7 Lessons Learned in Transitioning from Administration to Faculty Life
Last fall, I knew my time as an administrator was coming to a close. After a couple years of waffling on direction, I finally had the sense of peace and clarity I always hope to get to in making a big decision. I’m closing in on a year of knowing my path was shifting back to a faculty life and about four months of my new gig.
There’s a lot of value in self-reflection and shifting your mindset towards relevant context, especially after some time has passed. Here are seven lessons and observations I’ve made in the last four months.
Discernment is sometimes short but often long and winding. Sometimes we can make gut decisions or quick, impulse choices. Giving yourself time for big choices – when you are lucky enough to have the time – is helpful. More here.
Your choices do not have to make sense to other people to be right for you. More here on when it’s time to go and here on boundaries. Plenty of people have told me “but you are X” or “oh no, you’re so good at Y.” That comes from a kind place and is very nice to hear in most cases – but I’m the one who gets to choose what feels right for me!
The long path out can be too much. While I had hoped to end my role sooner, knowing that the dwindling down of a role is tough for leader and team, that didn’t work out. The slow roll out of my role was not ideal, but you can still end things well! A two month departure would have been a stronger choice, but that wasn’t entirely up to me – what was up to me was to be my best self no matter the decision.
Taking a job that seems “off your path” might be really worth it. Taking a “side calling” in administration for a time was not the ultimate call for me, but it was the right choice for that time. More on side calls here. I learned a lot, I mostly had a really good time, and I was able to help my university by using my skill set when called upon. I met some lovely people, networked a lot (every introvert’s fave), and gained clarity about my future. That’s all worth it (even the networking).
Being a woman in academia is hard. I mean, being a woman is hard, and not getting particularly less so these days! While I still deal with some of that – including regularly being mansplained to by male students – I don’t miss the policy upholding part of my past role. And while I certainly had the chance to mentor as an administrator I feel most myself when working with students.
My life feels more balanced. After a decade of researching work-life balance and writing a little book with some findings on it, I am not sure I believe in balance so much as integration. But my own work-life integration is more in tune with who I am – my core self and values for my family – than it has been in a long time.
By the way, that’s not a knock on my past life. It’s my job to set and hold boundaries and make choices that best support my goals and self. I did just that with returning to the faculty life! The combination of the massive grief of losing my mother and illness that shook my body up significantly created a mandate for a new life that didn’t exist in the same way before. More on that here and here and here.
Being open to possibility is reasonable and healthy. I’m experienced enough and old enough at this point (and obviously so very wise with all that age and experience) to know things change. Who knows where my path will take me next or when. Despite being a planner and goal-oriented human, I push myself to be open to new things or to what others see in me. But for now? I am so very happy to be in a flexible career doing the things I love.
And believe it or not, I’ve even started my next quilt!