I was talking to a friend who works for a university in a non-academic post. She has been there for a couple of years and feels that her current role has reached the point where there is no prospect for further development; hence she has started job-hunting for new internal and external positions. She was telling me about how particularly challenging she has found the whole procedure, as she only managed to get one interview out of almost 10 applications for positions she was well qualified for.
I couldn’t help thinking that the current economic climate has something to do with this. After all, I know that competition for any job in the past few months has been fierce. Even most non-academic university vacancies nowadays attract several applications from redundant (or redundancy-fearing) City workers – usually well qualified and with lots of desirable competencies. This makes things harder and more complicated for everybody – candidates and recruiters alike. This makes the outcome of any job application even more unpredictable than it is anyway.
Some interesting HE employees
While City workers may or may not get the job at the end of the day, higher education is one of the foremost industries in the UK that is open to people from different and diverse backgrounds. Even from my limited experience working in the sector, I have met people from every possible background doing university work that is not always relevant to what they used to do before.
Let’s see if I can muster some of the most astonishing examples I have come across:
- Ex-wedding planner now managing business development activities
- Ex-airhostess now coordinating student internships
- Ex-journalist now writing and managing bids
- Ex-librarian now a Careers Advisor
- Ex-actress now an executive PA
- And let’s not forget me: an ex-political researcher and journalist who happened to fall into higher education and loved it so much that now I want to develop my career in the sector
Is all this good or bad?
Depending on whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty, this openness can be seen as good or bad news. With the current economic climate, it may mean that competition becomes much harder, but not for those candidates who can demonstrate a real interest and knowledge of the sector and can show how their skills make them the right person for the job. Whether those skills come from higher education or elsewhere, it is those candidates who are ultimately going to get interviews and land the jobs.
For people already employed in the sector, this can only mean good news. With the exception of a few highly specialised positions, most non-academic posts require the same transferable skills. In my current role, I work with students, academics and external organisations. I do events coordination, marketing, bid writing support, website management and administration, all in between internal and external meetings. All my colleagues do the same, from my line manager to the department head. Some tasks are enjoyable, some are not. But the point is that we are lucky enough to gain a range of transferable skills that can be applied to a wide variety of different roles and functions. HE institutions do not normally discourage internal mobility, so it is not unusual for staff to move to a different department of the same institution for career development purposes. Similarly, HE hiring managers usually keep an open mind about the type of candidates they are looking to recruit and about the kind of experience those candidates bring along. It is not always necessary that your current role is an exact fit to the new vacancy if you have the required skills and are able to prove it.
I don’t know if I am overly optimistic, but to me, this all sounds like good news.
