Tell us about yourself Flashcards
What are you doing right now and what brought you to KU?
I’ve been at KU since June of 2023 as its communications coordinator at the Hall Center for the Humanities. I am responsible for its magazines, social media and website.
Family brought me this direction. My boys are in living in Kansas CIty and my daughter and son-in-law are in north central Kansas.
What’s your experience in higher-ed?
I now have about 18 years of expereince in higher education.
Prior to coming to KU, I was the editorial director for Earlham College for 8 years and, before that, I was the university editor and content strategist for Concordia University in Nebraska for nine years.
In higher ed, I started as a web administrator
I led the web strategy at Concordia University in Nebraska and was a writer and photographer.
I was promoted to being the new media director in charge of social media and media relations there.
I was also the editor of the alumni magazine, so I got to keep a hand in old media as well.
Then my title changed to university editor and content strategist, and in that role I supervised media relations and created communication plans, including those for social media.
At Earlham, I did a similar range of things that I did at Concordia: 1) I edited the twice-yearly alumni magazine in print and online, 2) I worked on communications plans and email sequences for recruitment, 3) I put together a bi-weekly newsletter that goes out to campus, and 4) I updated web pages and work on our biggest web projects like—at the moment—creating a microsite especially for recruitment.
Tell us about yourself? (What got you interested in what you are doing?)
Passionate about, what got me excited, the journey you went through to gain that passion
What motivates you? (Why are you excited about your work?)
Clear vision about where an organization is going and aligned with what I believe in.
Why are you applying for this position?
I have a deep passion for helping people to be a part of something that’s positive and makes a difference not just now, but in the future. I am aligned with what they are doing.
Could you highlight your resume for us?
Studied to become a professor, but eventually decided that wasn’t for me. I still love highered and had skills that could be useful for that. First job in higher ed was a Concordia Nebraska as their web editor, then they added social media and print publications and content strategy as they saw what I could do.
I then took on a similar role at Earlham College in Indiana and was promoted to editorial director, working on print, social media, media relations, and digital communications.
Why do you want to work here?
Align myself with what their values and where they are going.
Why are you the best person for the job?
None of this is theoretical for me. For well over 10 years I have brought projects in on time and on budget and in a way that built up my colleagues and especially those I supervised.
- You need someone who can direct a symphony so to speak. I’ve done that.
- You need someone who can direct traffic and keep projects on track. I’ve done that.
- You need someone who can be a comma cowboy, gathering up stray punctuation and adverbs. I’ve done that well. And I love it.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I want to be serving in an organization like this, that has these values and focus.
What interests you about the position?
I want to work at a great place where I can make the most of my abilities. This job is all that.
* FIRST, it’s dedicated to the work I love supporting, higher ed, and at an institution that has such great respect.
* SECOND, I know I would love the work as mentioned in the job description, and it would all build on what I have passion about and experience doing.
None of this is theoretical for me— these are things that I love to work on and have been successful at.
Also, in whatever job I am doing, I always want to find rewarding experiences in the work I do and the relationships I build. In my experience, higher ed is great place to do that.
- THIRD Every job has its hard parts. I’d like to be in a job where I know what a lot of the hard parts are, and I know how to deal with them.
Why are you good fit?
I know that you are trying to do these thing with this job:
I also know that you have certain values that are important to the entire organization including:
Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult challenge?
Situation faced:
Action?
Result?
Why should we hire you?
How are you going to help them because of experience I’ve had.
I bring an outsider’s eye–I will ask questions about why we’re only expecting a certain level of quality? Why are allowing incorrect punctuation in our social media? Why are we allowing some weaker photos to be used for our print materials? Why are we not evolving the magazine so it earns a place on the coffee table and not the trash?
What are your weaknesses?
I’d like to listen to audiences better (audiences in the rhetorical sense). It’s easiest to put the work out there into the world and then not consider feedback. That’s wrong. You need the feedback. Feedback forms on articles. Surveys. A/B testing if your email system allows for it.
Tell me about a time that you went above and beyond for the job?
Found a database that had been configured incorrectly that would have made our class notes and obilituaries scrambled. eanwhile our publican date was looming. Learned what the problem was and cleaned it up entry by entry.
