I love this job

I really love designing graphics in Photoshop. I used to do it a lot in middle school and high school, but after I got a Mac a couple years ago and never bought Photoshop to go with it, my love for graphic design has become stagnant. But now I get to use Photoshop for SPOP all the time and it's a nice outlet and reminder of something I love. Today, I was at the DOS office working on some stuff with Photoshop, and I started thinking about what criteria you need to meet to fit this SPOP position, since Photoshop skills were one of the last things I considered when I applied. And then I started thinking about all of the other things we've had to do so far and the projects that we're currently working on, and a lot of them are things I took for granted in the past or that I also didn't think of when I applied to be a Coordinator. I really enjoy each task, some are just different than I had assumed.

But then I started thinking about what actually WAS asked of us in our application and interview. Most of the questions tried to gain an understanding of who I am as a person, rather than how punctual I am, what experience I have, and other things that employers often ask of prospective candidates to see how good of a worker they are instead of how good of a person. After thinking about that for a second, it made me really grateful that all of these assignments and duties get pushed on us, but with confidence that we are capable of doing them. The thought of five students planning and implementing a program for 130 staffers and over 4,000 freshmen is crazy. The faith that Mike and Jill have in the Coordinators each year really blows me away. I'm not sure anyone has believed in me right off the bat the way they do. It just really means a lot to know that we could have all been hired with zero Photoshop skills or talents in other areas that we utilize...and that would be OK. I remember asking Mike awhile back if there was some sort of training for this position. He smirked a little and said that there could never really be any training to be a SPOP Coordinator, and that you learn more about the position everyday. Even when you're done, you probably won't know everything there is to know.