During the first year of being a RA, you are typically focused on learning the role, balancing being a RA on top of school and other commitments, and building your confidence in your new position. Now that you’ve learned the ropes, it’s time to start using your time as a RA to help you grow and prepare for the future. Most commonly, RAs are not seeking a career in Housing after they graduate. If you are looking for a career in Housing post-graduation (welcome to the world of higher education, we are so very happy to have you!!) However, if the degree you are obtaining and the career you are seeking are not related to higher education, you can still be an outstanding RA, while using the skills in your role to add to a resume or talk about in an interview.
I did a quick Google search of “what are the top 3 skills employers are looking for?” The first results are: Teamwork and leadership,public speaking and communication, and problem solving. Do you want to know something crazy? As a RA, you can gain experience in every single one of these skills. In the RA role, there are so many transferable skills you will gain that you can bring to pretty much any career you are seeking after your time in school. Let’s break down some of these generalized skills, and I’ll provide some ideas on how you can build upon your expertise in the RA role.
Teamwork and Leadership Skills:
First off, we will discuss teamwork and leadership skills. Immediately, when I think of teamwork in the RA role, I begin to think of RAs collaborating with other RAs. Maybe this is during duty rounds or through programming efforts. Working with other RAs is great teamwork, but you can also think of the floor or community you serve as a team that you are leading! As a RA, it is your job to support your community (team), lead them in following Residence Hall rules and policies, and help your team connect with one another to feel a sense of community. Do not sell yourself short when it comes to how much work you do as a RA leading your team of residents! You are the one who sets the tone and community expectations for many students, and don’t be afraid to share about this when seeking a job post-college.
Communication & Public Speaking:
In the RA role, you are communicating all the time! Hopefully, in your time of being a RA, most of the communication you have experienced is fun, supportive, and helpful. There are some times you have to communicate about policy violations, or news that others are not excited to hear. In a future career, this may also be the case. These communication encounters, the positive and the negative, lead you to be a more prepared career candidate. Although you may not do a ton of public speaking in the RA role, you do gain some experience that you can share with future employers. If you run floor or community meetings, this is an easy event to share about. You can say that you explained to a group of residents community updates, policies, and expectations. However, I challenge you to think outside of the obvious about how you can expand your public speaking experience in the RA role. Maybe you could work with your supervisor to lead a training for new RAs, or maybe lead a part of one of your meetings? Perhaps you could speak with students who are interested in applying to the RA role about your experience and wisdom. Gaining public speaking skills and being able to say you led a meeting or training as a student is an amazing way to stand out when you are applying to your future career.
Problem Solving:
There are so many unique and situational problems that you may come across while being a RA. Very rarely do people seeking their first job post-college have the skills and training that RAs gain in their roles. Although problems are never fun to handle at the time, and can be extraordinarily stressful, use those moments to make yourself stand out among candidates when applying to jobs! I do want to note that you should never be sharing private information about residents, or specific details about harmful or maybe even traumatic situations, in job interviews, resumes, or cover letters. However, you most definitely can share that you were a first responder when being on duty, students sought your advice when going through challenges, and that you handled interpersonal conflict.
Unique and Specific Skills:
I do encourage you to look at some job descriptions of careers you may aspire to have, and create a list of skills those job descriptions have in common. Next, start thinking about ways you can build upon these skills in the RA role. This will help you have tailored experiences to share when it’s time to start resume building and applying to jobs. Although skills in team work and leadership, communication and public speaking, and problem solving are highly sought after, these are very generalized skills that can apply to almost any job. There are plenty of unique and specific skills employers are looking for that you can also start working on as a RA. I’ll give a quick example. Maybe you are going into graphic design. Is there a way you can use Adobe Suite to make all of your fliers for RA events, so you can add those to a portfolio and share with a future employer? Start thinking of ways that you can gain experiences that are applicable to your future career goals now!
The RA role is such a great opportunity for you to capitalize on to make yourself a strong job candidate and career-ready! Do not pass up the opportunity to start gaining unique experiences now that can help your future. If you’re not sure where to start on this, chat with your supervisor about ways you can grow in the RA role, but also apply and start practicing the skills future employers are seeking. When you are a returning RA, learning in the role doesn’t stop, but rather becomes more important and applicable to your future goals.
Carley Eichhorn (she/her) is currently a Hall Director at the University of Michigan. In 2021, she graduated from Central Michigan University with undergraduate experience as an RA and a tour guide. In 2022, she graduated with her master’s degree from Oklahoma State University, where she served in the Residential Life department as an Assistant Residential Community Educator and a Social Media and Communications Intern. With two degrees in Communications, Carley loves to write and chit-chat, but also has a passion for reading, hiking, playing water polo, and taking naps with her cat, Obi.
