~ Blog Posts Written By RAs for RAs ~
So if you’re anything like me, these past few months have been a bit…stressful at best. There’s nothing quite like the crushing reality of having to now either get a job or go back to more school, with graduation caps and uncertainty looming in the distance.
Sometimes I feel like retreating to my nice little single dorm (thank you residential life!) to avoid responsibilities, but I decided to be a little more productive. So with a lot of potential resume writing coming up, here’s some tips for how to use your RA experience to be as compelling as possible, no matter your profession of choice.
Leadership & Management
Even if you haven’t necessarily served in a leadership role during your time as an RA, I feel as if there are a lot of opportunities to use your experience to display leadership. For example, did you take the lead on any projects or events? Were you perhaps a role model for new staff members if and when you were a returning RA? There are plenty of ways that people not necessarily in a leadership position can display the qualities of a leader, so include any large successes when advertising yourself to potential recruiters.
Furthermore, if you aren’t yet graduating, check to see if your institution offers some senior-level position in the RA role. Gaining skills in scheduling, conflict management on a staff, etc., can be excellent additions to any resume.
Communication
This might seem like an obvious one, but it’s no joke that interpersonal communication skills are probably the most important aspect of any future job. But it isn’t just being able to talk to someone, it’s how you navigate tough conversations, such as working through conflicts on a staff or with residents. It’s about maintaining an unbiased perspective, even when it is difficult. Maybe you’re planning on a job in customer service, where this would be a perfect skill set to boast about.
Another aspect of communication that maybe isn’t talked about as much is written communication. I know for sure that any RA has had their fair share of bureaucratic form-filing to deal with, whether that be an incident report or a one on one report with a resident. Clear and effective writing can be useful to jobs in fields such as law, business, consulting, etc.
Administration
Building off of written communication, administration tends to be the hidden nightmare in any job, expected or not. When thinking about it though, I finally figured out how to use Excel because of this job, which helped me greatly when I found an internship and knew how to organize data.
Furthermore, time management and scheduling are often found in every career path. Being able to maintain a rigorous job with demanding hours such as being an RA, all while being a full-time student can be a great selling point. Plus, it’s nice to be able to say that you are dependable and already acclimated to a more professional environment.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
This might be a turbulent time to mention these words, but I think it’s important to look at what they actually mean before drawing conclusions. In a job, having a variety of perspectives, and making sure to not alienate anyone are not skills, they are a necessity.
Living in a residence hall, you are bound to come across a variety of people from various walks of life. With all of these unique perspectives come unique challenges that you might face as an RA, such as how to understand someone else even if you don’t understand their beliefs. As an RA, you fostered an inclusive and welcoming community with the end goal of bringing these different people together, and finding commonalities despite all of their differences.
You should be proud of these skills, and don’t shy away from them, even if others might tell you to.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully reading this helps you to skip over the couple hours of brainstorming I found myself doing when creating my resume. Whether your future goals happen to be in law, medicine, business, anything, time spent as an RA is incredibly helpful for helping your career, and will hopefully be something to look back on fondly.
So the next time you’re up until 3am writing an incident report, remember that you’re not only bettering your community right then and there, you’re also benefiting yourself and your future.
