Longhorn Life
Friday, April 27, 2012
our campus
Page 19
A spotlight on UT faculty and staff
Expert Q&A
Dean gives tips on finding an ideal career Megan Smith Longhorn Life
The world of bosses and briefcases can be nerve-wracking, especially if you don’t know where to start. With graduation nearing closer, seniors will soon be leaving their familiar classrooms and professors and entering into a brand new phase of pursuing careers. Longhorn Life sat down with David Spight, assistant dean for advising in the School of Undergraduate Studies, to find out where students can begin their searches, get tips on interviewing and learn how to score that dream job. Longhorn Life: Tell us a little about yourself. Was an advising position at the University of Texas your dream job when you first graduated college? Spight: Honestly, growing up in Denver, I never thought I would end up in Texas. I also didn’t even know what academic advising was until I got to college. I started off college thinking I wanted to be a high school history teacher. In fact, I majored in history for four years. Then, I got into the classroom for my student teaching experience and realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do. As for academic advising being my dream job, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. In reality, I did a number of jobs to find out what it was I liked and disliked about doing certain jobs. It wasn’t until I was 26 that I took another advising job at Colorado State just because I thought it would be fun to do for a while. About six months into it, I realized I really enjoyed doing it and I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve been in advising for a little over a decade now and I’m just finishing up my eighth year at UT.
I enjoy it very much. LL: With graduation approaching fast, seniors will soon be entering the working world. What resources are available for their initial job search process? Spight: Well, if they haven’t already done so, one thing graduating seniors should really do in the next few weeks before they walk across the stage is to visit their college’s career services office. It’s really important for them to get in there because those offices are connected to employers, they can help make sure their resumes are polished and ready to go and even practice interviewing. If the student has already secured a job, they need to prepare for what the world of work is like – primarily, knowing how to act like a professional. That’s where things like alumni networks like Texas Exes are useful. They connect students with professionals that are already in the world of work, so that they can give students recommendations on how to secure the job that they want in the field of their choice. We’re really trying to get freshman involved in these networks as well – not just seniors – in order for them to get connected sooner. LL: The college experience is about trying new things and defining individual interests, but for some graduation comes too soon. What do you suggest to graduating students who still have a wide variety of interests? How can these interests be tailored into a dream job? Spight: The beauty of it is, trying new things and exploring new interests isn’t limited to just the four years that you’re in college – and it shouldn’t be. It would be a boring life if you just stopped trying new things. So one of the things to think about is, of the experiences you’ve had here
joyce isleta/Longhorn Life David Spight is assistant dean for advising in the School of Undergraduate Studies.
or wish you’d had, what is it that draws you to those experiences? You should then look for those types of experiences outside and after college. In relation to combining those interests into a dream job, that is where doing an internship shortly after finishing college, instead of going straight into a job, would be a good idea. Also, Austin presents a huge opportunity to get involved in things much like you would get involved with in a student organization or a volunteer experience. That way you can tie all your interests to-
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gether, while still holding down a job. You may also find that some of those interests might lead to a job you never thought of before—one that turns out to be your dream job. LL: For students that already have an ideal career in mind, what is the most efficient way to make it through low-level jobs on their way to the top? Spight: I think the most important thing is to keep your eyes open and learn. I remember when I got my first job and I had all of these ideas. I kept thinking that everyone just needed to listen to my ideas. You don’t want to give up on sharing ideas when you can, but you also want to take advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as you can about what does happen at those lower level jobs. What you do in those lower jobs doesn’t disappear when you start to move up. The better you understand how things work as you move up, the better you will be. Now I’m in a position where I supervise people who supervise people who work with students. However, there are still a lot of lessons that I got out of that first job, where I was the lowest guy in the organization, that I use even now. It also helps me understand how to get the most productivity out of people that do work for me. Keep your eyes open and learn as much as you can, but don’t be afraid to take the initiative to try some things when those jobs give you the opportunity. It’s when you make something out of your experience that you get recognized and start to move up. Create your own experiences. LL: Some students find that their chosen major does not translate into their dream See Q&A, on 20
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