How to Become a Professional Staff Member in Residence Life

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Many individuals enjoy working with college students, especially in the residence halls. After serving as a Resident Assistant (RA) or in another leadership capacity for a residence hall, some students want to become professional residence life staff members. Here’s how to become a professional staff member in residence life.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step1

Attend graduate school. Most colleges and universities require that individuals serving as professional residence life staff members have a master’s degree in college student personnel, higher education administration, counseling or another related area. This requires individuals to spend two years getting their degree in graduate school. However, the benefit to this is that most institutions offer GA positions that allow graduate students to have a semi-professional position that gives them more responsibility and authority than an RA.

Step2

Become involved in professional organizations. There are a couple of different associations for professional staff members to join, and most graduate students planning to enter residence life full-time are allowed to join them as well for a reduced, student fee. Being part of these organizations not only allows you to put it on your resume, but it also provides lots of connections and networking opportunities which can assist later when you are searching for a job.

Step3

Network with colleagues. Due to the unique position a professional residence life staff member has, many individuals find it helpful to network with their colleagues. Not only can they provide ideas or examples of how to handle certain situations, but they are often the only people in the world who truly understand what it is they do and some of the problems they face. Most people in the working world don’t have a job even close to that of a professional staff member, thus they don’t understand their working hours, what they deal with, etc. on a daily basis.

Step4

Consider working for smaller institutions. While most people would like to be employed with the residence halls at the top colleges and universities in the country, these positions aren’t always available. In fact many graduates have problems finding residence life positions at good institutions since they fill up quickly. However, there are always residence life jobs open around the country due to the high volume of turnover in the job. This means that as long as you are willing to move and work at a smaller institution you can probably find a job.