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The HigherEdJobs Podcast is dedicated to helping higher education professionals find fulfillment in their careers and be the change agents that higher education needs in today's world. Join hosts Andrew Hibel and Kelly Cherwin, along with guest experts, as they examine job search strategies and break down the latest news and trends in higher education.
Andy Hibel 0:05
Welcome to the HigherEdJobs podcast. Ask the Expert Edition. I'm Andy Hibel, the chief operating officer and one of the co-founders of HigherEdJobs.
Kelly Cherwin 0:13
And I'm Kelly Cherwin, the director of editorial strategy. Today we're here with expert Matt Trainum, who is the vice president, Networks and Strategic Partnerships at the Council of Independent Colleges. Welcome, Matt.
Matt Trainum 0:25
Kelly. Andy I couldn't imagine a better place to be. Thanks again for having me.
Andy Hibel 0:28
Nice to see you again, Matt.
Kelly Cherwin 0:29
Today's question is, what's the best way to translate higher ed skills into industry desired skills as examples, collaboration, strategizing and planning. Matt, what are your thoughts on this question today?
Matt Trainum 0:41
That's a nice, concise question, Kelly. I like that. Well, first I'll just say it at a top level, you've actually got to believe you can do whatever job you're applying to. And I know that might sound a little silly of a place to start, but you've got to think you can do it and you've got to then think through the job to get to that belief that you can do it. So some good research at the start, some good preparation, some good self-reflection is just a great place to start if you're imagining exiting higher ed and going to other spaces. Pretty much all of us in higher ed know a lot of folks who have at some point left higher ed and gone on to do other really interesting things. And this person can do that as well. If I think of some very specific answers, I've got a couple thoughts for you. One is I'm going to pick a word right out of the question and I'm going to just double, triple emphasize it. You have got to translate your words. Every word, every feature, every experience. You've got to think about how to translate that in writing and in person when you're presenting what you've done. It is amazing to me when I've looked at resumes from colleagues who are looking external to higher ed and the word faculty member is in there 12 times. No one else has a faculty member position. Immediately the reader is going to read that and have to translate it. Every time someone reviewing your resume has to translate, they might drop the translation. It's too much effort. They don't get the right translation. So as applicants, we have to translate all of that, right? I mean, faculty members, by the way, is a great example dealing with faculty members is like dealing with any empowered stakeholder group. It's like dealing with doctors. If you're in the medical profession, it's like dealing with judges. If you're over working in the courts, right? These are empowered, maybe moderately entitled stakeholder groups who control a lot of sway in the organization. But you've got to help people see that translation because they won't see it. Department chairs are similar to department managers in a highly decentralized kind of organization. Right. But you've got to be able to help them see that translation. Some might say students are our customers, but you've got to help people understand how you present that or trainees or just depending on where you're going. So the need for translation is really high. And I just start with that point. I've got to tell you, if I were looking to switch from my industry, I would take my industry resume. I would 100% drop it into ChatGPT and then ask for it to be translated, translate the whole resumé into bullets that read better for a business job. And then I would look and see what they said. Right. And I would compare those right. We know that these are quick LLM disclaimer here, right? We know that these are not models that are generating answers for us, but they generate options for us. And so doing that translation is super significant and that is where I will start. I'm not sure if you all have any interesting stories of translations of different ways that you might see faculty presented or other things. Do you have any of that?
Andy Hibel 3:43
I think I am going to try to just tweak the question just a bit, if I can.
Matt Trainum 3:48
Do It.
Andy Hibel 3:48
The word translates the first good word that stood out to me and I like the idea of translating authentically. The translation needs to be in the language that you speak. Be who you are. Most important thing about translating and then the skills higher ed skills into industry related skills. Skills are skills,
Matt Trainum 4:13
right?
Andy Hibel 4:13
There's not a separate set of skills demonstrating and translating your deployment of these skills in higher ed to a way that industry can understand it. Matt You just absolutely provided the blueprint on how to do that. I think the part I would say is I'd remind people in a resume, you need to use words like collaboration, strategizing and planning, but then other parts of the resume. You absolutely need to show how you were a collaborator, a strategizer and a planner. And then when you're in the interview, you better have awesome vignettes of talking about how that's important to you. And it's part of that value. If you're wanting to translate those skills. To do so would be go to see Lynyrd Skynyrd and they don't play Freebird. You cannot promise these things or show up at a Lynyrd Skynyrd show and not see Freebird without being disappointed if people don't deliver it. The best way to not translate those skills is to talk about them in the aggregate, but then not provide concrete vignettes and examples of how you've deployed them.
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Kelly Cherwin 5:43
Yeah, you guys summarized it well. The only other example I was going to give and I Matt I so appreciate the reminder to our our listeners, our jobseekers, our candidates to translate and Andy you said it perfectly. One area we see this a lot is our military connected population where they sometimes forget that they truly do have to translate some of their language and their lingo into the higher ed space and it's not just the military connected, but it's other job seekers as well. Don't assume that the person reading your résumé will know what that acronym means. You know, don't assume in like you're saying, Andy the the interview that they know what you know I was a team leader or what What does that mean? Give specific examples. So err on the side of translating too much because that's that's better to, you know, not put enough in there because some people are going to be like, well, I don't even understand what they did before. So that's kind of all I have to add there since you guys said everything before.
Matt Trainum 6:42
Well, then when you you know, here's a challenge and I know it exists when you're translating in the way we're talking about here, you also need to not turn it into mush, right? And so you've got to leave back to Andy's point about you've got to leave enough authenticity there. And so I'm a big advocate in translating a lot as well. Your military example is a great one of a space with very specific lingo that you've got to exit out of for people to hear. But then you also have to have it not be ChatGPT generic where it just doesn't represent who you are. There's maybe two other little niche versions of this that I would say around the translation. You have to place your experience in their world and present like you already know how to do that work because you do. So you cannot ask for permission to learn in this role or present yourself. Has ready for a new challenge. We see a lot of applications. I think we all do, where it's like, you know, I'd like to close this chapter of my life and do this new thing in my life and has someone reviewing those. I will say I often look at those and go, Why would I, as an employer, let you come over here and practice something new? I think what you're trying to say is all of my experiences prepare me very well to do this other job. I'm just switching my my context, right? I know all of the skills I need. I learned. And these point when I when you read those skills, Kelly, I was like, are those the skills that he's translating? Are those like, it's all the same skills, right? You're just switching where you're using them and you have to present that in a way that says that you're ready. The translation also has to go into your experience. You've got to be able to present that has you're ready for this role not as if you're imagining it and an additional point would be to say that the examples that you're using when you're trying to switch industry, be really careful that those examples are not about the example, but about your work in actions. If you're in industry and you're giving an example, the example can be about industry because people will translate for it and they will imagine your role in it. But if you're not in industry and you're giving an example and you go into details about how you managed to move that platoon, folks are not necessarily going to be able to translate that. So you have to give that example, but then you have to translate it along the way as you're giving it. So you have to highlight what you did. I had to make these five choices. I had to handle this many people. I had to deliver this kind of deliverable. I had to manage these kind of logistics. So you have to make the example about your skills and your work. So those are just two additional points.
Kelly Cherwin 9:18
Thank you. That was fantastic.
Andy Hibel 9:21
Thanks so much, Matt. This topic is very important and I think people need to place the thought into it just like you did about how they do it and how they I think you put it perfectly present your experience in their world. If you're able to do that, your translation will be perfect. Thank you for listening to today's podcast. And if you have a question for experts like Matt, please email us at podcast at HigherEdJobs.com or send us a direct message on X @higheredcareers. Thanks. And we'll see you real soon.