Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/viridian1

This post is about the role of  social media, specifically twitter, in my professional development as a student affairs technologist.  It is about how I have benefited greatly in the short amount of time I have been on twitter from the information I learned and professional connections I have made, resulting in opportunities I could not have imagined.

I envy those in student affairs who are able to attend annual professional conferences and other regional events/ trainings to network and learn about what other universities are doing. Personally, the closest I could be at these conferences are through twitter backchannels where attendees provide some glimpse of what’s going on, what issues are being discussed. This morning, I came across this article by Eric Stoller about alternative professional development on InsideHigherEd.com that talks about professional development opportunities in light of budget constraints. I am very familiar with the challenges of not being able to attend trainings and conferences. The last time I attended a week-long professional development conference was an Educause Institute Management Institute a few years ago (maybe 2007) . Because I have not been able to attend conferences/trainings, social media (including twitter), has been my primary tool for professional development.

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I lead a team of 20 software/web developers and managers. When I ask my team to do something collectively or as individuals,  the answer I expect from them is “no”.  It is because of this expectation that when I am delegating a task to any of my staff, I make sure that there’s a good reason behind my requests and that I am ready to offer the reasoning if asked.  It’s not like my team does not do what I ask them to do, as they are all amazing people to work with and they are very cooperative and  they actually do what I ask them do with no resistance. Most of the time, while it’s not necessary for me to offer any explanations since they willingly accept the task, I make the conscious effort to take the time to provide them with the explanation behind my request.
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As a technologist in student affairs who does not interact with students in my formal position, I envy my colleagues who deal with students everyday. I enjoy my interactions with students and staff discussing about student development, leadership and social issues and so I look for opportunities to be able to be involved with the student affairs community outside my formal technical role.

In my position as an IT administrator in a central department that serves all of student affairs, I get exposed to the business processes of all the departments when implementing or developing web applications and vendor systems. In the course of the projects, the discussions with directors/programmers revolve around business requirements, timelines, funding  and resources. On the other side with my technical colleagues, discussions revolve around  server/network infrastructures, security, development standards.  Unfortunately,  discussions about student afairs and student lives in general rarely get discussed. Throughout my career, I have identified opportunities around the campus to see where I could get involved as a non-techie.

Here are some activities I’ve participated in the last few years:

* Serve as organizational advisor for the Filipino-American interest organization and Latino fraternity
* Participate as staff representative for a student led fee committee (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/sfac)
* Serve as staff representative to student staff divisional meeting
* Review freshman applications for the Admissions department
* Serve as facilitator for summer transition program dedicated towards first generation students (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/eop/step)
* Serve as member of student resource team (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/srt)
* Serve as a mentor through a mentorship program
* Provide letter of recommendations and references for graduate schools/jobs
* Participant as a panelist for career development course

My involvement with the programs above are for two reasons: 1) I personally enjoy the experience and 2) I feel the experience provide me with reminders of why I do my job and provides me with a sense of purpose.

Based on your experience, what other opportunities can you recommend?

I believe a key factor in hiring the right person for the job is to have the proper mix of  interviewers to be able to assess an applicant from different perspectives .  Just recently, our department (technology service provider for Student Affairs) went through a hiring process for a database developer.  We were looking to fill a position to provide support for our developers in setting up and managing databases. In my role as the head of the unit consisting of developers,  I was assessing the applicant from the customers’ perspective.  Joining me in the interview committee were other co-workers who were more technical in nature (server admin, database manager).  To be consistent with all applicants, we have a set of questions we ask each candidates. These questions consist of technical and behavioral questions.

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How well do you know your immediate co-workers? Do you know them beyond their job titles and responsibilities? Do you feel like you belong to a community at work?

One of the many reasons why I love my job is because of the people I work with.  I love that we have a sense of camaraderie and that we consider ourselves as friends to one another and we just don’t see each other as co-workers.  In my previous position (same organization) when I was managing a team of 8 staff members,  I made the effort to promote an environment where my staff can freely share their personal lives to the extent they are willing to share. I have always believed that part of being a happy employee is to feel like you belong to a team, that you are not just co-workers given tasks to complete. We spend more time at work with our co-workers than our families that I made it a point to cultivate an environment that fosters personal interaction and friendships, basically, a community.

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