January 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 32

FUTURE LEADERS

Arriving at My Dream Job
By Kathryn Jenkins

E

ight years ago, if asked, I would have said that my dream job would be
with an organization I love, in a community I love, with people I love, and
it would have had the following characteristics: a salary equivalent to my
experience and worth as an employee, great health benefits, ample vacation
and a retirement plan. I told my then boss, the aquatics director, that I wanted her job.
I knew she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and figured I could find a similar
situation elsewhere. I was 19 years old and ready to take on the world.
Two years later, the path to my dream
job still seemed clear. I was going to finish
school, take my Recreation Management
Associates Degree to a community swimming pool and push out some killer programs. I'd grow to love the organization,
the community and people, and I did that
for nearly three years: creating new programs, revamping old ones and training
staff to take ownership of its facility. However, even with my drive to create new programs and take on the world, there were
only so many things to be done with an
eight-lane lap pool on a school district's
budget. I became bored and burnt out,

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Parks & Recreation

needed a change and began looking for
something to shake things up.
That " thing " was a job that would take
me to the other side of the country, just
outside of Lake Tahoe. This new job, with
its awesome facility and location at a salary I'd only dreamed of in Wisconsin, was
my dream job. There were six pools in one
facility, mountains and a lake, and it was
within driving distance to San Francisco.
So, I applied, interviewed over Skype, exchanged a few emails and was flown out
for a second interview. The facility and
staff were lovely. I gave myself a tour of
Lake Tahoe and decided the location was

| J A N UA R Y 2 0 1 8 | W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G

also absolutely fantastic. I couldn't imagine a better place to be. The 24-year-old
me knew I could grow to love the organization, the community and the people. A
week or so after my face-to-face interview,
I got the call from the director of the facility offering me the position as her assistant director. I was so eager I didn't wait
for the conversation to end before verbally
accepting the position. This is where the
learning curve began. Note to self: Always
sleep on it, think about it, crunch the numbers
and then negotiate.
Soon, the trunk of my Honda was
stuffed with three totes full of clothing,
minimal kitchen items and everyday necessities, and my bike, wetsuit, running shoes,
bedding and things for my new office were
crammed into my back seat. Alone, I made
the 1,600-mile journey in three days. I arrived and spent the first three days in a hotel room until I could find an apartment.
Though stressful, this was all part of my



January 2018 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2018 - Parks & Recreation

January 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 1
January 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 2
January 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 3
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