A Different Kind of Job Search: Post-Graduate Student Affairs Geographically Focused Searches

Abstract

A As student affairs graduate students finish their academic work and begin their job searches, they must navigate a number of competing priorities including position, title, work responsibilities, functional area, salary, benefits and other aspects of the position. For some graduates, the most important consideration is geographical location – they want to be close to family, partners, or lo-cated in specific communities. As a result, they often have to be very flexible on other work con-siderations. They also sometimes feel isolated in their searches and get messages from peers that they are not doing their searches in the “right” way. This study examined the experiences of these students as they engaged in their job searches. While there is a vast amount of anecdotal information on the role of location in the student affairs job search, there is limited scholarship on the topic until now. This study begins to fill the scholarly gap on the role of location in the student affairs job search process.