Project Manager Gets People Connected

Tim Renaud knows he’s got it good. He works as a Project Manager in the Engineering Department of US Cellular, the 5th largest wireless carrier in the country. Technical jobs aren’t normally within my realm of understanding, so Tim took a few minutes to explain what he does.

He manages projects, most often those that deal with developing new cell phone tower sites. Design engineers decide where a new cell cite is needed in order to expand their coverage. Then the project is handed off to Tim, for the developing phase. From there, he works with landlords, lawyers, local governments, and construction contractors to get the new cell site up and running.

In a job that might require him to meet with construction contractors, farmers, and city landlords, relating to people is what’s really important. This comes naturally to Tim, who encountered a lot of different types of people while growing up in St. Ann, Missouri. “I’m not phased by ethnic or economic diversity and I feel comfortable around most people.”

Relating to people is definitely crucial when Tim is trying to get the go-ahead to build a new site. “Everyone wants cell service but no one wants cell towers.” His real estate knowledge, background in city planning, and people skills help him find some middle ground with city planners who want to keep cell towers outside their districts.

Tim can sympathize well with the planners because he used to be one, and he understands that people don’t always like to look at cell phone towers. But, they are getting better at developing towers that are “community compatible” because they’re not as ugly or obtrusive.

He finds his work meaningful when he hears stories about people living in rural areas who used to have to drive to the top of the hill in order to make a phone call, but because of a new US Cellular site have service in their homes. “Believe it or not, there are still people out there who are getting cell phones that haven’t had them. So we’re bringing them that new technology and making a difference.” He also feels good knowing that his company is helping in urban areas as well, by providing competition to “keep the big players in check.”

He really likes his job for a lot of reasons. For one, he says US Cellular is a great company to work for. “They take great care of us and their business model is happy employees equal happy customers. They back it up with certain things and it’s not just lip service.” Tim really likes the people he works with and says they are all able to learn a lot from each other. It’s a young office and he gets a lot of respect for a 31 year old. His work is always challenging and requires him to use all of his skills. “I get to stay sharp and I like that.”

Tim is also able to find plenty of time to be with his family, without feeling any pressure or guilt. He says this is partly due to the company’s emphasis on “Work, life balance.” He likes his job, and the community of friends he and his wife are part of, but says he would still give strong consideration to an opportunity to work abroad. Both he and his wife studied abroad during college and both really valued the opportunity to live in a new place. Besides the occasional itch to travel, Tim is pretty happy right where he is.

Nurse Clinician Facilitates Alzheimer’s Research

To the human resources department, Angie Berry is a nurse clinician at Washington University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. To her patients and their families, she is a coach and an advocate. To her colleagues, she is also a research coordinator and a teacher.

Many Responsibilities

Angie works in the multidisciplinary Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at WU. Angie has many responsibilities in her office. She meets with patients who have both normal and diseased memory and thinking changes. She assesses their current needs, symptoms, and life situations and speaks with the families about obtaining the resources to care for the patient. She works with patients and their families to develop an action plan that outlines manageable steps towards improving quality of life and safety for the patients and their caregivers. Hear more.

Angie is also a nurse researcher who helps coordinate studies of experimental drugs. Right now she is working on a clinical study of a dosage increase for a drug that is currently on the market. She is also the global coordinator for a huge Alzheimer’s research project: the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network. Angie explained that a small minority of people have a specific mutation that causes Alzheimer’s Disease. People with the mutation come from families where half of the family tree develops Alzheimer’s, usually at a young age (before 60). These people are a rich resource for researchers because they will usually get the illness at the same age that their parents got it. The predictability means that researchers can begin studying how the disease changes their brains much earlier on in the illness. Hear more about the DIAN project.

As if that weren’t enough responsibility, Angie is also involved with education. She is a visiting lecturer at the SIUE school of nursing and at Chamberlain College. She also draws upon her experience as a clinical drug trial monitor to help teach for the clinical research degree program at Wash U. There are also opportunities to teach without leaving the office. There are a lot of visiting students, doctors, and scholars who visit the Research Center to learn how to do dementia assessments. She plans learning experiences for these students and makes herself available for any questions.

Make It Happen Kind of People

I asked Angie if she liked her job and she smiled and said “It’s a good place to work.” She especially enjoys the collaborative environment, where people “are willing to teach.” The physicians, social workers, nurses, and occupational and physical therapists all work closely to accomplish their goals. Angie explained how the doctors are mostly involved in the long-term, big picture goals, while the nurses are “make it happen kind of people” who are mostly concerned with the day-to-day issues.

She also enjoys working with older adults because “Some are a real hoot.” But her work is worth more than just a chuckle every now and then. Her job is meaningful to her because she feels good about what she’s doing and feels like she is helping someone. She says “I don’t mind putting in the extra hours because I know it’s helping someone.”Listen to Angie discuss the value of her work

She wasn’t always so sure. At first she wanted to be a pharmacist, but her father lost his job when it was time for her to go to school. She chose nursing so she could get a job and help her family in 3 years instead of 5. After helping her siblings through school she went on to earn her Masters in adult Health Nursing. Now she’s glad she didn’t go to pharmacy school. “Things happen for a reason I think.”

Art Hobby Turns Into Career for Becky

Becky Gunter is the gallery assistant at Sheldon Art Galleries. We met in the gallery one afternoon, and Becky spoke with me about her job and then showed me around the gallery.

The Sheldon Galleries

The Sheldon is a non-profit concert hall and art gallery. It was developed so that concertgoers would have something to do during intermission, but it has grown into an art gallery that is open to the public over 30 hours each week.

Becky and her boss are responsible for everything involving the galleries. They raise funds from art endowments, grants from corporations, and private donors. They work with artists and collectors to bring interesting exhibits to the galleries. The Sheldon Art Gallery also has educational programs. Becky leads tours of the galleries, especially when groups of students come. Artists often give lectures on their art and mediums. Becky also coordinates workshops where the artists show young students their work, teach them how to use the materials, and work with them on creating their own artwork. Sometimes the student artwork is used in a later exhibit at the Sheldon.

Life in the Arts

Becky does all of the installation for the gallery. Her boss acts as the museum curator, which means she decides where each item should be displayed (Becky got a chance to be the curator once, for a special children’s art exhibit).  Then Becky makes labels for each piece, and then actually hangs each item with its label. For some artists, installation is part of their art, so they do the installation themselves, and Becky helps make sure they have everything they need.

Becky enjoys her job. She gets to meet a lot of interesting artists and collectors. She loves seeing the artwork in the kids gallery. She also enjoys talking with patrons about the exhibits, and giving tours. She likes that a lot of people who come to the gallery get more than they expected. A concertgoer might just wander in to find the space filled with interesting exhibits, or someone might come in to see one exhibit in particular but find five more displays that they might not have seen otherwise.

Becky is a strong believer in the work the two of them do together to maintain the public galleries: “We’re always free so anyone can come in. I think arts really enrich people’s lives.” It’s especially rewarding when underprivileged kids come for the artist workshops and “they get to use things they might not have in school” and sometimes see their own artwork on display.

“I Had No Clue”

The arts have enriched Becky’s life as well. She took art classes in high school, but stayed clear of studio art in college because she “didn’t want to be consumed by art projects” while trying to focus on her studies. She did take quite a few art history classes while completing her interdisciplinary degree in Sociology, Spanish, and Latin American Studies. “I had no clue what I was doing so I made my major out of things I was interested in at the time.”

She got involved with this job through a family friend who knew of her lifelong interest in art. She moved into a full time position and took on all the installation work. The gallery often displays photography exhibits and Becky decided to take a photography class to be more knowledgeable for patrons who had questions. “It inspired me to do photography on my own.” Developing this interest gave Becky the opportunity to display her own work in the Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts.

This is Becky’s first job since college and she’s still contemplating her next step. She’s considering a Masters degree either in Museum Studies, Education, or Museum Education. But she’s also wondering how a career change could help her pursue her other passions: photography, traveling, and mission work.

“I sometimes get the inkling to run away to Africa or join the Peace Corps so I can help people full time, but it’s hard to leave your life when you still have bills to pay. I dream of more extensive mission work.”

Becky is a great example of someone who turned a hobby into a career. I also enjoyed talking to Becky because it seemed like she was about as indecisive in college as I am, but she has found work that she enjoys doing while she contemplates future possibilities. Be sure to stop by the Sheldon for a guided tour from Becky!

Disability Support Services Coordinator Helps Students Grow

Dorothy is a Support Services Coordinator for Disability Services at a Big Ten University. Her caseload consists of students who have ADD or ADHD as one or more of their disabilities. Her main duties are to look at the documentation of the student’s disabilities and determine which services they may be eligible for. She meets with students to discuss the resources and accommodations that are available and works with them on study skills and organizational skills. Most of her work occurs at the beginning of the school year when new students begin classes. The rest of the year is mostly troubleshooting any snags that occur.

Every day is a little bit different. She usually has a few appointments with students each day, and once a week there is an office staff meeting. Everyone in her office takes turn hosting drop-in hours, where students can speak to someone even without an appointment. She is able to help her students solve problems through e-mail. She also uses her e-mail to develop professionally by reading a listserv for the field. She takes care of any new student folders on her desk inbox.

The Balancing Act of Accommodation

For each student in her caseload, Dorothy analyzes the documentation of their disability, first making sure that the diagnosis is from a qualified professional, and that the basis for the diagnosis is explained. Then she assesses what kind of impact the diagnosis has on the student’s ability as a college student. If the documentation is not detailed enough she works with students to get more information from their doctors.

After that she speaks with the students about the accommodations that could help them, such as extended test time or reduced distraction environments. The students show the office’s recommendations to the professors to work out the details of the accommodations. This means that the students are advocating for themselves, but Dorothy works with faculty to finalize plans and work out any problems that arise. She wants her students to perform at their best ability without compromising the academic integrity of the university, or the professors’ goals for the class. “It’s a balancing act” says Dorothy.

Always Something New

Dorothy loves her job. “It’s never boring. No matter how long I’ve been there I always encounter something new.” She loves working with college age students, as well as the opportunity to work with many departments at the university. She loves problem solving and finding patterns in the issues that arise. She has loved doing this work ever since she began doing it, but now she has found a really great group of people to work with, and that has made a huge difference in her day-to-day job enjoyment.

If she could change one thing about her job it would be to have a “more steady year round rhythm” but the fluctuations of academia are a fair trade for the satisfaction of making a difference in students’ lives.

Not only does Dorothy enjoy her job, but she really gets satisfaction from knowing she’s making a difference in students lives. Graduation each year is an opportunity to realize how much the students have grown during their years at college. Dorothy says it’s very rewarding to “watch them go form overwhelmed and unsure of themselves to folks that have become campus leaders. You just see them grow in confidence and it’s always really neat.”

Where She Belongs

Dorothy always knew she wanted to work with people and did a lot of volunteering. In college she was a Psychology major. She had her first experience working at a summer camp for people with disabilities after her sophomore year of college. She felt like “this was where I belonged.” Her first professional job was as a vocational rehabilitation counselor. While there she worked on her Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling, and then did her practicum with residential services for developmentally disabled adults. She saw an opening at a community college, and never looked back after entering higher education.

She considers her job a calling because she has always felt “this feeling of rightness” that makes her certain she is doing the right work. Her plans for the future include staying right where she is, because she loves her work, her work environment, and the town she lives in.

The Research Administration Disciple

Connie Motoki works in the field of Research Administration. She is a Contract Manager for the Office of Sponsored Research Services at Washington University in St. Louis. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant so she explained it to me like this:

Washington University is one of the top ten research institutions in the country and received over 500 million dollars of sponsored research funding last year. The money for the research comes from both federal and private organizations, and consists of both grants and contracts. Hear Connie explain her field. Her primary mission is two-fold: to protect the institution’s legal position when finalizing research contracts, and to protect the faculty’s academic rights.

In a typical day, Connie checks her e-mail first thing in the morning and constantly throughout the day. She answers about 100 e-mails a day from faculty researchers, research sponsors, and different offices within Washington University and the Federal Government. She works through a daily pile of new agreements, reading the scope of the work to see what types of intellectual property, publications, or patentable items will be created. She spends a lot of time communicating with the involved parties and negotiating terms with sponsors. She has two drawers full of pending agreements that are awaiting signatures or approval from various people. She handles over 300 legal agreements each year and is constantly juggling a number of tasks and projects.

Dotting the I’s

She loves her job and considers herself somewhat of a disciple for the field. Hear more about her discipleship. She loves reading about exciting research that’s happening, and finding out how our tax dollars are being spent to fund important projects. Hear Connie talk about what makes her job exciting. She likes the autonomy of her position. She admits that she does the same type of thing every day, but the actual content of the research makes it interesting. The regulations and processes are constantly changing, and Connie enjoys learning and teaching others about the latest tricks of the trade. Connie loves meeting the interesting people who have found their way into the new field of Research Administration.

It’s easy to tell how much Connie loves her job. When I asked her if she found her work meaningful, she replied “Of course! I’m a part of some interesting things.” She has helped negotiate contracts for researchers who have reduced infant AIDs rates by 95%, and her contract negotiations have helped make it possible for Wash-U scientists to be a part of NASA’s Mars Rover program. “Even if I’m just dotting the i’s, how could you not be proud of that?” Listen to Connie talk about what makes her work meaningful

She only has one big pet peeve about her job. She likes training people and explaining processes, but doesn’t like repeating herself “to the same people over and over again.” She says “I feel very strongly that what we do is important and we’re part of a bigger picture of assisting the university, the community, and the country. When I get people that don’t read and don’t care, I have to repeat myself and I really don’t like that.”

A Winding Path

Connie definitely has not always known this was the job for her. When she was my age, she had never even heard of Research Administration. But now she feels like this is what she’s meant to do. She says that “it’s funny you don’t get that feeling until now. Maybe you have to grow up a little bit and do all these things before you really realize what the perfect fit is for you.”

After hearing about Connie’s job history, it really does seem like she’s in the perfect job because all of the skills she learned in previous jobs come together for this one. She earned her undergraduate degree in History, then worked as a restaurant manager for a few years. She didn’t want to get the education necessary to work in a museum and she thought she might end up staying in the restaurant industry with her husband, a chef. So she got another undergraduate degree in Accounting and Business. The marriage and the city didn’t work out so she moved to St. Louis and began work at a bank processing center where she reconciled and analyzed bank activities. When the banking industry began to consolidate she decided to try things from the corporate side. She managed reporting budgets for a company that was a floor planning and funding company for retailers and wholesalers. Soon her company was up for sale. She had a good severance package, career counseling, and about two years to transition into new work. It was then that Connie had a career breakthrough.

“You Need to be Doing This Kind of Work”

She interviewed at the St. Louis Science Center for grant accounting work. She really enjoyed talking to the people there, but they decided to hire someone internally. Soon after, she “got the sweetest letter from the guy. He said ‘You need to be doing this kind of work.’” The interview had not only convinced her to try Research Administration, but had also given her the knowledge she needed to find similar jobs. She checked Wash-U’s job listings every day. She found an open position, applied, and was hired in two weeks.

Everything matched up: The critical reading and writing skills from her history degree, attention to detail from banking, and the ability to juggle tasks and analyze financial documents from her corporate job. Since taking her job in Research Administration, she’s been promoted once. She’s become involved in a national organization in the field. She plans to stay in Research Administration, but says she may change position, depending on the situation and timing.

She encourages anyone looking for an interesting, fulfilling career to look into Research Administration. Universities and hospitals are great places to look for work in the field, and St. Louis is full of universities and hospitals. Thanks, Connie!

Communication Professor Speaks Freely

I met with Lynnea in her home to discuss her life’s work. Lynnea is a professor at a major university. She currently teaches both Technical Writing for engineers and Women’s Studies.

Even as a child she knew that she wanted to teach, but it wasn’t until she had been to college herself that she knew academia was where she belonged. She began her undergraduate work as a Psychology major, and then added English as a second major after spending a transformative semester studying in England. She had always envisioned herself earning a PhD, and went on to get her Masters and PhD in English and American Literature. Listen to Lynnea discuss how she chose her career.

By that time she was married. After a brief stint at a small campus in Clarksville, Arkansas she and her husband moved back to St. Louis where Lynnea was offered a job with a university business school, teaching communication. This position offered a good, stable salary that allowed Lynnea and her husband to expand their family by adopting two children from overseas.Listen to Lynnea talk about transitioning from student to teacher.

She was soon offered a new job teaching technical writing for the School of Engineering, but before she could teach her students, she had to teach herself about it. She teaches future engineers how to do the writing they need for their profession: cover letters and resumes, technical descriptions of equipment, user instructions, websites, and project reports. Being an outsider to the field of engineering helps her make sure that her students’ writing is crystal clear and extremely precise.

Rewards and Challenges of Teaching

Her favorite thing to teach right now is Women’s Studies because it is “so engaging and so real and the students learn so deeply over the course of the semester.” Very rewarding, but challenging, too. “There’s a lot of emotional movement in the room when you’re talking about women’s studies because almost everything has to do with identity, issues, politics and health that are really important to the students and their perception of the world.”

Teaching a full course load is definitely a full time job. Lynnea has to make sure she is prepared to teach the material for each class. She spends about nine hours a week actually in the classroom teaching. During her office hours she makes herself available to meet with students and answers e-mails, a constant and endless task.

She also has to grade students’ work. She sees herself as a mentor to help improve students’ writing and regrets that she has to assign letter grades. She’s developed a new method for grading papers that works better for her and helps students, too. She makes appointments with each student to grade their papers individually. They read over it together and discuss ways to improve on future assignments. That makes it more of a learning experience for students because they can really understand how to improve and why they got the grade they did.Listen to Lynnea discuss how her teaching style has evolved.

Lynnea is good at her job because she truly likes to help people. She is a smart, creative, dedicated, responsible teacher who knows her material well. I asked Lynnea if she liked her job and she responded that actually, she loves her job. She likes the autonomy and flexibility, and she loves working with college age students.

Meaning, Love, and Teaching

Our conversation moved on to the topic of meaningful work. Lynnea usually finds her work meaningful, and during the times when her work hasn’t felt meaningful to her, she realized that it was because something else in her life needed adjusting. It “wasn’t the work’s fault.” Lynnea says “You have to find meaning in life first, then that will direct your work. If you get into the habit of blaming your work for lack of meaning then you’re less likely to change and make your life meaningful. I think that there’s meaning in washing the dishes.”Listen to Lynnea discuss meaningful work.

Lynnea’s life is full of meaningful work. In addition to her teaching, she has a full time job as a parent of two internationally adopted children. She also writes stories for children, and has one published in the current issue of Highlights. Her church provides an outlet for creative expression because she can create and teach new classes. She is also interested in meditation, healing practices, and massage.

Her calling is to “bring love and consciousness into being” so that her “role as a wife and a mother and professor…allow the underlying love to come forth.” Listen to Lynnea discuss her calling.She loves teaching communication because clear communication is an act of love. Teaching is also an act of love when the teacher “enables the student to come to a deeper appreciation of their own knowledge, selves, and skills.” For Lynnea, the deepest act of love is helping students “get in touch with whatever their own calling is…to enable the process of unfolding.” Listen to the full quote.

Welcome to my blog!

This fall I’ll be starting my fourth (and final) year as a Psychology student at Hendrix College. Lately I’ve been thinking about what comes next and how I want my life after college to be. I’ve realized that I don’t really have a good sense of what it is that working men and women actually do all day. Thinking about waking up early, putting on a suit, sitting at a desk all day, and having a boss made me feel like I wanted to stay in college forever.

So I wondered: Are there adults who actually like their jobs? How many of them? What makes them different from people who feel stuck in jobs they hate?

A grant from a program at my school, the Miller Center (formerly called the Lilly Center, but is now under new sponsorshiphttp://www.hendrix.edu/lilly/) allowed me to cut back my summer lifeguarding hours, buy a voice recorder, and try to answer my questions.

The Miller Center is focused on a topic called vocation, and so my work will too. The easiest, most basic definition of vocation that I’ve come across so far is from dictionary.com:  a strong impulse or inclination to follow a particular activity or career. The word is derived from the Christian concept that we are all put on this planet to fulfill a particular purpose, but the word has entered the secular rhetoric as well.

I expect to find very few people who are living out their vocation in the original sense of the word. Most adults that I know have stumbled onto their careers through a bit of trial and error and a considerable amount of luck. But the topic of vocation is still an important one because it asks us if we are doing what is important, what is right, what is meaningful, and what we’re good at.

This gets us back to the aim of my project this summer: to investigate how and if vocation is being lived out in the workplace and in people’s lives. Starting with the people I know and working my way outwards, I will be speaking with people about their work, how they feel about it, and how their work fits in with their values, life goals, and vision of the world.

Initially, I became interested in this project to help me figure out what kind of work I might want to do once Hendrix kicks me out and my parents stop feeding me. But I also believe that other people might be interested in my project. So, whether you’re just curious about other people’s lives, are tired of your job and looking for inspiration, or are, like me, about to be plunged into the job market without a plan or a clue, I hope you’ll find something here. Come back soon!