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PUBLICATIONS
Inside
Illinois
Vol.
23, No. 15, March 4, 2004
book
corner
Help for current, future higher
ed administrators
By
John Loos, Student Assistant
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| "Career
Aspirations & Expeditions: Advancing Your Career
in Higher Education," by Jennifer L. Bloom and
nancy Archer Martin
(Stipes Publishing) |
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Dedicated to the leaders of the nation’s colleges and universities,
“Career Aspirations & Expeditions: Advancing Your Career in
Higher Education” is designed to help aspiring administrators
break into higher education and current administrators advance their
careers.
Published by Stipes Publishing of Champaign and written by Jennifer
L. Bloom, the administrative director of the Medical Scholars Program
at the UI, and Nancy Archer Martin, founder of Educational Management
Network, the book was written after participants in the authors’
workshops urged them to share their career-shaping strategies with a
larger audience.
The book begins by asking the reader to fill out a “Values, Stories
and Questions” chart by listing personal values and examples of
them enacted in the reader’s life. This chart is the foundation
for the rest of the book, which walks its reader through portfolio-building,
when and how to make career-changing decisions, selecting references,
cover letters, navigating an interview, negotiating the details of a
new job, and how to effectively use a search consultant.
In emphasizing the importance of personal values, Martin and Bloom factor
in the effect of career change and advancement on the reader’s
family, stressing each decision should be made with them in mind. The
importance of one’s personal life is a strong theme in the text
as the authors consistently remind the reader to make family a priority.
There also is a chapter that addresses the concerns of women and minorities
and the obstacles they might face. They discuss isolation, mentors and
patience among other things as well as how being a woman and a minority
fits into the rest of the book’s teachings.
Included in the book are examples of cover letters and curricula vitae,
an appendix of national leadership opportunities and an example of a
negotiation agreement. It’s in straightforward, direct ways like
this that the book tries to cover every major facet of mobilizing oneself
in the world of higher education administration.
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