to learn about companies, the list goes on and on. Inevitably, LinkedIn naysayers will tell me that "normal" people don't need to use LinkedIn regularly. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Now, I'm going to assume that you've already used or at least attempted to use LinkedIn for a career-related venture- job or company searching, networking, or adding your resume information to your profile. So what's a student affairs professional (or other professional, for that matter) to do with LinkedIn while employed and not searching? Here are 5 meaningful ways you can keep engaging on LinkedIn long after your job search is over:   

Be a voice in your profession: One of the best features of LinkedIn are the groups. There are literally millions of groups to join, and for higher ed professionals, you can find very broad (think ACPA and NASPA) to very specific (Big Ten Career Services Network) groups to join. Join groups that matter to you and that play to your strengths, then use their discussion boards to be a voice for the profession. Post topics for discussion related to current events in your functional area, and facilitate dialogue with group members. Offer expertise or detail the success you've had executing a new program. Share and listen. Think of all the great things you've learned from student affairs colleagues through #sachat. LinkedIn groups provide another medium for you to be a vocal leader in your profession and create new professional contacts to carry throughout your career. 

Maintain relationships: The vast majority of people hate networking. Why? Because no one likes to put other people on the spot when conducting the job search, especially friends and colleagues. But networking doesn't have to be that way. Networking sucks because people do not maintain the relationships in their network. The best way to avoid the awkward nature of networking when in the job search is to assure that you nurture and grow contacts outside of it. Use LinkedIn to stay connected to former supervisors, professors, students you've mentored. LinkedIn will notify you in your newsfeed when your contacts change jobs, enter new education information, or post tweets and discussion topics. As quickly and as easily as sending a tweet to a professional, or "like"ing what they post on Facebook, you can comment on your professional contact's LinkedIn updates, or send them InMail to congratulate them on their new position. Simple actions like this help you remain a familiar name in  your colleagues' seas of contacts, so when you do need to ask for help or a recommendation, it doesn't feel so out of the blue to either party. 

Mentor current and former students: My personal preference when students want to connect to me on social media is to direct them to LinkedIn. Under Contacts, I create tags like "MSU students" or "William and Mary Career Ambassadors," to organize students I've known and worked with into meaningful categories. As they graduate, I encourage them to keep in touch with me via LinkedIn and email. Once they connect with me, I can work on the previous point but also give them access to my professional network. If they are looking for jobs or graduate schools, I can introduce them through LinkedIn to my connections who can be sources of informational interviews or advice in their field or at a particular organization. In turn, students become professional contacts as well that I can introduce to future undergrads with whom I work. 

A touch of control over Google: If you Google Ashleigh Heck, the very first entry you'll find is my public LinkedIn profile. If people want to find me, they'll first find my carefully edited professional information. 'Nuff said. 

Just because you're not searching now... Things change in an instant. Your partner may find a job in a new state, your interests change, your department may restructure. The job search can catch us off guard. Just as it's good practice to keep your resume up to date as you add new responsibilities and roles to your professional experience, staying engaged and up to date on LinkedIn assures that you are ready whenever the job search kicks into gear.

Staying up to date and involved means new opportunities can find you. There's a box on the right side of your LinkedIn homepage that says "Who's Viewed Your Profile." Click on it. It's great validation of the fact that even when you're not searching, if you're a LinkedIn user, others are getting YOU in their search results. The term "Twitter Zombie" is translatable here. Don't have a dead profile- you never know who's looking at it! 

For more information about getting started and maximizing your LinkedIn use, visit the LinkedIn Learning Center. Leave questions and comments too- I look forward to a great conversation! 

What's really going on in Wisconsin

Is the rhetoric around the education system in the United States making anyone else's head want to explode? I had been following the standoff in Wisconsin between the governor, its teachers (and other public sector workers) and their unions with interest, but have pulled back out of disgust over the ways in which teachers are being  demonized and demoralized in the debate. I can understand why a state government might take a hard look at public sector union practices in times of budgetary hardship to look for ways to reduce wasteful spending. What I cannot fathom, however, is how that process has brought forth the seriously misguided notion that somehow teachers are responsible for debt crises gripping state governments.

Last year, I spent three months studying the U.S. education system and how it is changing based on the introduction of "schools of choice," mostly taking the form of charter schools. Since the advent of No Child Left Behind and all the way through the Race To the Top, standardized testing and giving parents other options so that they can pull their children out of failing schools have been the gold standard of saving public education.

In the process of promoting and enforcing these tenets of education "reform," teachers have received the largest share of blame for failing schools and poor performing students. The blaming of teachers for the failures of an enormous, highly variable, and incredibly diverse educational system is dubiously simplified and ignores the critical contextual factors that impact student and school performance: poverty, racial isolation, and funding for public education. Diane Ravitch points out in her book that children in low poverty schools are performing just as well, if not better than, school children in countries around the world that rank higher than the U.S. on standardized testing. It is the pockets of high poverty, low resourced schools-predominantly in areas populated by poor, urban and rural school children- that lower national test averages in reading and math.

This is not a coincidence. So long as the debate misguides the public into thinking that somehow by stripping teachers of their collective bargaining rights and privileges-not to mention their dignity and pride in the profession as a result of virulent public discourse-we can fix the school system and balance budget sheets, progress cannot and will not be made.

How are other countries doing it? Currently, Finland's education system is viewed as one of the best, if not THE best in the world. Why? Turns out Finland is basically doing exactly the opposite of conventional U.S. education reform wisdom by: eliminating standardized tests, providing hot meals and healthcare for public school students. government subsidized graduate education for all teachers (the belief is that if you go into teaching as a public service, you should not go into debt doing so), and making teaching a top paid profession (Side note: an entry level bachelors or master's degree holding elementary school teacher makes, on average, $33K per year. At the end of their careers, these teachers are likely to have maxed out at $78K per year).  The strategies that have fueled Finland's education system ascent stand in direct opposition to what the United States is doing to improve public education.

If we are going to improve educational opportunity and the system itself in the United States, we must honor teachers and the profession, not denigrate them in the public sphere. If we want students to perform better in the classroom and get into (or even consider going) to college, teaching must be marketed to the brightest and most talented of college graduates. Teaching must be held up as a vital, honorable career path, steeped in responsibility to the nation for educating the next generation.
Teachers are not the enemy. In fact, teachers at every level, every day are shaping and molding the intellect of the nation. They are responsible for developing in students the capacity and desire to learn, to question, and to lead.

The battle for collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin has opened a tremendous opportunity for dialogue about what is happening in education today, and how ineffective current policies are at improving the student outcomes nationwide. But, it is also a smokescreen. The debate and dialogue over bloated pensions and healthcare plans for teachers distracts from the larger and much more dire issue of educational inequality and systemwide failures across the educational landscape. For the American public to see the former and be blinded by convoluted rhetoric to the latter would be a tragedy nearly as great as the dismal state of the education system itself.

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer
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Confessions from a Recovering Twitter Hater

I can say, without irony or sarcasm, that Twitter has had a major impact on my life over the past year. I can also say that a little over a year ago, I would have literally laughed out loud at anyone who might have uttered a similar statement. I admit it, I was a naysayer. When my boyfriend first introduced me to the concept of Twitter, I thought it was dumb. I remember saying to him, "Why does the world need another way to not REALLY talk? Why do we need more status updates?? Facebook is bad enough!" And poor Terry (@brockter), he tried to convince me otherwise. He told me that he was meeting people he would have never talked to if Twitter didn't exist, that he was making networking connections across our very large campus. I nodded and bit my tongue. Mostly, I just didn't believe him. 

I am a people person, an extrovert to the absolute core. I pride myself on maintaining close connections to friends and family. My energy comes from interactions with others. I LOVE to talk. But before Twitter (and to some extent even now), I found myself deeply jaded by what I observed in my own and others' use of Facebook. Relationships reduced to a "status," friend requests from people I barely knew, and endless, sometimes creepy, photos of the personal exploits of acquaintances' lives had me convinced that social media was degrading human communication. This conclusion intersected with Twitter's founding and subsequently my response was to scoff and ignore. I was a major hater. 

But here's what changed my mind. Terry started telling me about this group that was forming in the Lansing community; a group of Twitter users who were taking their virtual connections and making them personal. Every week, the Lansing Twitterati started getting together for happy hour. To, you know, talk for real. Still skeptical, I agreed to accompany Terry to said happy hour. Doing so changed my perception of Twitter completely. 

I met people at this Lansing "Tweet Up" that I would have never met otherwise, all of whom had met through Twitter. My semi-regular visits to the Lansing Happy Hour Club (#lhhc) resulted in new friendships, networking connections, and great conversations with smart people. It also softened me to Twitter, helped me to ease in, and transformed me into a devoted user. 

Twitter is not about status messages sent out blindly into cyberspace. It is about building and sustaining conversations, creating dialogue with like (and sometimes unlike) minds, and for me, it's about constantly learning new things. Through Twitter, I have made direct contacts at universities across the country, communicated with major corporations (@Delta, @WholeFoods, for example), and found a voice among my followers and those I am following. Every day, in small ways, I contribute my ideas and opinions to a community of Twitter users, from whom I gain so much insight and knowledge to which I would not previously have had access. That's what makes Twitter so great- it asks very little of you (literally only 140 characters) and you get so, so much in return. 

Yesterday, we held our first William and Mary Tribe Tweet Up in Williamsburg at a local bar. Over the course of 2 hours, nearly 20 people visited the event, all users of social media on our campus and in our community. Again, I experienced the tremendous energy that comes from putting smart, engaged social media users in the same room together. I learned new things about offices on campus and who works in them, met members of the Williamsburg community, and got to know lots of new colleagues. I can now say I know (not know OF, but actually KNOW) people in the registrar, admissions, creative services, and university relations offices. As a new professional, this increases my web of connections exponentially. 

The true Twitter Haters out there may not be buying this. But from one (former) naysayer to another, let me tell you, hating Twitter without trying it or asking an avid user to help you understand it is to miss out on a great tool and even greater opportunities. So give it a chance. Because trust me, if my skepticism can be overcome, I'd bet yours can too!

Calling more teachers! Well, "some" teachers.

A week has passed since the State of the Union address and I am processing the education narrative Barack Obama etched out during the speech. As a state employee of a public 4-year college, I was eager to hear positive remarks about funding for K-12 and higher education. After all, education is the President's thing, right? I mean, have you read Dreams From My Father? This man believes in education! 

Maybe not. The President indicated that education was critical in order to "win the future," and even issued an eyes-forward, speak-into-the-camera plea to the young people of America to do something real and of value by becoming teachers. I was happy to hear the clarion call to education careers, until he said this: 

"And over the next 10 years, with so many baby boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers (Hooray!)...

in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math." (Oh.)

What about the rest of the subjects? Why issue a call for 100,000 teachers, in light of the reality that so many educators will be retiring, only to replace that broad swatch of seasoned teachers with folks in science, technology, engineering, and math? What about art, literature, music, and history?  

Because it's not education that is most critical here; education is the vehicle by which the US is to get its swagger back. Our students have fallen behind many other countries in their test scores (which we all know are a totally accurate, unbiased and effective measure of knowledge and learning), particularly in math and science. So to regain status, we need to educate and pump out more scientists, engineers, and techies into our economy. Educate students in areas with market value. Recruit educators to teach those subjects. Undervalue academic areas of interest deemed to be without earning or production potential. Problem solved! 

In order to bring balance and stability to the economy and nation, Americans must make sure children are prepared to compete in a global marketplace that puts high value on science and technology. But, I grimaced when the President made that call for teachers, then underscored it with the notion that he only meant "some teachers." I was hopeful when Obama remarked that we needed to give the teaching profession the respect it deserves; disheartened when he provided not a single whisper of action as to how such value could be achieved. 

Don't pay lip service to teachers and educators, Mr. Obama. When you make a call for young people to become teachers, you've gotta tell them why it's worth their while. Because what our college students see (or at least describe to their career counselors) is that teaching is the "back up career." It's the path they will take if nothing more lucrative or impressive pans out. Teaching is what they'll do for a few years, before going to law school, or grad school, or a government career, or whatever. It's not typically a first choice, rarely the only choice. 

And why would they think anything else? The President wants students to become teachers of science, math, technology, and engineering, so that their students can go on and achieve success in those industries, earning more money and respect than teachers get? Where's the incentive for these future teachers? My guess is the idea that they'll be serving their country and teaching for the greater good isn't going to cut it when the economic reality for many students requires going deep into debt to get their degrees. It's hard to justify entering teaching making between $30-40K a year, when student loan payments may equal a full paycheck. 

Worse, I fear another possibility is more likely; that even if we increase educational outcomes for science and technology, our best and brightest won't follow those career paths. Instead, they'll do what I've observed at two institutions and in my 3 years of career counseling- apply for jobs with the biggest paychecks, mainly in finance and banking. Besides, many of those science and technology jobs will require much more than a bachelor's degree by the time this generation of students finishes college. Our economic downturn has made that a certainty. 

I say all of that to say this. There seems to be a fundamental disconnect between the realities of our education system and our economy. The President wants us to Race to the Top, but doing so implies that there will be winners and losers. Science and technology are the touted educational winners at this point in the dialogue, but I fear the end game may be a losing one for all of us. 

For the love of food

Have you ever eaten something so unbelievably delicious that you had to force the fork from your hand to stop (or have someone else do so for you)? Something so wonderful that you wanted to finish it all in seconds, but instead exhausted all mental stamina to savor it slowly, bite by bite? Yup, it was one of those nights.

Conspicuously hiding behind the simple title of "Cavatappi with Tomatoes and Sausage"- a recipe in the pasta section of the new Cooking At Home cookbook by Williams Sonoma- was a tremendously flavorful, simple, and deeply comforting dinner that quite literally demanded I write about it. Just picture it: perfect, curled tubes of semolina pasta cooked al-dente and smothered in a sauce of roasted roma tomatoes, fresh flat leaf parsley, hot fennel Italian sausage, and a touch (oh all right. a half cup) of heavy cream, which before meeting the pasta was given 20 minutes for flavor melding. A few turns of cracked peppercorns, a pinch of sea salt and a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano and I had what was, hands down, the most delicious pasta dish I had eaten in years. I could cry at the thought of the three (yes!) serving sizes of leftovers in my fridge.

Why, you ask, am I taking up my space and your time writing about my dinner? How, you ask, did a pasta dish pull me out of a deep blogging hiatus at 9:30 on a Thursday night? It hit me as I was eating and audibly mmm'ing and yum'ing and scrolling through the day's tweets. So many people are talking about new years resolutions, being "good" by eating less, worrying about weight, searching for new running and gym buddies... Don't get me wrong, these are all wonderful things, and all resolutions I fully support. But eating my culinary masterpiece tonight was a not so subtle reminder that 2011 may be filled with lofty goals (fitness or otherwise), but it also should be a year for simply enjoying what I love. Sometimes, that means running, or writing, or reading books about South Africa, or keeping in touch with friends. But often it means cooking and eating wonderful food and not feeling guilty for doing so.

Eat up, friends, and enjoy all the delicious things 2011 has to offer. Hit those fitness goals, but take time to relax and remember that new years resolutions and wonderful food don't have to be enemies if kept in moderation. Happy New Year!