Colleges and Universities

One career trajectory I've been thinking of is working for the administration at a college or university.  The more I think about it, the more I think it would fit my situation really well right now.  Here are some reasons I think I might enjoy it....

1) Good pay + excellent benefits + stable industry + room for growth = YES PLEASE

2) Since I believe I will want to one day own my own business, I can take advantage of tuition discounts and classes that I think might be helpful for my future plans.

3) I like to learn.  I'm not necessarily a good "traditional" learner and never really felt like I fit in with academia, but I like academic people a lot.  I would love to be around people who value education and continual learning.  People probably wouldn't think I was off my rocker if I wanted to take a diversity of classes out of curiosity, they just might think I'm a little weird if it didn't lead to a specific degree or certification.  I'm cool with that.

4) There is a lot of opportunity for movement within the same organization but for different career objectives.  For instance, if I decide in two years that I really want to go more into the business end of things, I can transfer to a financial office or to a business school.  If I decide I desperately miss the arts, I can move into an arts department.  If I want to network for a next job, I can start helping with alumni relations or events.

5) My most recent job title was as a Director of Educational Programming.  T'ain't too many industries I can find a job in where this title a) makes sense, b) wouldn't turn people off or put me directly into a "No" pile, and c) would be respected and get me a pretty decent job.  But at a college--it could be golden.
Context:  I probably going to have to take a "step down" in title (which is realistically the only thing I am qualified to do).  The problem with my old title is that, in any context other than the one I just came from, I would never be qualified for a job with the same title (unless we are talking about specific theatre jobs that there are maybe ten or twenty of in the whole United States...not holding my breath for these)--I'm just completely unqualified for what this title implies I'm qualified to do in another industry.  I can't create curriculum, I have little teaching experience, and I don't have an education background.  I was an administrator, plain and simple--a human resources generalist/office manager/marketing director/event planner/master scheduler/trash emptier.  Essentially, I was an Specialized Office Manager.  The result- most employers assume I'm way overqualified for jobs that are actually right on the money for me.  For instance, I made it through three interviews at one job that boiled down to me and one other candidate.  When they couldn't make up their mind, they went with the other person because they had the same title in their previous job (an "assistant" position), and they thought since I was coming from being a "Director" I would keep looking for a job until I got another "Director" position and wouldn't be content with something titled "Assistant".  Keep in mind that this job was in the arts, was essentially the same job I came from, paid a full third more than my last job and had better benefits.  Do I care about the freaking title?  NO.  But, it seems employers do.  I'm hoping that a college or university would be willing to see this as an asset, and understand that moving around to a different job in a similar industry isn't crazy, but normal.

6) There tends to be a lot of turn-over, and therefore a lot of new jobs opening up.  Chances seem pretty good (relative to the arts anyway).

So that's the idea.  I started applying to some of these jobs this week, and I'm going to continue to apply to basically every college job in the Chicago area for which I'm qualified.  I'm hoping to have the bulk of that done within a week, and then just have the regular check-in after that.  Once I get a firm end date for this temp job, I'm going to try and get some temp work at a university as well (apparently they all have temp departments now that also do temp-to-hire work).  Maybe that can get me some connections and a foot in the door?

After that slew of applications, there is one other industry I think I'm going to also concentrate my efforts on after, but more on that tomorrow :)