What success says about you

The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of ACUPA or Purdue University.

At the end of your career, when you look back on it, what must have been present for you to feel as though you were successful? This is a job interview question I have asked various candidates over the years. I think the answer can be very telling of the person’s values and work ethic.

A common theme among the answers I hear is a feeling that they have made a difference. In my experience working in higher education for a dozen or so years, this theme tends to be common among anyone who works at a college or university—from faculty and administrators to groundskeepers and food service workers. It takes the efforts of everyone working on a campus to help our students succeed. Some jobs may have more direct contact with students, but other jobs, like policy administrators, work behind the scenes to keep the infrastructure in place. In doing so, we contribute to student success as well.

I’ll be honest, when I first applied for a job at Purdue University, I wanted to work here because I saw it as a stable employer with good benefits. I was looking to get away from both a job and an employer that were headed in a direction I did not want to go. The job I took at Purdue was more in line with my career goals, so I took a cut in pay to do work that was better suited to me. Shortly after I started at Purdue, the Great Recession hit, and my theory of employer stability was tested. Nevertheless, the benefits have remained good and I found an added benefit of working somewhere that values many of the same things I value: continuous learning, integrity, and honesty.

I still have a while to go before I get to the end of my career, but if I were asked the question about what will make me feel successful, I think I would say having good relationships with colleagues and coworkers. I cannot do my job without encouraging others to work with me. And I don’t want to be the person that everyone dreads hearing from. So, I have to invest in building relationships that sustain me each time I come knocking with a request to draft, review, or communicate something. When I am met with a smile and leave with a thank you, I know I have done something right.