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[s_d_g]

I currently work with higher education administration (admissions & financial aid) and am considering moving into academic advising. I have read several job descriptions and understand the work well, but I was wondering if anyone could comment on the intangable "best/worst" parts of the job.

[michigander]

Best parts:  more opportunities to create relationships with faculty members than in many other student affairs positions, ability to assist students in ways that I would have benefited from as an undergrad.

Worst parts:  keeping up with continuously changing curricula, constant pressure at enrollment driven schools to fill the seats at all costs.

[carebearstare]

Academic advising can be a lot like teaching at some places. Some student-related struggles: 1. you're chasing down students to get them to do things that are in their best interest, but for whatever reason do not want to do; 2. you have to deal with them coming to meetings unprepared, totally clueless as to how to proceed, and obstinate to advice; 3. at some places, you're also dealing with them emotionally, which can be both profoundly ridiculous and also heartbreaking.

Other struggles include having to deal with the stresses of course enrollments and over-enrollments, departments and schools that are profit driven and not student focused (and students who may blame you for not getting the courses they need/want). Faculty may get ornery if their classes don't maintain enrollments and you're not driving students into them. You sometimes have to advise students to take courses from people you know are not good teachers. You're the front line for a lot of people's stresses.

The good things: a lot of the pleasures of teaching minuses a lot of the stresses, like writing curricula, doing committee work, etc. I think it's fun to have a hand in helping college students make the transition to adulthood. You get to learn a lot about how universities work from another end, which is interesting, and it can be a good launching pad for a career in student services.

[freshmancompteach]

I do teaching and advising in a hybrid staff/faculty position, so I can tell you a little bit about the pros and cons from an interesting POV.

Advising is better than teaching because you get to know students one-on-one without having to grade them on anything. That's one part of teaching I'm not really loving, both because of the high workload and because it's hard for me to give a bad grade to someone who I can see trying really hard!

I'm too softhearted for my own good, which is also why the advising part of my job is very rewarding. More often than not, I'm the one who gives them good news, hope, and ideas about the future. I'm their problem-solver, and I get to try to connect with other faculty and administrators to get their problems solved.

On the not-so-fun side, I have this kind of repetitive "dog and pony show" I trot out to new advisees that I've just about memorized. Unlike a lecture one has given many times, this is something I sometimes I have to trot out ten times a day, it's short, and so my heart isn't in it anymore. If you're not somebody who can put on "customer service face" and make dull material seem interesting, you won't like this at all.

Continuing with the not-so-fun side, I'm tied to my office 12 months a year, 8 hours a day. Unlike a pure teaching gig, I can't just set "office hours" and go do research or writing or library work whenever I feel like it. If I want to do that, I usually have to plan ahead and create a fake "workshop" in my calendar for the benefit of the office secretary so I can sneak away. Otherwise, I'm scheduled every hour on the hour all day long. The prep for these appointments alone can be twenty minutes per student, so it's pretty paperwork-intensive.

But if you like the idea of engaging with students in a totally different way, really being their advocate rather than their enemy (which is how teachers are often seen), then you'll probably get a lot out of it. I've been doing this just long enough that people I met as freshmen are graduating this year, and that is a really awesome sight to behold. Makes me proud like a mama hen. :)