Why I do what I do…

For nearly 10 years, I have worked in the field of advancement in higher education. I’ve worked in alumni relations and annual-fund development, and I am at my second institution of higher learning in my career. I’ve worked at a private institution and now work at a public institution. The work I’ve done has been for the institution as a whole, and for a period of time, for an intercollegiate athletics department.

The work is hard, the hours are long, and my family has been very gracious in the sacrifices we have made so I can have this as my chosen profession.

So the conventional-wisdom question that gets asked is: “Why do you do this?”

Sure the work is hard, the hours are long and my family has made sacrifices so I can be on this career path, but the truth is that it is truly a noble profession, and with my recent change in institutions, I enjoy going to work every morning. With this profession, I essentially am and have been:

… an event planner
… a “matchmaker” of sorts (helping bring lost friends and classmates back together)
… a journalist
… a photographer
… a cheerleader
… an historian
… a public speaker
… a travel planner
… a parliamentarian
… a scriptwriter
… a career counselor
… a concierge
… a “customer service representative”
… and yes, even a fundraiser

And I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything!

Being in this field is a “fountain of youth” of sorts, especially since I’m now old enough to be the father of most of the first-year students coming to campus in the fall. The truth is, I discovered that this was “what I wanted to be when I grew up” while toiling away at my first job as a sales rep for a software company. I went back every year for an alumni band reunion at my alma mater and watched the guy in charge of our reunion doing what he does and how much fun he had doing it (he retired this summer after spending more than 30 years in this profession). The work wasn’t easy. Let’s face it; he was in charge of 200 former students who had come back to campus to collectively re-create our sophomore year of college, and he was responsible for the “care and feeding” of us for 24 hours. But you could tell he loved every minute of it (or if he didn’t, we sure didn’t know it).

One day, the CEO of that software company asked me – on his last day in the office – why I didn’t consider a career in either a college athletic department or alumni office, or the front office of a professional sports team. That question stuck with me for a long time. It was almost 10 years later before the opportunity to break into the field was in front of me, and I didn’t look back. It has been well worth it.

There are a lot of people at my former employer to whom I am very grateful. It was under their tutelage that I learned a lot, developed a skill set, get my master’s degree, and prepared me for where I am now.

My new employer has allowed me to use the experiences I previously had and share what worked (and what didn’t work), make mistakes (some big ones) and learn from them, and grow and thrive, and I am equally grateful to them as well.

It took a long time for me to find what I wanted to be when I grew up; it didn’t happen the moment I crossed the stage with my diploma. If you work at it long enough and hard enough, you will find what you want to be when you grow up. It won’t be easy; it wasn’t for me. However, it will be worth the wait.