Hoping for the Best

Arghhhhhh!

I applied for a job a couple weeks ago. To see the job description go here: BRI Office Manager. This position seems to be perfect for me. It would be a wonderful career move and would provide us some extra income to pay more on our house, put money into savings, and provide educational accounts for our boys. These are things that we've been wanting to do for a while but money has been tight.

The job itself seems to be right on track for me. Since starting classes here at K-State, by goal has been to get into the area of Employee Relations and Training. I have really enjoyed the Conflict Resolution courses that I've taken, and I will continue to work toward a Certificate in Conflict Resolution (I'm half way there). The position of Office Manager, in this level 3 biosecurity research center, is more than I could have dreamed of. My boss thinks that I am more than qualified and says that I need to make sure not to sell myself short. My experience in the University Attorney's office and especially my experience in my current position in the Office of Academic Services, has prepared me in the areas of policy, accounting, and training, among others. I annually prepare the Department Head's Manual, the University Handbook, and the Committee Handbook. My current job duties are too many to expand upon on this blog. Just know that I'm very busy and have a very important job. It's also fun- at least in my opinion. I've met many people in meetings that I would have never met otherwise. I also have learned and grown so much in the past few years. It's both amazing and humbling.

So, at the beginning of the month I applied for the BRI Office Manager position. This position is a very highly sought after position, partially because of the pay. Personally, although the pay is definitely an incentive, I am most interested in the position because of what the BRI is doing and because this is the type of job that I've always kept my eye out for. I really do think I'd be good at it. Anyway, the position description says that applicants will be reviewed starting July 9th. I sent my cover letter and resume a week before this date, to be sure that it made it there before a rush of applicants, in hopes that it would be reviewed and remembered. Since there is a search committee reviewing the applicants, I know that the process will not be a quick one. This morning I called the BRI in hopes of finding out their timeline. According to their plans, they hoped to hire someone by August 1. Well, they must have had a wave of applicants because they are still reviewing them, which does not surprise me. As I anxiously await word on whether or not I will even receive an interview, I'm getting more and more nervous and excited about it. I at least hope to be interviewed. I'm trying not to get my hopes up and not knowing what my chances are makes this hard.

I should also mention that while I have not been actively pursuing other jobs, I now must keep my options open. My boss has decided to go on Phased Retirement this coming January. This means that my office could be part of a reorganization effort by the administration. It is not yet clear if this office will be merged with another, left how it is, or wiped off the organizational chart altogether. For this reason I am being very cautious. Currently a classified employee, I have job security which means, by policy, that I will be placed somewhere if my office was to be closed for good. However, where that would be, or who I would work for, is all up in the air at this time. No plans have been made, to our knowledge, to do anything about this. It worries me that my job could be eliminated.