Generalists. We hear that word often working in student affairs, specifically in residential life. It is one of the reasons I believed in and still do that work. Residential life is a great jumping off point for young student affairs professionals who are uncertain about their career path after completing graduate school. Working in residential life gives you skills such as crisis management, conflict resolution, teamwork, facilities management, event planning, supervision, and budgeting. These are skills you can bring to any field, in or out of higher education. It’s true what they say about wearing multiple hats when you work in student affairs, and residential life is no exception. The various skills you learn in residential life can come in handy no matter what hat you choose to wear.
Like many in the field, I began my path in student affairs as a resident assistant in undergrad and was later guided by a mentor who introduced me to the hall director role as a career opportunity. I went to graduate school where I pivoted and worked in academic affairs, and it was there that I realized how much I missed working in residential life. I missed the crisis, the energy, and the powerful student interactions that often come with working in a residence hall. So when it came time to job search, I exclusively looked for jobs in residential life. Since working professionally in residential life for the last seven years, I have collected many metaphorical hats: COVID response team hat, supervisor hat, lamp builder hat (that story is for another time). My most recent hat is one that may seem a little out of the ordinary for residential life. I have started wearing my food pantry coordinator hat.
A New Hat
While there are over 700 food pantries on college campuses (https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/hunger-campuses-growing-problem), most are run by basic needs offices or the dining hall or community action offices but often feature collaborations with other offices on campus. I took on our campus food pantry in the summer of 2022. At that time, we did not have a physical location on campus to operate out of. Instead, we had a mobile pantry model where one day every month or two, we would receive donations from a food bank and find a space on campus (sometimes a large room, other times the parking lot, and still other times the sidewalks of a quad) and hand out the food to community members. Since putting a food pantry hat into my rotation, I have come to learn and appreciate the power of being a generalist in the field of student affairs.
Event Planning
Pizza parties. That’s probably the answer when asked what people outside the field think people in residential life do. And in some respects, yes. We do have pizza at our parties aka our programs. What college student doesn’t like pizza? Programming was a skill I never imagined would help me run a food pantry but it’s been an invaluable asset. Each month, we host a mobile food pantry. That day can be compared to a program or event planning. We need to book the space each time, set up, advertise (via flyers and announcements each month), connect with attendees, and sign people in.
Organization and Cleaning
Organizing our pantry started well before we opened. Even what we would call the resources had a variety of implications. When I was considering a name for our pantry, I struggled between including the word pantry in the wording. In the end, I decided against it and instead subbed the work Market for the word pantry. One reason was to help our community understand that sometimes we do carry non-pantry items but another reason was to remove any stigma as to what visiting a pantry can imply. I knew I wanted our campus pantry to be fun, inviting, and open.
My experience in residential life seamlessly informed creating a welcoming space. I was able to connect with students and staff and get to know them. As a result, when we have mobile pantries it’s always a fun environment. We try to keep things light by doing things like speed tours of our Market on social media to connect with students. Additionally, Instagram is one of the biggest ways shoppers hear about and stay in touch with us. I wanted people coming to the Market to feel like they were simply grocery shopping. In surveys to our shoppers, the most common phrase used to describe us and our volunteers was welcoming, friendly, and kind. One shopper wrote “they always say hi and ask how we are doing”. I knew I wanted the pantry to be an extension of a community and hosting programs and connecting with students as a hall director has helped me tremendously in accomplishing this goal.
Another skill from residential life to running a food pantry is keeping a clean space. Raise your hand if your RA office is clean and organized? Probably not many hands can go up. That is because it is difficult to keep a space clean when others have access to the space too. We opened our permanent pantry in the lobby of one of our residence halls in 2023 and with that came many lessons learned. One of which was no matter how organized I may be, I need to plan for others as well. The pantry opened and at one point we had staff members who had access and student volunteers with access. I knew it was not realistic just for me to have the sole key to the pantry as I could not always be available to unlock it for someone but allowing so much access meant someone (usually me) needed to be more on top of the mess that inevitably follows. However, being a hall director for four years prior and managing an RA office that at times 15 people had access to (including summer orientation staff who did not work for residential life) meant I had to come up with a system to keep things somewhat tidy and neat.
Transferable Skills
If you are considering making a leap out of residential life or just thinking about your next move, but you’re nervous about being pigeonholed into a specific career, I highly encourage you to take a moment to sit down and really think about what you have learned working in student affairs. I am not saying it will be a perfect transition into a new field or that everything you learn working in student affairs will lend perfectly into any new job. What I am saying is that if you really take the time to inventory your skills and how they may or may not be relevant to the new field you are considering, you will be doing yourself a favor. By inventorying what skills you can take from student affairs, you see what skills you have and can bring but more importantly, you see what skills you lack. This is very powerful to realize now because you can leverage the time you have in your current job to acquire those skills. Use your the job you have today to gain skills you need tomorrow.
If you have a supportive team and supervisor then this will be easy. Talk to your supervisor and mentors and maybe even some trusted colleagues about your goals and the things you would like to learn or experiences you would like to get. Develop a plan to achieve those goals. On the other hand, if you do not have a supportive team, you can still build skills and experiences. There are tons of online (and often free) resources for professional development. For example, I used LinkedIn Learning and Coursera when I was interested in learning more about Excel.
Another strategy you can utilize is to start job searching. Even if you are simply considering something different, take the time now to look at what employers want and need. Compare what they are looking for against your current resume. What skills transfer over? Doing a “soft search” or even just reviewing job postings on a regular basis can not only help you fill gaps in your experience, but this practice can make you aware of positions that are out there. There could be opportunities you didn’t even know existed that may pique your interest.
We often can be our own worst critic, so I recommend talking to someone to help you identify your transferable skills. If you are comfortable with this, some institutions allow staff to use their career center. This same resource we refer students to can also be helpful to us. Whether it is career services, a trusted peer or mentor, or a family member, talk to someone who can look at your skills from the outside and give you feedback on where you excel and where you can grow. If you have a connection in the field or job you are looking at, reach out to them to see what they see as important skills to have. Allow them to inventory your resume and see what someone in that field sees when they look at your resume and use that feedback to tailor your resume to the job.
Here is a summary of what I mentioned above:
- Inventory yourself and your skills: What have you learned in your role? Consider skills like conflict resolution, crisis management, program/event planning, supervision and advisement, budgeting and planning, communication, and advocacy.
- Look at job descriptions: Look at jobs that interest you or ones you may be considering. What do they ask for? How does your current experience align with what they are asking for? Where are the gaps?
- Feedback is key: Ask a colleague, mentor, or even career services to help you review and critique your resume and skills from an outsider’s perspective.
- Build your skills intentionally: Use resources available to you like LinkedIn Learning or Coursera to grow in areas you may be lacking in such as Excel, assessment, or project management.
Conclusion
People joke that I run a non-profit on top of my actual job and in many ways, it is true. I manage the campus food pantry, host an annual campus thrift store program, and I help run a thrift shop that is free for the local community on Saturdays. Never in a million years would I think I would do any of those things, let alone be fairly good at them.
But looking back, student affairs/residential life prepared me for these roles and side projects without me even knowing about it. I took the people skills, organizational skills, programming skills, and community building skills I gained from residential life and applied them to projects I both enjoy, but I also have these skills for potential job opportunities in the future. As you can see, the generalist foundation we obtain from working in student affairs equips us and allows us to do far more than we can imagine. So no matter what hat you put on next, just know that the skills you have gained will come along with you on your next chapter.
Author Bio
Wen Xi Piombino (she/her) is Assistant Director of Residential Life at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. She started her student affairs career as a resident assistant at the University of Georgia, then she moved graduated with her master’s in counseling education from Clemson University. Wen started at Pace University in 2018 as a residence director before transitioning to her current role. Wen lives on campus with her husband Anthony and their dog, Jax.