What area do you work in within the VPFA portfolio?
I work for PAST: the Provost’s Administrative Services Team. This team just moved under Administrative Services. I have been with the team almost a year, and it has been a year of change with lots of learning about systems. I have enjoyed taking a broad look at how different things work across the university.
What is your current position, and what are your job responsibilities?
I am a program support specialist within PAST. When I applied, I was not exactly sure what I was going to be doing but I knew I wanted to be at the university. The posting described things I was interested in, including office work, administration, and support, so I applied. The position lets me do what I enjoy: being the support person that helps other people get their work done. I help with all the little things that want to fall through the cracks, including finding a place to store office supplies, creating a system for ordering uniforms, and mocking up reports. This position has lots of variety and I work with a fantastic team.
I used to be an environmental educator, helping people learn and achieve goals. When you are a teacher, you are in a support role because you support the learners. There is something similar in this role that I like; I like supporting others in their work.
What has been your career path; how did you end up in your current position?
I spent the last decade as an environmental educator working for small non-profit organizations, taking kids and adults out into nature on learning expeditions. As I worked in the field, I was always thinking about the administrative side and considering ways the organization could run better. I found in the world of small non-profits, most people are not interested in that way of thinking. Also, when non-profits go through transition it is an unstable situation to be in. I was looking for a more stable organization that can handle transition. One of the reasons I wanted to work at this university was to experience the stability of an organization that is established. Even through the transition of the last year—with PAST moving from the Provost’s Office to Administrative Services—it was a stable situation and there was a lot of learning involved. This transition was less chaotic and stressful than the world I came from—I learned to be hyper flexible in the non-profit world, so I was well-prepared for the year of change I have just gone through at the UO.
In terms of career path, I was looking at the UO because I still wanted to support education and learning. I may not work directly with students, but I am still supporting the educational mission on a broader scale. Also, there are lots of benefits to being at a learning organization; I love learning.
At one point when I was teaching, I was deciding on whether to pursue a Master’s degree or not. At the time I worked at a Nature Center connected to Penn State University and learned that I could not be promoted beyond a certain level unless I had a certain degree. So, I moved to Oregon and got an MA in Environmental Education from Southern Oregon University. I am from Tennessee, but I fell in love with Oregon. That experience introduced me to Oregon and the world of higher education in Oregon. If you are going to work somewhere like UO, having an advanced degree is helpful. It helped me get the position and pay level that I have, so I am really pleased that I did that.
What obstacles have you overcome in your career?
For me, the biggest obstacles I have dealt with were the attitudes of people who didn’t want to talk about improving organizations. As I became more interested in administration and how organizations work, I came up against a lot of barriers. People didn’t want to talk about budgets or business plans; they just wanted to focus on teaching. I realized that my career field was not working for me anymore because it was no longer aligned with my goals as a person and how I think. Coming to the UO was a breath of fresh air because the organization was doing many things that I suggested doing in my old career for years. Seeing those suggestions working here was very validating. It was hard to overcome the friction of working in a field I loved while that field was counter to my way of thinking and doing. I am pleased I finally did it and moved here.
How has working at UO enabled your professional goals and interests?
In March of this year, I will have been at the UO for a year, so I am still fairly new here. So far, being here has allowed me to have professional goals and interests. In my previous organization, you had to wait for someone to resign from a position they had held for ages before you could try to move into that new position. Here, there is more flexibility and stability and that has allowed me to think about various goals. Before, I was locked into very few paths, but I feel like there is a lot more to offer here.
What do you like about your current position?
I really like the team I work with! That is 90% of any job—working with humans, and I really like everyone I work with now. This team also really desires and appreciates my strengths, which is refreshing and rewarding. I also like the position I am in right now because I enjoy being useful, so my support-fix-it-get-it-done role suits me perfectly.
Please share some insight into what your job involves (e.g., something you had to solve, a complicated situation that worked out well, something you are proud of, etc.)
My job involves making sure the team has what they need. That could mean finding supplies for offices or planning logistics for an event. Sometimes I perform rote tasks and sometimes I am pulled into larger project management tasks, such as getting 20 offices repainted and a hall re-carpeted. That project was complicated because I coordinated with Campus Planning and Facilities Management (CPFM) and everyone in the offices to make sure everyone stays appraised of what is happening when.
When I came on board, we had a rudimentary ticketing system for people to put in work requests. I spearheaded the implementation of a Smartsheet-based ticketing system, which was great. I worked with the leadership team and the Smartsheet contractor to build the system. I have been maintaining it since the system was implemented in November 2023 and so far, everything has gone smoothly. We had to do updates and make changes to bring our partner units into the new system, but it seems to be going really well.
What advice do you have for someone thinking of applying to the UO?
My advice for anyone thinking of applying to the UO would be, “GO FOR IT!” Of course, if you are not familiar with the UO, there will be a learning curve. I came from an informal non-corporate world, so when I started, I had to learn all the jargon; when my supervisor talked about project management, I had to ask for an explanation. Fortunately, my supervisor was more than happy to explain it to me, and it turned out to be exactly what I wanted to do.
Also, while looking at the job posting, focus on the minimum qualifications for the position. It is easy to get lost in all the other information—that is important, too, but really focus on the minimum qualifications because those are the heart of the job at the end of the day. If you are an intelligent person who is driven and knows a little bit and wants to learn and work somewhere new and make a change, just apply! That is my advice – don’t be intimidated by the words; just apply! I did—I went for it and here I am. I tried and I am now in a job I am really satisfied in!
February 2024