For Hire: One Swiss Army Knife Employee

                I have to start by saying thank you to my former student Brittany for this more than wonderful metaphor for what employers are looking for today. I have said this before and I will say it again one of the great benefits of being an educator is the networks and community that you create. I am so grateful that even after more than 5 years after being Brittany’s TA we can still have these great conversations and engage with important ideas. I have watched her continue her education, get a great job, and continue to be the kind of cutting-edge thinker that makes me very proud to know her.

                As it has been said numerous times fostering community and connections are important aspects of the educational experience. If you can continue to maintain a connection to the group of people who shared a learning experience with you that helps solidify and extend not only the topics and themes you have discussed together but demonstrates the ability for those networks to grow and foster new ideas as the months and years go on.

                Brittany is very proud of her position as a generalist. Talking to her yesterday she had very insightful points about how the role of specialists is slowly deteriorating in favour of generalists because employees are looking for those Jills and Jacks of all trades. As she suggests, and I agree, this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact what a push towards generalization does is open even more avenues for future engagement and employment.  Another former student of mine mentioned the other day that she saw a posting for an “Experienced Generalist.” Of course this sounds like a contradiction in terms but truly this posting is indicative of a trend employers want to seek. These conversations made me pause and think about this idea of skill sets, transferable skills, and the process through which we acquire new information and knowledge.

                It was particularly timely as I find myself at an employment crossroads. I have been working in post-secondary institutions for more than 10 years now and I really want to remain connected to education, either as an educator or through a position that allows me to maximize my instructional and curriculum design expertise and capitalize on the experience I have acquired. Because I am, as Brittany so graciously called all generalists, a Swiss Army knife employee and I am proud to be that person.

                A perfect example of this is the other day I was given a 60pg document on how to perform a procedure in the new student services software we implemented. Do you know how long it took me to figure out how to do it? 10 minutes maximum. Why? Not because I read every little thing in that 60pg document, but because my graduate studies and my humanities background have prepared me and taught me that indexes and tables of contents are my best friend. I looked at the TOC I focused on the two parts that I needed to focus on, read them in detail, and then used higher order learning in actually doing the procedure in the software.  By practicing I solidified my knowledge of this new procedure and now I could repeat it at any given time. You see we all have these transferable skills that we don’t necessarily market and should be marketing.  Discussions of alt-ac careers very much focus on harnessing what you already have in your possession and either repackaging it or reformatting it to a new environment.

                At the heart of it, sessional and precariat workers are all very much the Swiss army knife employees of academe. Often we are given courses to teach under two weeks before class starts and we have to scramble to get things ready, books, assignments, syllabi. We do this successfully because we have the non-specialist skill sets and knowledge required to succeed. I think if we started to think of ourselves more in terms of what we all carrying in our back pocket as curriculum specialist,  as digitally literate, as analysts,  as instructional redeveloper (like a screwdriver, a toothpick, corkscrew, scissors) instead of just being a knife (instructor of topic X) we would all benefit; not just higher education but society in general.

                I know that sounds like a very humanist view of the world and no I will not go on a Ruskin diatribe here, but I will honestly say that my conversation yesterday has allowed me to rethink even those other Swiss army knife skills I possess. I am one of those people who is often described as a both sides of the brain person because I have a degree in chemistry and doctorate in English. I can do math (and love math) and go on about Victorian novels or women’s literature in the same breath.  Students love my classes because they are engaging- I challenge them to think critically and they then use those critical skills in other courses or in their places of employment.  Give me a piece of tech and I will figure out how to use it effectively within a pedagogical frame very quickly. I have administrative experience in a very diverse portfolio. I know what works well in online learning and what doesn't ; I understand accessibility from a tech, legal, and social standpoint, and the architecture of design is something I am very passionate about and have the knowledge and education to back it up. I’m not even bothering to humble brag this, these are facts that have been proven, backed up with results and years of experience. And I think sometimes that is what we need to do as sessional workers, as underemployed academics, we need to promote our skills and our knowledge for we are the best advocates for ourselves and what we all can bring to the table.

                Maybe the message should be not that we have all these PhDs who have no TT positions to go to, or how TT is declining, or how higher education is cracking under social pressure, economic pressure, and even the pressure to standardize (or lower standards). Maybe the message should be, look, look at all the Swiss army knife employees that are available- it’s time to truly start thinking outside those boxes or towers (ivory covered or not). We possess, as a community, as a network, the power to reinvent the boxes, to take the materials and rethink them into something great- so let’s get our tools together and build.

(I am serious about being for hire by the way. Anyone with great instructional projects that they need help with please do not hesitate to email me).