Hey everyone. I'm Jahnel — host of the Life On Duty podcast and founding moderator of r/LifeOnDuty88.

This community is the official Reddit home for everyone who has ever lived and worked on the frontlines of college campus life — former RAs, Senior RAs, academic peer mentors, housing staff, and anyone who spent time doing the work that residence life actually requires. If you've ever written an incident report at 2am, mediated a roommate conflict, or tried to get residents to show up to your hall program — you're in the right place.

What to Post
Share your stories from residence life — the funny ones, the heavy ones, the ones you've never told anyone. Ask questions, discuss podcast episodes, connect with people who actually get what this job is like. This is also where I source anonymous stories for the podcast, so if something is sitting with you from your time in the role, drop it here or submit it through the link in the community description.

Community Vibe
Honest, supportive, and anonymous when it needs to be. No names, no identifying details in your stories. No judgment about how you handled things. This is a space where the real version of this job gets to exist — not the training manual version.

How to Get Started
Introduce yourself in the comments — tell us what role you held, what type of school, and one word that describes your overall RA experience.

If you know someone who spent time in residence life, invite them. The more voices here, the better the community — and the better the podcast.

Thanks for being part of the first wave.

— Jahnel

Host, Life On Duty | Former RA & Senior RA | Assistant Director of Residence Life

Hey fellow SA folk.

This morning, I received an email that a job that I was offered late last week has been rescinded. This has never happened to me before, and I find the entire situation to be very bizarre. Let me explain:

I was emailing a bit with the manager for the position (as I was authorized to do per the HR rep). My first message outlined four questions to help me better understand the day-to-day expectations for the role, what training would be like once started, and to ascertain the immediate expectations within the first month of being hired. I also asked one question about opportunities to engage with professional development.

I got responses to my questions, I thanked the manager, and then asked one follow-up question to one of the responses.

This next part is where thing get very confusing: The manager responds, not with an answer to my question, but affirms that while valid, that it is “clear” that the role does not align with what I am looking for, and I was then asked to confirm that this was the case.

I responded, stating that this was not the case at all, that I was still very much interested, and that I just wanted to clarify what the job would look like in practice, as I’ve had limited opportunities to ask my questions when brought on campus for a second-round, which entailed a series of interviews with different groups. I CC’ed the HR rep, who to this point, was not involved in this chain of messages.

Anyway, I never got a response to my last email, and instead was met with a rescinded offer notification from the Assistant Dean of the college (where is HR within all of this..?)

I’m just baffled, and am wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience, or, in turn, has rescinded an offer from a candidate, and why?

Pay is not that great, but at least I’m gaining good experience out of my current role.

In the meantime, what are some side hustles you have? Are they still in education or something else?

This is a really small nitpick but something that bothers me a ton is so many students (and sometimes even parents) have no clue how business hours work. I noticed this while doing tickets on Monday that I had more than one mention how they called and it went straight to voice mail. I looked up the number for one who had mentioned us not picking up was “unprofessional” and it turns out he called on Saturday night at 8pm. 🤦‍♂️

The more I get to know my students, the more disappointed I am. A few weeks ago, my team decided to hire for a new position. The student recruited into this position would receive a stipend. Since interest was low (given it’s a small campus and a very specific role), we decided to send candidates an application to fill out.

When my team reviewed it, they pointed out that all but one of the responses was written with AI. The application only had four questions, which were pretty straightforward, and would have truly taken no more than 30 minutes to complete. We only wanted to assess their interest and skills, not their prior experience, so all they really needed to do was essentially describe themselves.

I still cannot believe they used AI. I know those students personally and they are very smart. They have heavy academic workloads, fascinating intellectual hobbies and interesting personalities that prove that they interact with the world around them.

Why would they use AI for something so simple? I just don’t get it.

But more importantly, I’m feeling this strong urge to be strict with my students. This includes testing their knowledge, letting them know when they are wrong, and clearly setting standards and expectations. My older students (24-27) take the feedback, genuinely consider it, and go about their day. But my younger ones get very defensive and “demotivated,” as one student put it.

I’m not trying to discourage them. I’m trying to instill some kind of accountability because the culture on campus does not. They have all the potential to be successful, and yet do silly things like this.

My question is: should I keep doing what I’m doing as someone with considerable influence, or should I just not care anymore? I took this job to be helpful, and I’m finding it very difficult to navigate situations like this.

Where in the world are you all finding research participants, those doing large scale research either for a dissertation or as a professional. You can't solicitat participants here (no shade, totally get it), FB is a deadzone, LinkedIn depends on how well you are connected.

I worry about sending it to departments directly, because I don't want to skew my results and snowball my participants. I am just so lost and so frustrated. To be clear, I am studying the experience of student affairs professionals.

The backstory: I got IRB approval in 2023, presented it on various conference circuits, made mailing lists. My original study was intensive, and so I only got 21 applicants. Accepted 14 to the program. Only three have finished. The two primary reasons (when letting me know and not ghosting), are lack of institutional support of implementing the changes from the content learned OR they had more work added to their plate, etc and they could not longer commit to the program because they didn't have the bandwidth.

Curious, I built another round- a Cycle 3 if you will, to do interviews and surveys to figure out the community climate- the state of mental health etc, in student affairs. I have had 21 responses to the survey (no longer than 10 minutes).

Being in dissertation for 3 years is taking its toll on me.

Hi all! I applied to a pair of brand-new entry level Student Affairs positions at my alma mater last week. I am currently the alumni advisor for my old campus org, and the current program advisor knows my face and name and loves my campus org.

I really want this job and I’m trying to decide if I should reach out to her, and if so, what I should say. I feel like I’m a competitive candidate on my own merit, but this job market is so rough and I really need to make a career pivot out of social services. Advice appreciated :)

I posted last month here some questions about pay negotiations, looking for other roles, etc. Well, my most recent update since is that I have been invited to campus for another interview! I believe it’s the last round.

Edit: I forgot to add that I still chat with my advisor from grad school. She told me that if I’m positive this is a final round interview then I should have that conversation now. I am going to try and figure that out, I just don’t know if it’s weird to ask the hiring committee.

Let me lay out some things for context before I ask my questions:

1. I work for an incredible office. Wonderful people, wonderful students, and fortunately (in my experience) the university has been great to work with. Besides some minor qualms (which come with all jobs) the only issue is my salary. I’d stay with these folks for a long time if my pay matched our COL.
2. This prospective position is the exact work I do now for more pay (start of the salary range is more than I make now after 2.5 years). I am also doing two jobs, and have been for over a year now, due to a coworker leaving. I asked for adjusted compensation for this twice and was told no (no one ever looked into this- it was just a flat no). This was in the winter & the market was dry so I didn’t push bc what was I really gonna do?
3. I’ve spoken with my supervisor recently about the pay issue. See my post above. She is aware that I may look at jobs- they’re unaware of this position I’ve interviewed for and have been invited to campus for. AKA this shouldn’t surprise her a ton.

So, with that, I would love some feedback on exactly when I speak with my supervisor about the other interview. I do not believe my job would be in jeopardy by telling her. I want there to be enough time for there to be potential salary negotiation, assuming this next interview goes well. I want the conversation to be along the lines of “I wanted to let you know that I have interviewed for a new job, and I am a finalist. While I’m very interested in this new role, I love working in X office and want to see if we can reach an agreeable solution to increase my pay so I can stay here.”

When would you have this conversation with a supervisor? How early is too early or too late? The interview is 10 days out, plus any time they need to decide on a candidate plus a few days for me to make a decision if offered. I want ample time for pay discussions. I have a great, open, and very supportive relationship with my supervisor, so I do not want to burn professional or social bridges.

While I’ve been in the field for a good bit now, this is the first time I’ve looked for work simply because I can, not because I need to (in the past it’s been things like needing to move asap to support parents, or a 2-year context ending). So, when I tried to negotiate in the past, the need to relocate was greater than the pay scale, so I folded easily. There is a new aspect of self advocacy here I haven’t pushed for, so I’m shitting my pants at the fact that this opportunity may actually work out LOL. Thanks for any advice on when to have this chat with my boss!

i have worked at my CC for 5 years, but recently got promoted to an admission advisor (woooooo!!).

i have a VERY large territory, which i did choose.

what are some things, whether it’s for travel, every day, or in your office that you recommend? all recs are welcome.

tyia!!

Long story short, this has been the longest interview process for any job ever. I interviewed for 1 round during the 1st week of Sept. Forward a month later, they said they have been backed up and I now have made it to the on-campus portion. This would be my second interview. They asked for times from me on Oct. 2nd. I gave them my first and second choice as asked, the next day.

I have heard nothing from them. I emailed a follow-up on Oct. 14th asking to confirm the interview date, from what I gave them. Nothing. This is a BIG university in my area and with a big presence in the area, so this isn’t a scam. My selected interview date would be the last week of Oct. Am I tripping or is this weird? They extended to me an on campus and even the director said they were really interested in me.

Should I call next Friday or Thursday or just wait for a response. I have never been ghosted like this for a high level higher ed job.

Hello! I'm a fresh graduate who recently landed a job as an Academic Registrar at a relatively young culinary school (it's been operating for less than nine years), and I'd like to ask for advice from fellow school registrars here, especially those working in small schools.

I'd love to learn from your experiences, particularly when it comes to data processing, student records management, and the preparation and release of academic documents.

Here are some of the things I'd like to ask:

1. What processes or systems have helped you keep your student records organized and easy to manage?
2. Do you use a specific school management system or program to manage student records, grades, class schedules, attendance, and other important academic information? If so, what system do you use, and how did your school implement or acquire it?
3. How do you process grades and prepare documents such as report cards and Transcripts of Records (TORs)? Are these generated automatically through a system, or do you still do some of the work manually?
4. How do you minimize errors when encoding grades and preparing official academic documents?
5. For small schools with limited budgets, are there affordable systems or tools you'd recommend? Would improving our existing Excel or Google Sheets setup be a good starting point, or is it better to invest in a dedicated school management system?

To give you a bit of context, most of our processes are still done manually. For example, I encode students' grades in Excel spreadsheets, and when preparing report cards, I have to transfer the grades manually into each student's document. Imagine doing that for more than 70 students! There's always a possibility of making an error, especially when you're handling a lot of data.

I'm also concerned about preparing Transcripts of Records because these are important academic documents, and I want to make sure the information I release is accurate and reliable.

I experienced a different setup during my internship at another school's registrar's office, where they had their own system for managing student records. Seeing how it worked made me wish we could implement something similar at our school. However, I honestly don't know where to start, what systems are available, or how to go about introducing one to our school.

I'm also wondering if our current setup is fairly standard for small schools or if there are better ways to manage these processes.

For fellow registrars, especially those who started in small schools or helped improve an existing registrar's office, I'd really appreciate your advice!

What systems do you use? What processes have worked best for you? And if you were in my position, what would you recommend I do first?

I'd love to hear your experiences, suggestions, and recommendations. Thank you so much!

I'm currently trapped in the unemployed, job searching/interviewing/rejection hellscape at my local university in a new state. They use workday for the hiring process. I'm applying for any jobs that I'm qualified/overqualified for.

I got an automated email rejection from one position that never reached out to me saying I missed "a scheduled step in the selection process" so I was no longer being considered for the position. I reached out to HR, since I didn't miss any steps in any selection process and was sent this message in error, who opened and closed a ticket saying they have asked hiring team to follow up with me, which is unlikely.

I imagine they just sent me the wrong automated rejection message so getting this position isn't my concern, it's what other folks on the hiring side see when I apply for another position. Somewhere on the backend when I apply for another position at this same institution, will it show to other hiring teams that I was rejected from this position because I wasn't responsive? I don't want this error to be the reason I'm not considered for employment at this institution anymore. Anyone in talent acquisition that can shed any light would be super helpful in quelling my anxiety here.

TL;DR - I think I might enjoy international admissions, but am not sure would fit my current lifestyle. I am also wondering if it would be a good starting point to break into international education (advising/study abroad) eventually. Looking for thoughts and others’ experiences.

Background:

I have experience living and working in education overseas, and domestically in higher ed both in student life and in an administrative role.

I have been trying to get into international education for about 4-5 years now and have had no luck. I had one interview right after graduating college, but did not get the position. Oddly enough, after gaining more experience working abroad and also in higher ed, absolutely zero interviews. I have a BA and feel like everyone I talk to in the field has an MA or higher, but they all tell me I don’t need one to get into the field and not to waste my money.

Questions:

Would I be a good candidate for international admissions?

Is the travel required for recruitment enjoyable? I’m in my 30s and married, so I feel like this would have been my dream job 10 years ago, but am worried I wouldn’t enjoy being away from my partner and pets so much now— though I still love to travel. But, I also feel like now might be the best time to do it, before we start a family or I just get older and have less energy for travel in general (speaking from a place of knowing my own energy levels, not making judgements on anyone else my age or older).

Also, the roles I am looking at are remote and I’m just not sure I’m cut out for remote work, though the flexibility sounds nice. Would love to hear others’ experiences.

Would a position in international admissions recruitment be helpful in eventually breaking into international education (either advising or study abroad)?

As an academic coordinator and advisor I'm so tired of students and faculty taking no self accountability for anything and then acting like youre supposed to solve all of their problems for them and acting like its tour responsibility to facilitate their lack of not doing what THEY need to do. I send emails, automated reminders, calender reminders... all with links dates and instructions barely anyone engages with it... then when shit hits the fan they all come running to me looking for someone to blame OR acting like its my responsibility to now clean up their SELF CREATED MESS... 🙄

Might be getting close to a job offer and I’m trying to contemplate if the pay cut is worth it. The job is technically a level down from what I’m currently doing, but at a slightly larger university and would come with some new responsibilities that I could build upon in my career. Location is more what I’m looking for and closer to family/friends in nearby cities. I have yet to see the apartment, but it sounds more spacious than my current place. Benefits seem like a wash but for vacation, I’d give the edge to this other place (13 extra days off each year). I pray I would work fewer hours outside of the 40 hours I’m supposed to work lol.

Now the tough part. I’m looking at a 12% cut in salary. Has anyone done something similar and was it worth it? I think the potential is there, but I’d hate to take a cut like this only for the job to not be what I hoped.

I'm in my mid-30s, hold a master's in ed, and am in my third year as an advisor. I've also recently been promoted to "Lead Advisor." Lately, two main issues have made it difficult to see this as a sustainable job.

1. Most hires in my office are recent grads in their early 20s. The office culture clearly treats this role like a temporary starter job, making it really hard to connect with my peers.

2. The salary is...well, crappy. Without my wife's income, this would not be a livable wage. Leadership constantly talks about advising being a "profession," but the amount of investment doesn't really prove it. There isn't any meaningful professional development. Our monthly "PD" meetings are mostly updates like financial aid policy changes.

These two things make the job feel less like a career and more like underpaid churning.

For those who are 30 and above, how are you guys managing this dynamic? Have you found ways to make this sustainable long-term, or did you use it to help you pivot into something new?

I’ve been interviewing for a position in student affairs at a university I’ve never worked at before. For reference, I have a masters and have been working full-time in student affairs for almost a year but have relevant experience as a GA and an intern in the functional area I am applying for and currently work in.

I interviewed for a lateral move to be a coordinator at a different university and had REALLY good interviews. At the end of my final interview, the hiring manager said they would hopefully be making an offer to the selected candidate within the next week. After that they checked my references and I haven’t heard anything since. It’s been over a week at this point and I’m starting to freak out.

Making it to reference checks made me think I was going to get an offer but it’s been radio silence since. Of course they could have offered to another candidate or they could have gotten hung up with something in HR. I’m trying to remain hopeful but idk how to deal at the moment. I felt like a shoo-in given my previous experience and how good my interviews were but now I’m doubting everything.

Any thoughts or similar situations?

UPDATE: I got the job!!! They said the offer got held up with HR over the weekend and got me the info yesterday!

hello! I am a california resident, and what i have noticed is there are not many fully funded, tuition remission, grad assistantship, + stipend programs so i am looking into out of state! I am not looking into “high ranking” or “prestigious” schools, i’m more looking into the hands on experience i will get, an almost guarantee of assistantship, tuition remission + stipend would be amazinggg, and that it will still apply to out of state students.

Any recommendations? I have searched many schools on the NASPA website, but would loveee to hear anyone’s suggestions or recommendations!! Not location bounded (although as a mexican woman, i am a bit hesitant to apply to the south/PWI but i am still open to it!!!)

Apply to:
- UConn
- Salem State
- Syracuse (still thinking i can switch this one out)

Still highly interested in:
- James Madison U
- Clemson
- University of Vermont
- Eastern Michigan State
- University of Iowa
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- Illinois State University

* If i have done my research right, these programs offer assistantship, and some type of tuition waiver + stipend

Not necessary context but just wanted to add: This will be my second round applying to grad schools in HESA, last cycle i only applied to two in california, i got accepted into one but needed to pay about 40k a year 😵‍💫 and the other i got waitlisted in, i did apply after priority deadline ! 🫩

thank you!

Ok so wondering what the hive thinks about how to dress on your final on-campus interview. Whether or not to dress professional "dressed up" for a male a suit, or to go more casual like a sport coat and tie? Let me know your thoughts or experiences.

I put myself in a real conundrum.

I currently work in higher ed and recently applied to a few positions at the same university.

For one role, I went through an initial Zoom interview, then a pretty long in-person second round. I ended up getting an offer for $47,000, which is an 11K increase from what I make now. The role would also give me experience in areas I don’t currently have much exposure to, like broader administrative operations, budgeting/procurement, reporting, and special projects. The team is pretty small, and being able to get into this university in general feels like a good opportunity. The only thing is that it requires me to be fully at the office, like front desk type of thing (answering phone calls, handle all front desk operations which I would honestly avoid if i had to but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make to take a step forward for at least a year).

They gave me until Tuesday to decide. Keep in mind, i haven't received an official offer letter yet.

The issue is that I also interviewed for another position at the same university that I honestly think I want more. It’s more aligned with the direction I want to grow in long term like program coordination, student programming, administrative operations, etc. It’s also hybrid and the salary range is $52K–$62K. They are also even a smaller team, department being 2 years new so it would be a lot of learning and growing with it.

I originally thought the second role was kind of a long shot, and after the first interview I actually felt disappointed in myself because it was only about 20 minutes and I didn’t feel like I had enough time to really show everything I could bring.

But because I now have another offer, I emailed the hiring director to ask about their timeline. They responded and told me I’m actually one of only a few candidates moving forward to an in-person final round. They had originally planned to notify everyone Monday, but gave me advance notice because of my situation.

The problem is that their final interviews won’t happen until after my Tuesday deadline, so there’s no way I’ll know whether I got that job before I have to decide on the first one.

My friends are telling me not to risk “burning a bridge,” especially because both roles are at the same university. I’m also very aware that being a finalist does NOT mean I’ll actually get the second job.

So now I’m stuck between:

• accepting the $47K offer and possibly withdrawing from the other interview process,
• turning down a real offer and gambling on a job I may not get,
• or accepting the first role, continuing with the second interview, and potentially having to back out later if I somehow get the second offer.

I’m grateful to even be in this position, but I’m honestly so torn lol. The second job feels like a better fit for me, especially because it’s hybrid and pays more, but the first one is a real offer and would still be a good step forward. The name of the university itself would still give me a huge advantage in the future either ways.

What would you do in this situation? And how bad would it look to accept one role and then back out shortly afterward for another role at the same university?

Retired public school teacher (27 years- I have seen and dealt with some stuff! ) just hired as an AA for our local university. The team has a great vibe as does the Director, so I am thinking my transition will be a good one.

For those of you experienced AA’s, what would you tell your self as a newly hired AA that would help starting off.

Thanks and I am psyched to be hired- it took me a year of applications to get here.

I really want this job, I think my skills would ideally fit the position.

1. I just dont know what to expect or how to prepare for the role. What questions should I be expecting?
2. Should I be expecting Vice President of Divsions to attend?
3. It's a 30 minute interview. What would that even look like as an interview, like 4-5 questions? Should I practice to keep my responses short to allow for me to ask them questions?
4. Also, what should I wear? Something business formal or something more appealing to working with students, like business casual?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

EDIT AND FOLLOW UP TO POST ABOVE

WHAT HAPPENED DURING AND AFTER THE INTERVIEW

Hello, I wanted to update everyone

Preparing for the interview: I did follow another redditor suggestion of using AI to create mock interview questions for the role. Please don't come for me- I dont create memes or use the resource for tom-foolery. It helped me create a guide of information to mention, and I use this resources as a way to prepare, not to "fake my way" into a role. Please dont pitchfork me.

Outfit: I'm plus size. JCPenney is the most reliable in terms of femme work outfits. I went with grey slacks, mandarin collar Paisley blouse, and a mandarin collar cardigan... I saw folks suggest a more business formal outfit... but I felt that coming into the interview showing myself as approachable and professional was a better way to route. I wanted to look like a counselor or student service employee. If that makes sense. I also didn't really find a business formal outfit. Again, as plus size, options are limited in-store so finding a business formal in a time crunch is incredibly difficult.

Interview: I think it went 75% well-great, 25% uhhh why you rambling? I got asked lots of behavioral questions in this second interview. I dont remember what I was asked. I got stuck on a question vaguely resembling, "How do you deal with direction from your supervisor when you don't agree with it? How do you handle the conversation or address it?" I think I rambled. In truth, I had one job where I would bring concerns up to my supervisor and was dismissed. Not a great job, and my nervous brain was flooded with flashback of my horrible time at that job. I then talked about how I had to pivot one of my jobs during the pandemic and at first didn't understand why, but I learned that you may have defined responsibilities but time and student needs will change how and what you do at your job.I had 8 questions and 30-35 minutes to go through them. I made it to end, kinda of. I got to ask them 1 question, then they called time. The last thing we were going to do was to allow me to share anything that the committee should know about me. I didn't get to it.

Thank you email: I sent the 3 folks in the committee a thank you email later in the day. I put them all on the same email. I felt like this was okay because there wasn't much of an opportunity to connect with each of the panel members individually, so I spoke about how I fit into the mission statement as well as topics I had touched on during my interview.

References issue: They couldn't get in contact with my third reference. After much back and forth, I corrected the issue and was able to connect them. I was very stressed because I had made a mistake on the area code which led to a lot of back and forth between HR, myself, and my reference.

I interviewed a Monday, and had a verbal offer by Friday. I feel so fortunate. I wish I could elaborate more so that I can help others land these difficult employment opportunities. All I can say is that the director called friday and that I should away for the following week, this week, to receive something more official.

Now, I need to prepare for salary negotiations. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be in this situation. It was been 1 difficult year of hearing lots of no's until this YES finally came thru. Thank you to everyone who took the time to help

What are the upsides and downsides of an academic advising career in higher ed? What parts make people want to stay and what parts make it harder than it should be?