I see my RAs in a new light now. I recently applied to be one and came to realize that getting the job is pretty hard. The actual application process isn’t too painful – the normal basic info is asked for and a couple references are needed. What was difficult was doing interviews. Yes, more than one. The first was a group interview that I thought would be basically to see if you play well with others. It ended up being a number of team building exercises, which were a little trying at first. Each group member was applying for the same job. That meant we probably all had the same personality type, which of course was A. We had a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. But we were able to figure out how to work well together – and ended up making quite the remarkable Tinkertoy tower, if you ask me. We just had to swallow our pride, and let other people take the lead. Forget about the three people silently observing you while you work. After my dexterity with Tinkertoys and ability to work in a team were tested, my patience was. A one-on-one interview wasn’t guaranteed, so I had to wait until midnight to see if I got an e-mail inviting me to one the next day. Luckily I did, and that’s when I got really nervous. Like the Residential Life assistant director said, you can write about how great you are, but in an interview, they can tell when you are blowing smoke and sunshine up their bottom. I, of course, blanked when they asked me questions. From simple ones like why I even was applying to be an RA – which I of course couldn’t remember, so I told them exactly what they didn’t want to hear (the financial compensation) – to difficult questions like “describe a time when you compromised your morals.” I had trouble. Somehow I managed to wrangle a job out of the process. Maybe they found my constant drawing a blank cute or the people who wrote my references were generous. Either way, I have a whole new respect for my RAs; it’s a difficult process they went through to get their job.
—-Contact Emily McArdle at [email protected]