Talking Stick - January/February 2017 - 53

Talking Stick: What is your staff
structure? How do you make sure
your live-in professionals meet with
candidates during their interview
days? What do those days look like?

Brandon Barile: I supervise the
assistant and associate director as
well as one residential education
coordinator and four area
coordinators. We typically recruit
nationally for our area coordinator
positions (ACs), which are master'slevel live-in professionals. We make
sure our AC staff have their own time
with candidates. We want to make
sure they interview for the job but
also that candidates understand the
culture of our office and our staff.
We want them to feel like they're
interviewing us as well. We make sure
candidates experience our small city,
tour the campus, and meet with our
students, and we are trying (this year)
to get them to attend a program or
some event. The following day, they'll
be meeting with members of the staff
and division since, as a small college,
an AC role is definitely to act as a
campus partner.

Tim Touchette: I supervise one
associate director, two assistant
directors, six area coordinators, and
two graduate assistants (GAs). Each
staff member has a master's degree,
and our grads are working toward that
end. We recruit nationally for both our
AC and GA positions. All ACs and
GAs live in; my senior team does not
live on campus. Our ACs meet with
our fellow offices in student affairs
and enrollment; however, our GAs
usually Skype/video interview for
their positions.

Chandra Myrick: I supervise a

program director for occupancy
management, four assistant directors
for residence life, and a coordinator
for living-learning communities.
We have 14 master's-level live-in
professional staff members - ten
residence coordinators and four
program coordinators. We typically
conduct a national search for our
coordinator positions and conduct
interviews at The Placement Exchange
(TPE). We advertise the positions on
studentaffairs.com and chronicle.com.
We recognize that not all candidates
are able to participate in TPE, so we
also conduct phone/Skype interviews
after TPE. When candidates are
invited for campus interviews, they
arrive during the afternoon/evening
of day one and have dinner with their
campus host and other staff. Day
two consists of four rounds of topicspecific interviews with coordinators,
graduate assistants, and student
staff/leaders; an interview with our
executive director; an interview with
me; lunch with assistant directors;
and a campus/staff apartment tour.

Ann Marie Przywara: I supervise
one associate director, one
administrative assistant, and four to
five area coordinators, who live on
campus. Currently, the AC count is
four, as we have an opening. We have
recruited AC candidates in a number
of ways, depending on the timing of
the opening. If given enough notice,
we will recruit candidates at The
Placement Exchange. Otherwise, we
rely on advertising on HigherEdJobs.
com. When we identify candidates,
we conduct a 30-40-minute phone
interview or Skype. The office staff
listed above participate. We then invite
candidates to campus. Typically, the
candidate will come the night before.
We host them in a hotel in Saratoga

Springs, and a small group of us take
the candidate to dinner. The next day,
the candidate meets with me, the prostaff, and campus partners; has lunch
with students; takes a tour of campus
and the apartment; and then wraps up
the day with me.
TS: How do you make sure you're
sharing things about your institution
with your candidate in an authentic
way?

Touchette: At Brandeis being true
is part of our approach to a fully
authentic process. We want to make
sure we are a fit as much as the
candidate wants to make sure they
are a fit. An important part of the
process is who is involved in the
different group settings. We allow
our pro-staff team to group interview
the candidate without supervisors
present. This allows the group time to
be honest. We also have a host for the
day who has several points both the
night before and throughout the day
to have candid conversations about
living on campus. Our tradition is to
take all candidates out to dinner with
some of the pro-staff team and their
host on the night before the interview
if possible so that they can have a
moment to relax and not be "on."
This allows for some truly authentic
moments even before the candidate
starts the on-campus process.

Barile: We use AC hosts - where
a staff member is responsible for
checking in with the candidate five
days before the interview and the day
before (and they have dinner with
the person), brings the candidate to
their meetings throughout the day,
and then meets post-interview to help
with follow-up questions. I think it's

JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2017

53
http://www.studentaffairs.com http://www.chronicle.com
Talking Stick - January/February 2017

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