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[buhusky]

I have been unemployed now for 1 year. In my prior life I was a Banner Consultant. I have had only a handful of interviews at colleges across the country. Interview 1 went to a internal candidate, and interview 2 I am waiting to hear back from. I have applied throughout the country, with a primary search in the northeast, southeast, and portions of the midwest.

I often wonder now, if I will be able to locate a position with my background in Banner and as a Financial Aid Administrator. I see positions open on various sites for Financial Aid, but most are counselor's positions and only require 1-2 years experience and BA. I have 8 years Financial Aid Experience, including 5 years at a private university and 3 years as a Banner Financial Aid Consultant, along with a MS in Human Resources.

I am just wondering if anyone else in the admin track has been looking as long as I have and/or if they actually see the market growing? I have even branched out to Development/Admissions/Enrollment Management but I lack some the key requirements, since I wasn't directly involved in these areas, but I know the Banner System.

I am tired of being frustrated with what I thought to be a marketable skill, but how foolish of me!!!

[simplesimon]

I am going to assume that your application letter and resume are polished marketing pieces.  It appears that you are casting a wide geographic net.  This is very good.

What you need to do now is create allies and advocates for yourself.  It is not enough for you to look for a job on your own; you need others, on one or more campuses, to help you look.  This is what is meant by networking.  People in your network are alerted to upcoming vacancies every day; many of those vacancies are not widely advertised.  The resume pool may quickly fill via word of mouth.  You must work to bring yourself into that loop.

Recently, my office had a vacancy we needed to fill quickly.  We only advertised the position on our campus website and received quite a few resumes from people who already work for the university.  I happen to sit on a number of campus committees.  Before a particular meeting began, I mentioned to my colleague sitting next to me, Mary, that we were looking to fill this particular vacancy.  Mary mentioned that she knew someone, Joe, who would probably be a good fit.  I asked Mary to put Joe in touch with me.  By the end of the day, I had Joe’s resume and application letter.  To make a long story short . . . I eventually hired Joe. 

Joe enlisted Mary as an ally/advocate in his job search.  Without Mary, I doubt that Joe would have found our job posting in time to apply for it.

You need to cultivate relations with several Marys on different campuses.  Obviously, it is easier to do this locally; conduct informational interviews with the directors of admission and/or financial aid at all the schools in your area.  Invite people to lunch or coffee to pick their brain.  You must take the time to become a known quantity to people who are in a position to help you.  No one wants to hear this, but you must be able to schmooze in casual social settings and otherwise make a favorable professional impression on these individuals so that they will want to help you.

In some fields, jobs are only announced/advertised on a national listserv.  So, for example, only a dean, associate dean, director, associate director, or assistant director has access to the listserv and sees those job vacancies.  These are the kinds of allies you need to cultivate because they can forward such notices to you when appropriate.  Years ago, I worked in once such field, and although I have since moved on, I remain on that listserv and still get email notices about vacancies in the field from across the country; several vacancies pop up every month.

As you move to build your network, know that some campus units are self-contained. Your local university may have a different director of financial aid for the main campus, the law school, the business school, etc.  The same is true for the directors of admission.  You need to cultivate relationships with each one of these individuals because each one represents a potential opportunity.

Feel free to send me a private message for additional counsel.

Good luck.

[michigander]

You might want to look for positions in registrar and records offices, even at schools that don't use Banner.  Just about every school uses one of the major proprietary student information databases, and I frequently see positions advertised for in-house experts on them.  You will be a particularly interesting candidate if you know how to write code to create modifications and custom applications.  If this is of interest to you, pm me, and I'll put you in touch with a friend who is an the in-house analyst who writes custom applications for our student information database (CAMS from Three Rivers).

[buhusky]

Thanks for the advice!!! I am on several groups on Linked In and have networked with my previous clients and the local higher education area. My fear is I am overqualified for an entry level position in Financial Aid (Counselor, Advisor etc...) these positions pay what I was making when I started out in Financial Aid 8 years ago. I have looked at Assistant Dir. and Assoc Dir. positions and have a applied to a few but so far no luck. I have also applied to a few hybrid positions Financial Aid Systems Position etc, but again no luck. I have start looking for Business Process Positions in Higher Education but they really don't exist.

What about the Continuing Ed segment, with a MS in Human Resources and 3 years of training experience could this be a good idea?

I am just becoming more and more frustrated with the job market daily!!!
Thanks for all the advice, it's great to have others to ask questions too

[failoutboy]

You could try applying to IT positions that deal with student services systems. Some of the larger schools have IT departments within their registrar's office. Maybe you could look for an applications support or project manager type position.

[irhack]

Thanks for the advice!!! I am on several groups on Linked In and have networked with my previous clients and the local higher education area. My fear is I am overqualified for an entry level position in Financial Aid (Counselor, Advisor etc...) these positions pay what I was making when I started out in Financial Aid 8 years ago. I have looked at Assistant Dir. and Assoc Dir. positions and have a applied to a few but so far no luck. I have also applied to a few hybrid positions Financial Aid Systems Position etc, but again no luck. I have start looking for Business Process Positions in Higher Education but they really don't exist.

What about the Continuing Ed segment, with a MS in Human Resources and 3 years of training experience could this be a good idea?

I am just becoming more and more frustrated with the job market daily!!!
Thanks for all the advice, it's great to have others to ask questions too

Well, I wouldn't take things too personally. My state just announced our unemployment rate is just about 10% now, and I think we're one of the states considered to be in pretty good shape.

I think the training could be a good option--a previous school I worked for (about 10K enrollment) had trainers on staff as part of IT, actually someone with your background would have done well in our IT in general, we had a whole subdepartment devoted to the student system.

I've only worked with Datatel--they have their annual users group meeting right about now. Does Banner have something similar? Could you attend? Might be a good networking opportunity.

And I'd definitely apply for registrar's office positions too--they often have a dedicated systems/technology person in their office.

[buhusky]

End of another week, another rejection letter!!! I have quite the impressive file now from all over the US. In the next coming weeks, I will be visiting the local military recruiter station to see what is what.

[dellaroux]

You might try doing a scatter-shot approach, just apply to anything that says "IT" and see if your applications get passed along.

My perception has been that some schools will have an IT guru or two tucked away in each department or division, and others have a more centralized base.

In the former, positions often don't get posted because there's a lot of internal conversation going on in advance, people move into those slots without as much outside influx, but everyone seems to know everything that's likely to be open somewhere else on campus and any incoming CV that looks good gets passed around to anyone trying to fill a spot that hasn't gone to an internal candidate.

In the latter, the standard, "post opening, receive CVs, pick three, interview, hire, add water, repeat" process might work but I'm not sure that even the places with more centralized IT groups don't have some variation on the "internal" modality, with the field of applicants being all the friends and students of the people already in the centralized group.

This is also why the suggestions to network above are useful; these sorts of openings go quickly, the paper track is too slow and is only used to document arrangements made verbally after the fact.

[simplesimon]

Buhusky, I appreciate your frustration.  Now, let me ask a question: how many new people have you introduced yourself to and had an informational interview with as I describe above in the last two weeks?  For the purposes of this question only face to face meetings count.  If the answer is two or more, you are doing very well.  If the answer is zero then you have failed my test and you are failing yourself.  If you are serious about finding a job you have to be prepared to hustle!

I do not know where you live so let me choose one East coast city at random to illustrate my point.  If you are in Washington, DC you have access to American U., Catholic U., Corcoran College of Art, Gallaudet U., George Washington U., Georgetown U., Howard U., Marymount  U., Southeastern U., Trinity Washington U., U. DC.  Nearby you have George Mason, Johns Hopkins, U. of Maryland, etc.  Each of these institutions has a director (and probably an associate director) of financial aid you could meet with, talk to, and--if you impress them--potentially enlist as an ally.  Have you done that? 

Some of these schools also have law, business, and medical schools that have their own financial aid directors.  Look them up on the website… learn what you can from that, then call their office and make an appointment to see them.  Ask to pick their brain over a cup of coffee.  Most people in the profession are more than happy to talk with you (or anyone) about their work and the professional path that brought them to their current position.  Bring your resume but do not proffer it unless asked.  Let me emphasize that the point of all this is to make a personal contact, and establish enough chemistry with someone so that s/he will take enough of an interest in you to be of help.  You may have to meet with ten or fifteen people before you find one or two allies.

Relying on passive venues like LinkedIn will get you nowhere in this climate.  Frankly, I am shocked that you mentioned it as part of your job search strategy because (to me) it suggests you are not very serious.  I have nothing against LinkedIn, but like most social networking sites, it is little more than an exercise in vanity.  You need to be much more proactive.

Both dellaroux and I have underscored the importance of networking.  At my institution, we fill many positions exactly as dellaroux described above.  In fact, now that I think about it that is how I obtained my position; I was referred by someone at the school who knew of the vacancy, alerted me to it, and advocated for my candidacy in the early stages.  You MUST bring yourself into this loop.

In my previous post, I specifically invited you to send me a private message for additional counsel.  Days later, you have failed to take advantage of that opening.  Someone who has been unemployed for more than a year cannot afford to be so careless. It is precisely this type of inaction that leads me to believe that you are not serious, and it may explain why you are still unemployed.

I repeat: if you are serious about finding a job you have to be prepared to hustle!  This means following up on every possible lead, overture, or invitation in a prompt and professional manner.

Good luck.

[dellaroux]

Yes, and if you're still near the area your moniker suggests you have been, there are about 100 higher ed programs, private schools, and institutes in that locale alone.

Military is fine, but be clear that you probably will be called into some kind of action sooner rather than later; even folks who thought they were pegged for stateside desk jobs have been finding that to be true as well.

[fishinjimmy]

SimpleSimon:
you give good advice about networking and informational interviewing - I've been doing this very thing for the past year, contacting people for advice and info through my alumni associations, colleagues, social contacts, relatives, etc..  problem is, I am looking for a position in an area of the country more than a thousand miles from where I currently am.  (I do not want to remain here any longer and want to move back where I am originally from.)  So I can't do the face-to fact contact.  I've been doing phone calls, but in person is obviously much better.  What can I do to compensate for the fact that I can't do this?  Short of quitting and moving to where I want to be before I have a job (spouse is unemployed so moving early's not possible, though I fantasize about doing it!)

[dellaroux]

Skype with video?