Why Young Professionals Choose Higher Education Careers

Adriel Mendoza: Something that I liked about it was the goal is helping out students, supporting them throughout their journey and their education. And that's just something that I as a student liked. So giving back to students and other people in the community, that's something that drove me to working in higher ed.

Wes Johnson: Welcome to the Ikas Rising Voices podcast, where we amplify the voices of young professionals in higher education. I'm Wes Johnson, and I'm joined by the amazing, phenomenal,

Sarah Buszka: Sarah. Thank you, Wes. You're amazing. Phenomenal too.

Wes Johnson: And we're your co-hosts for the show. We're also members and friends of the ED Young Professionals Advisory Committee. So shout out to ypac and we are going to be, what are we going to be talking about today, sir?

Sarah Buszka: Thank you, Wes. So today in the true spirit of amplifying the voices of young professionals, we have two new to the field young professionals that we'll hear from today. Before we dive in to introducing them, I want to set the stage a little bit for the topic of the show. So in my past three years of chairing the edika Young Professionals Advisory Committee, ypac, one of the questions I received the most from older generations was, what do young folks want right now in a career? What are they looking for? What's bringing them to higher ed? What's keeping them from higher ed? And frankly, how do I attract and retain my talent? So I did a little bit of research on this, and according to the Pew Research Center, from a COVID-19 era trend of quiet, quitting to the rise of quit talk hashtag on TikTok, young workers in the United States have reportedly grown disengaged from their jobs and traditional hustle culture, but while young workers are less likely than their older counterparts to express the highest levels of job satisfaction, most 85% or at least somewhat satisfied with their job overall.

Sarah Buszka: So maybe we'll do some myth busting here today, but really the question is, what are young professionals finding satisfying about their jobs now? And to help elucidate that, I'd love to introduce our two guests for the show today. Arja Fernandez and Adriel Mendoza Arja is an IT help desk technician at McKendry University where she's been working for almost two years. Ora also serves as a co-chair of the YPCG. Woo. Shout out and is an EXOFFICIO member of the ypac. This is her first year on the YPCG and she's already making a big impact. Next, Adriel Mendoza is a junior cloud security engineer at Madison Area Technical College, MATC. Shout out to Madison, Wisconsin. I'm from Madison. In this role, ADR helps protect student data organizational technology systems by addressing cyber threats and implementing security controls. Passionate about sharing knowledge. Adri constantly strives to be the best version of himself. It's great to have you both here. Welcome.

Wes Johnson: Thank you. And so to get us started, I'm going to start with the Rancho because help desk warriors who always have a special place in my heart, we want to know what is your superpower?

Arantxa Fernandez: I would say I guess hyper flexibility, kind of like the wife and the Incredibles kind of like that because

Sarah Buszka: I think Mrs. Incredible is on our show today,

Arantxa Fernandez: But I pride myself on being able to adapt to different things and the pandemic. Being able to kind of navigate that,

Wes Johnson: Being adaptable in your role in particular is quite important. So that's an amazing superpower to have. Angel, what about you?

Adriel Mendoza: Hey, Wes. I would say being patient, honestly, it's something that's helped me out throughout my life, whether teaching other people or helping others. Being patient is something that I guess I've been getting good at now.

Wes Johnson: Might have to teach us after the episode because sometimes I feel like my patience is running thin half the day. So that's a good skill to have.

Sarah Buszka: I'll put my hand up too. So maybe this question is for you, Adriel, just to start, what drew you towards working in higher education?

Adriel Mendoza: I actually started off as a student intern and then was promoted over to a full-time position. Something that I liked about it was the goal is helping out students, supporting them throughout their journey and their education. And that's just something that I as a student liked. So giving back to students and other people in the community, that's something that drove me to working in higher ed.

Sarah Buszka: That's great. And what about you, Rania?

Arantxa Fernandez: Yeah, so I graduated and I was looking everywhere for a job, big tech companies, startups, and then I realized that I enjoyed being on the college campus. I did a lot of student orgs in college, so I thought it would be a good fit for me, especially, it would be a good pathway to get brick into the field. So felt very comfortable in that space.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah. And are you similar to Adri in that you are working at your previous institution or alma mater?

Arantxa Fernandez: No, I'm not. I started at Maryville University in St. Louis and then I found my way in McHenry

Sarah Buszka: And that's close enough too, so That's great.

Wes Johnson: So I guess I'll start Adrian, switching back to you. So you kind of mentioned that it looks like as a student you started to build some kind of connection where you wanted to continue with the higher ed mission, et cetera, et cetera. Now that you've kind of been in the role and you've been working at higher ed for a little while, is there anything in particular that kind of keeps you coming back? And it seems like you're not really seeking anything outside. Maybe I'm wrong, but is there anything particular that you're like, it's higher ed and that's why I really want to be part of higher ed?

Adriel Mendoza: I would say I just like the way the environment is, the community is, it's really welcoming and there's a lot of opportunity for growth. Really something I've noticed throughout the higher ed process is that at least it's possible for other institutions as well. There's a lot of things that you can go ahead and improve, a lot of areas for growth. And that's something that at least in my role, I've been involved in helping our organization at least grow in that area. So not just that also sharing the knowledge of hey, this is what we're doing.

Wes Johnson: Yeah, we definitely love to share in hire, which is one of the things I enjoy most about my job as well. So I definitely resonate with that. Or a angel kind of mentioned that there's opportunities to improve. Are there any things that come to mind for you in your time with higher ed that you think we could work on doing better as a community or maybe just at your institution?

Arantxa Fernandez: Yeah, I think overall, I think really trying to improve cybersecurity. I was a cybersecurity major, so that's, I think about that, those things a lot. So I think overall, I think just continuing to improve cybersecurity throughout higher ed. I know they like to target universities and colleges, so I think really trying to focus on that.

Wes Johnson: Yeah, cybersecurity is such a big and vast thing to tackle too. And then there's many other compliance considerations and then you have to match that to the mission. So yeah, there's always room to improve and kind of flex that to make sure if it's the culture of the institution. Absolutely.

Sarah Buszka: So there's something I heard y'all mention a little bit in our earlier questions about the pandemic, so I'm kind of curious if you'd be willing to speak to how the pandemic affected your time as a student and then also your time as a young professional entering the higher education workforce. Maybe we'll start with Adriel.

Adriel Mendoza: The pandemic gave me a different perspective. Really just in life as a general thing. It is something that enjoy life, be thankful for what you have. Honestly, that's kind of what I learned throughout it. Life was short for certain people in that time. There was also time for self reflecting and that sort of thing. So as far as that, that's probably the biggest effect it had on me. And also moving everything to a remote workspace, a remote learning area, and just being remote from friends and family honestly changed just the way that we interact with one another and adapting to that and obviously being patient throughout that process and knowing that eventually there's a way out of this. So adapting to that was also another thing that I learned throughout the pandemic.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, that's great. And then Raja, what about you?

Arantxa Fernandez: Yeah, I think it really put my adaptability to the test. One week I was going off to spring break and oh, I'll see you next week. And then all of a sudden we were set home for about a year, year and a half. So it was a lot. But I also went through a lot of self-growth and being able to talk to just find things within myself and being able to, I guess, entertain myself in a way without being able to interact with people in real life. But also it really taught me ways to kind of interact with people over the internet or find things to do and expanded my applications that I use just to be able to communicate with people. And then professionally I think moving to Zoom and that really helped me in that development, kind of teach me that kind of stuff before I entered the workforce.

Sarah Buszka: Definitely. One curiosity question I have, I think others in our community and listeners might want to know as well, is what is your perception on working remotely, hybrid work in person? How do you feel about it? Do you have a preference? Does one work better for you? Any thoughts? Maybe Ara if you're willing to continue.

Arantxa Fernandez: Yeah, so I think it's a good mix of both. I think it also depends on the person. I personally wouldn't mind a hybrid situation. You're able to work but also take that day for yourself or take care of things at home or anything like that. But I also do being able to interact with people in person every day. So I do enjoy that, but also working from home can help you and and all that kind of stuff.

Sarah Buszka: That's so true. Yes. What do you think Arie?

Adriel Mendoza: Yeah, honestly, I agree with rancher. Just having the option to be hybrid is awesome. You have the interactive piece, get to see you, get to interact with others. And then also that home side of things like, hey, well I'm at home, I have to travel today, I'm saving money on gas, this sort of thing. But also you find different ways to interact you, your house and you're finding, hey, I didn't have this opportunity to do that over there. So yeah, it has its benefits.

Sarah Buszka: Definitely. And another curiosity question. Thinking about your peers and friends who are your age, maybe they're working in higher ed, maybe not. Well actually first, how many of your friends and peers are working in higher ed? Are you the only one or are there a lot of you?

Arantxa Fernandez: I would say there's maybe a handful. Maybe there's three of us. But generally people I went to college with, they all went to healthcare or the corporation company. But from college I was the only one.

Sarah Buszka: Wow. What about you Adriel?

Adriel Mendoza: Yeah, honestly, I'd say the same. Most of them did go to corporations. They went straight to the workforce. So I don't think they went to the higher ed path and they just decided to go with what was there.

Sarah Buszka: Why do you think that is?

Adriel Mendoza: For them at least I can kind of speak to their point of view or their way that they were adapting in the different scopes that they were specializing in. Some of that there was just more opportunities in that area through organizations that do that on a daily basis. So in cybersecurity for instance, let's say consider response that deals with reviewing certain things and going into depth. There's organizations that specialize in having specialists and professionals in that area rather than a smaller higher ed institution. So at least that's what I saw and that seemed to be true. But yeah, that's my perspective on that.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you. And I know it's hard to kind of pause it what your friends might be thinking, but it's sometimes interesting to get a general pulse. What about you at Rancha?

Arantxa Fernandez: Yeah, well I think generally from the people that I went to college with, I had a little bit more of a, I guess not enjoyment, but enjoyment in college. So I wanted to go back, but also I know my friends, they wanted to, one of my friends that went to big corporation, she found a place where they would teach her and really guide her throughout the introduction to the workforce. And I think that's where she enjoyed it.

Sarah Buszka: Oh yeah, that's a great point too. And I'm thinking about pandemic challenges and we know from research and of course from your own lived experiences that a lot of the traditional internships and things that were available to college students to help prepare them for the workforce were absent during the pandemic. It was really hard to offer those experiences when the world shut down. So that's a really interesting thing to hear Aranha that what drew one of your friends to corporate and not higher ed is that she was offered that opportunity. Interesting.

Wes Johnson: So keeping on this note, y'all have been dropping some tidbits to touch on this question. So for senior leaders out there in higher education, if they're wanting to improve the experience for incoming higher ed employees such as yourself or newer in the field employees, are there any tips that you'd want them to be thinking about to improve that experience as they folks onboard and spend their first two to five years in the field? And Adria, I'll start with you.

Adriel Mendoza: One of the things at least that I've seen is honestly keeping them involved. Just having those opportunities for growth, whether it is internal, external, it's just something that you could be aware of. And considering that other thing too is at least for newer commerce to the higher ed and actually any workforce, it, it's kind of just monitoring burnout. That's one of the biggest things that at least I experienced when I started just because there's so much to learn. You might get fatigued real quick, so I know it's difficult to manage a smaller team if you're working on different areas, but honestly I think that's one of the things maybe to focus on.

Wes Johnson: And if I may kind of drill in a little bit more on that, when you say, because I've heard this before too, keep us more involved, both external and internal. Do you have any examples or thoughts on what that could look like?

Adriel Mendoza: Yeah, an example could be, say you're working on a project, a team project, maybe including them into a little small piece and say, Hey, I'd like your feedback on this, or let's work on this together. That collaboration piece, having that together. And I think honestly, the better that you have collaboration within your team, the better you'll have that response and whatever you're trying to do to get to your goal. So yeah,

Wes Johnson:  You my will spin a little bit too, even thinking about my own teams, but kind of going to your other point and I'll just kind of switch over and offer this up to aranha. At the same time, we want to balance that work-life balance. It's all throughout higher ed that many institutions, at least in the technology shops feel like we've got way more opportunities than we have resources. So on one end you have someone come in and new and you're excited about them and you want to give them opportunities, but then you don't want to overwhelm them and scare them off to other opportunities as soon as they get in. So are we being over careful on that? Should we just give you the opportunities to just listen to you or are we kind right on that? What are your thoughts?

Arantxa Fernandez: I think it might depend on the person. I think for me, I don't think it would hurt to ask, oh, what are you comfortable with? What do you know what you want to know? What do you want to learn? So I guess it depends on the person, but for me, I'm always up to learn things or shadow somebody. We have a security analyst, so I've kind of been working with her kind of guess shadowing her. So I think I know it helped me a lot kind of look at real life cybersecurity stuff that we have on campus. So I think it would just depend on the person. But

Wes Johnson: Yeah, I think that's fair. There's definitely an individual aspect to that as well. And as part of the, admittedly for some leaders, part of the challenge is when you have many individuals trying to find something that fits in with each one could be. But part of it is just having that discussion like you said, so absolutely.

Sarah Buszka: I'm kind of curious to hear around and adri your perspective on this as you've been talking. I'm curious if there's any myths or things that you wish your leaders or senior leaders in your institutions or just higher ed in general would know about young professionals, especially your age at this point in your career, what's going on, what things are out there, what misconceptions are there that you would like to use this platform to maybe clear up? Ora, we'll start with you.

Arantxa Fernandez: Yeah, so I think higher leaders, they should know that young professionals are generally curious. I think especially with the pandemic, we didn't have a lot of opportunity for internships and that hands-on kind of thing during that for professional development. So I think people have drive. I think that most people don't necessarily as a society believe that we have, but I think because of the lack of experience, I think people generally have more drive wanting to learn and continue to learn and get that real life experience and be able to learn that.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, exactly. I'm hearing this tension between experience and wanting to learn and feeling like how do I get the experience that you might be looking for if I'm not given opportunities to learn and to at least try. Very important. What about you, Adriel? Is there any kind of myth that you would like to bust or misconception that you think is out there about young professionals right now?

Adriel Mendoza: Actually take spill it for me, I could say honestly, I guess we all have that same thought, that we're all willing to grow and learn. And honestly, I, it's like at that stage of adulthood where we're moving up to more mature behavior, more mature lifestyle, and that's something that at least we're like, Hey, well, we want to learn from what you have to share with us. What wisdom can you share that can help me out? Either the community throughout the career or even your lifestyle. Things like that. Yeah,

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, definitely. I'm hearing that y'all are hungry to learn. Is that fair? Okay. You both are smiling. I agree. Maybe flipping this on its head, just putting the other side of the coin on this, what do you look for in leadership or management or teams? If there's one thing that you could pick that is a non-negotiable for you when you're looking for a new role, a team, a person, a manager, what kind of skill or trait or thing is that maybe Adriel if you're willing to continue?

Adriel Mendoza: Yeah, I'd definitely continue. I think putting the team first is something that I look at a management, a leadership position, try to see are you putting the team first and how are you helping them get to your goal as an organization? And yeah, that's something that I resonate a lot with.

Sarah Buszka: That's great. What do you mean by putting the team first? What does that look like tangibly? Is there one thing that really resonates with you or that's really important for you to see?

Adriel Mendoza: I'm thinking about just the process and what it is in a leadership position and things like that. It could be one thing, let's just name it. It's just that self-improvement within the team. Having that self-improvement, whether it is existing relationships, processes or whatever. Having that self-improvement and helping every single person grow in that area, at least throughout the career is something that one opportunity that you can provide there. And obviously it gets specific to each person or each person has its own go, their own goes and things like that. But yeah, just self-improvement.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, that's a good one. Build on self-awareness and just lifting everyone up. Yeah, that's great. What about you?

Arantxa Fernandez: I think I would say I would want a manager to be able to push me to really teach me how to do this or, oh, I think you can do this very well and kind of push me out of my boundaries a little bit, but also being able to, okay, I've pushed you, but how can I help you? What happened here? If something goes wrong, oh, you did very well, but how can I help you and help you grow in that way?

Sarah Buszka: Yeah. It sounds like you both are saying, Hey, we want to learn, and on top of that, we really want to improve ourselves and we care enough about this and value this, that we expect that from our teams and our leaders. Is that fair to say? I think so. I see both of you smiling and nodding vigorously.

Wes Johnson: I'm definitely hearing challenges, but don't forget to support us also, so Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to flip it a little bit more now. Sarah flipped it to the other side. I'll flip it back to now we're now going to talk like colleague to colleague or maybe the incoming class of the next generation of new higher ed workers, right? So what tip, aranha, I'm going to start with you. What tip would you give to someone incoming to the field about step into your shoes? What's the one tip you would give them coming in?

Arantxa Fernandez: I would say, I'm going back to learn as much as you can, but also be able to find things that suit what your goals are and your roles. But also, I guess these are two tips, but also persevere. I know that the job market's also kind of funky right now, but I think persevere, keep doing what you're doing. Someone out there is going to take a chance on you, and I think they'll be able to grow a lot.

Wes Johnson: Absolutely. Adrian, what about you?

Adriel Mendoza: Yeah, I definitely agree with, I'm going to say make the best out of the opportunities you're given. Just realize that you have a purpose and whatever you're facing, just don't give up, keep going, keep persevering and you'll get there. So that's my advice for you.

Wes Johnson: Wow. In the episode right there. Those two tips. That's amazing.

Sarah Buszka: Well, I was actually going to say, I think that's a great way to transition and close this out and one new thing that we're trying in this podcast, and I hope you're willing to indulge us. We'd like to hear from you to end this out. What is one key takeaway message or lesson that you would like to leave our audience with, or I'll start with you.

Arantxa Fernandez:  I think that's a good question. I would say, again, persevere, try your best, but also take care of you. I know that work-life balance is very important. So work hard while you work, but also work hard to take care of yourself. And I think if you're feeling good, I think if you'll do well professionally and be able to grow, I guess, in a faster pace, if you were to feel good and feel confident and feel secure with yourself, I think that's my biggest tip.

Sarah Buszka: Thank you. Great message. And Adriel, what is your last message that you'd like to share with our audience?

Adriel Mendoza: My tip is ask questions and reach out for help. There's people out that are out there wanting to help you, wanting to interact with you, even get to know you. So you go ahead, take that next step, reach out to people, ask for questions. Ask questions. And yeah,

Sarah Buszka: Thank you both so much. This has been just such an enlightening episode. I really appreciate you sharing your perspectives and joining us today on the show. Wes, any final words?

Wes Johnson: Not just a plus one, to the thanks, I've took some notes off to the side for me to even consider for myself with my own staff. Continue. So rancher, angel, thank you so much for joining us and dropping that knowledge.

Arantxa Fernandez: Thank you for having.

Adriel Mendoza: Yep. Thank you.

Wes Johnson: Thank you for joining us for another episode of Rising Voices, a podcast from Edika Review. This episode was produced by Jerry Bain, Chris Bradney and Joseph Coddle. With help from Ryan Lattie and Monica Rosen. Our music is from Wes Johnson.

Sarah Buszka: Please find us on the Edika Platform, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and rate us.

Wes Johnson: Also, email us at Rising [email protected].