So as a lot of you all know, i applied to be a RA for my sophomore year. Well, here's the progress:
on February 2, i received a letter from the Office of Residence Life letting me know when my first round interview was, Sunday, February 8th 3:00 PM. They asked that i arrived 10 minutes early in order to check in for my 40 minute interview conducted by two RAs and one RHD, and of course to let me know to dress business casual.
At 3 o'clock that Sunday i showed up at north hall 10 minutes early and sat amongst a good twenty other applicants and waited to be called upstairs. A little after 3 my name was called and i followed a RA up the stairs to a conference room and the interview started. i was nervous and could feel the sweat on my side. All that happened was the two RAs asked me questions while they and the RHD took notes on my answers. After the first few questions, i started to loosen up and throughout the rest of the time i continued to become comfortable. It was over in what seemed like 20 minutes, i'm not sure of the time, and i walked downstairs to the desk where they told me i could return on wednesday at 10 to pick up my letter that would let me know if i had gotten a second round interview.
For the next 3 days i couldn't help but think of how i did and what Res Life thought of me and the other 250 or more applicants for the 55 spots. i was at north hall at 9:55 on wednesday morning. Five minutes later it was time to find out how i did. i went in and straight up to the front desk. i told them my name and they handed me my letter and i opened it outside and read:
"Dear Greg,
On behalf of the RA Selection Committee, I would like to thank you for the time and effort you have put into the application and interview process. We had a large number of applications submitted and the applicant pool was extremely competitive with many qualified individuals. At this point, we would like to invite you to a second round interview."
I was so scarred when i read "thank you for the time and effort" and "we had a large number of applications submitted" so i couldn't believe it when i actually saw that i got an interview!
So as you can expect this crowded my thoughts for a few days and the day finally came and i showed up on the next Sunday, this time at 1, ready for a two hour group interview. When our group was called up, we were brought to the same conference room i had been to the first time and saw 3 RHDs and only 1 RA. It was explained that we were supposed to make a mock commercial for Residence Life in about 15 minutes and then perform for the RHDs. we were assured that we would not be judged on our capabilities to act but that they wanted to see how we acted as individuals in a group. we came up with some funny but informational ideas and performed just fine. My brain was buzzing the whole time wondering if i was leading enough or laying back and allowing others to lead enough. But soon that was over and our second task was explained. We were given a situation that would be the absolute worst weekend for an RA. In the scenario we would be coming back from a couple days vacation and were met with multiple resident problems i.e. drinking, safety issues, possible suicide, and then my own problems like a project due soon, family problems, RA reports due, and a bathroom full of clogged toilets. Our job was to rank these problems in order of importance, first by ourselves and then come together and agree on one single order. this was harder because none of us wanted to be overpowering and make all the decisions but also not be a push-over. After this, the interview was over and we were all told that we could pick up a letter saying if we either got the job, were rejected, or got on a waiting list, in three weeks on March 5th after 10 AM.
Those were the slowest three weeks of school in the world.
But on March 5th, i was there at 10 AM and received my letter. i walked outside and stopped to open my letter.
Dear Gregory,
On behalf of the R.A. Selection Committee, I am pleased to be able to offer you a Spring Selection Alternate for the 2009-2010 Resident Assistant Position."
it continued on, but i was confused with my feelings. i was disappointed because i wanted to know either yes or no right away and i got a maybe, also i had seen a girl in my group who i thought didn't do that well and i saw that she got accepted right then. gosh, this was not what i expected. but then i started to think and over the next few days it became clear that i did a good job and would probably become an RA. a few of my friends had applied and not even gotten a second round interview, a lot of others had gotten rejected. i was happy with my letter and got even more excited after talking with my RA and a few other RAs. i told them i got an alternate position and they told me that last year they used up all the alternates and had to hire more people, so i have a very good chance at getting a call from Res Life anytime now. PRAISE GOD!!
so here i am now. waiting. praying. and trying not to think about it too much. that's all that's happened, i hope you liked it!! i'll hopefully see some of you soon! summer is in what...5-6 weeks? that'll go by quick enough. love you all!
