I like my job It's the sort of job that has a big mix of a few things. I am a teacher, I am a researcher, I am an administrator, at times I need to play the role of a counselor. And today I became a marketer. We have this University's open day, where I helped out mending a stall for our "Accounting and Financial Management" degree program stall. The visitors consist parents and their teenage kids who will be entering the University for 2012/2013 academic year, where they will pay £9000.
We get a few students to help to engage with the visitors. I went to our stall a little late, and it was quiet. I had a chance to have a few chats with a couple of them. One of the students, whose name was Robbie, recognized me as the lecturer for "Corporate Finance" in his second year. He told me he liked the course I taught. And when he told me when he knew I won't be teaching this coming year, i.e., his third year, he told me he was sad to know that. Upon hearing that, it felt so surreal, still I can't help feeling moved by it, and I told him so! then I realized I cannot hold my emotion and felt like crying and have to use the brochures to cover my mouth for few seconds to contain my emotion. As I carry on my conversation, I have to change the topic. That was just "not me".
I didn't expect this. Why should we expect students to like us. Part of me say, well, that slot of Corporate Finance in the second year, was from 4 pm to 6 pm every Tuesday and it was such a hard time to learn or attend lecture and it makes concentration so hard, consider the time of the day. So why should we expect students to like us, we are only "doing a job", no passion whatsoever, only the knowledge and making my point, delivering the material, just that. Therefore, when I heard what Robbie said, it just made me feel quite unworthy. I even remember I wrote a blog post that time when lecture end (read here if you want to see what I had written)
Having said that, It is of course still good to be appreciated. At times you just forget students have emotions like anyone. This makes the job interesting, while dealing with people, you do get emotions caught up in between. Still we are quite "business-like". I also just received an email about a student, whom I am an adviser to (we are also student adviser, where we are contact point for students who want to chat with us about anything), did so badly in her first year that she will be terminated. We have a few cases like this every year. Students normally will meet up with you about such matter and you have to be sensitive, yet diplomatic about it, considering their best interests, perhaps choosing another University will be the best way forward for them. The bottom line to me is, as long as students don't complain about what we do, it is normal, if they said good things about you, that is a bonus. Of course, if the students like you (not that we aim to be so, we have our rule and students must stick to it even if they hate it), that seems rare, but a bonus as well, it won't change my way of working or style or think that I will do the job even better, not to be disappointing to the kids, blah, blah, blah. However, what Robbie said today is enough to make me choke and almost cried. Still, this won't change anything about the way I do my job.
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