By Margarida Gomes
Michael Schneider, the president of “McPherson College” has a lot to say. He is currently the leader, but he was not always in that position. To get into such a high role, there are steps that need to be taken first. Michael started as just a normal employer at a publishing company and as his son was born, he and his wife, Kandee, decided to move to Kansas to be closer to home. As they moved out, Schneider received an offer to work at McPherson College. He started off in career services and then within a few months he moved to other positions such as advancement, admissions, and others. He didn’t start as the president, and that didn’t make him sad or not motivated to continue. In his mind the only thing he thought about was “you take your first job, not based on necessarily how much it pays, not necessarily what that job is right now, but what it can lead to,” he said. Basically, you should “trust the process.” It shouldn’t be expected to get a high position as soon as one enters the workforce. You shouldn’t look at what the work exactly is but the opportunity that can come with it. As he said, “You should focus on where you can end up and not where you started”. Michael has done that since he graduated. Many times he did refuse jobs that could give him more money but as he didn’t see opportunities in those, he just chose not to accept them; and look at him! He is the boss now! He did achieve what he was looking for since he was a kid. His dream was to be like his father: the boss, the one that oversees and controls other people. Now ask yourself, “isn’t it scary to be the one in charge of everything?” Michael says that sometimes this position can be difficult because you are the one taking responsibility for everything but at the same time you are not by yourself. You have your staff, and you can always listen to what they think and listen to some of their advice to light up your mind. You are not alone on this. Asking for opinions It’s not prohibited; you can always reach out to others.
Michael has done a lot of stuff for this college, but it’s not enough for him. He plans to never stop growing. Michael knows that there’s still a lot of things to do to achieve some type of perfection, even though we all know that nothing is perfect, we can always try to be as close as we can, and that is what he is planning for McPherson College! Here in McPherson college we can find other examples of employers that never stop in terms of finding the perfect job.
Raquel Resendiz, one of the McPherson college advisers has always looked for the opportunities in every single job she has had. She didn’t start as an adviser right but started working as a membership director in a college in Kansas. Within this position, she needed to manage and train a 12-employee group working with marketing and management as well as organizing the big fundraisers. She really enjoyed this job but with COVID-19 happening, she ended up changing jobs, since the boss could not keep everyone in the organization due to economics. With this happening, she became a campus life director in another college but at some point, she figured that that job was not for her anymore, so she decided to change. In 2023, Raquel accepted a job as an adviser at McPherson College. In this role, she directly helps students with their academic life. As Raquel said, there are many students who have time management problems and because of that she is not just a person who helps students create their schedules to graduate, but she helps them by making time to study and do their work. Students are encouraged to contact her, even if not one of her advisors, for help with time management. But, not everything is related to classes and grades. Raquel feels like many students create good relationships with her and whenever they don’t know how to do something, either related with academics or things like finance, they always reach out to her asking for help. She never judges them because as she said “people that want to be better ask for help.”
With both of these profile stories you can understand the professional world. As you saw, neither of them went straight to the job they wanted. You need to be aware that after college you will have a journey till you find the perfect job for you. Don’t rush it. Make sure you are learning and taking all the opportunities that come up!
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