1. What were your motives for helping this person?
- One of my summer GA's I supervised applying to full time roles, I wanted to help them because I care about their success, I view them as a mentee and because they asked.
2. Did you benefit from this relationship in any way? How?
- I benefit from the connection as I see them doing well within student affairs and they are someone I'd love to maintain a network connection with in the future.
3. What was your role in the helping relationship? In what way do you think you helped this person? Looking back, is there anything that you might have done differently?
- My role was primarily as a resource, and also as a cheerleader. They doubted their ability to obtain the position and put themselves down for their application materials and I supported them with their concerns and encouraged them to apply as I believe the college would be lucky to have them within the role they were applying for. I think I helped them feel more confident in their resume/cover letter skills to begin with as they were already fantastic before I helped. Looking back, I might've asked more questions and allowed them to rephrase/update instead of making my suggestions first. They really loved what I suggested but sometimes I get carried away with my own words instead of challenging the person I'm supporting to phrase their skills in their own words.
4. Was there anything that this person did, said, or believed that you did not agree with? How did you react?
- I didn't agree with their consistent downplaying of their skills. They continued to say they didn't think they'd get the position, which I totally disagree with. I handled that by asking them to look at all of their experiences and celebrating all that they had accomplished with them, and letting them know that I genuinely believe anyone would be lucky to have them working for them.
5. Did you learn anything from this relationship?
- Yes! This is the GA (out of 11) that I supervised over the summer that I feel closest with and that I feel is already 100% ready to jump into any professional role, they are one of those outlier amazing rockstar humans. I learned that even though they know they're GREAT at what they do and they receive consistent glowing reviews they still doubt themselves within an application process for positions when they totally shouldn't.