Have you ever looked back on a situation and asked yourself “why did I chose to make that decision?” and I am not talking about bad decisions that you regret, but good decisions too…

When I was a sophomore in college I became a Resident Assistant (RA).

As a senior in college I was one of three seniors that stuck with it for all three years and through out those three years, I was always the one that the other RA’s would come to when they had a problem. Whether it was with one of their residence, personal issues, or a problem with our bosses in the Resident Life department.

I enjoyed being the person that my colleagues came to when they needed help, I enjoyed being a leader among leaders and being involved in the problem solving process… so it was a shock to everyone, including myself, when I turned down the Head RA (HRA) position my senior year.

Being the HRA meant that they were one step above their colleagues in the chain of command, they are the person that other RA’s go to when they have problems, issues, or concerns… sound familiar?  However with more power came more responsibilities and you would think with more responsibilities came more benefits…

Unfortunately the Resident Life department did not share those feelings. As an HRA I would have been required to go through an additional two weeks of unpaid training during the summer and winter breaks, I would have been in charge of writing the schedules for all of the RA’s, and I would have been required to cover shifts when other RA’s could not make it… but there was no additional compensation.

So I figured I could still be the leader my colleagues were looking for, I could still be the problem solver they needed, and I could do it with out the H in my title.

Talent Analytics was able to help me understand why I made that decision, and any decision for that matter.