The Truth About Search Committees
I’ve been on enough academic search committees to know the truth about landing big institutional jobs:
It’s basically trying to get a dozen people who rarely agree on anything to suddenly agree on you.
Every member has their own checklist. Every interviewer sees something different. The candidate has to fit a need the institution didn’t know it had. And then—both sides have to say yes at the exact same moment.
It’s chaos wrapped in process wrapped in “We’ll be in touch in 4–6 weeks,” which really means, “We’re still discussing this in conference rooms you’ll never see.”
So yes, there’s luck involved.
The timing has to work. The search has to stay open. The budget has to survive three rounds of “maybe we should just restructure instead.” And somehow, a dozen very smart people with very different priorities have to look at your CV and think, “Yeah, this one.”
But after sitting on both sides of that table, I’ve learned something simple:
Luck tends to find people who’ve been making career capital deposits.
The Investment Nobody Sees Coming
Career capital works like this:
You can’t make opportunities appear. You can’t control timing. You definitely can’t make committees reach consensus faster.
But if you’ve been making deposits—even the strange ones that make people question your judgment—you can actually do something when opportunity shows up.
Empty account? You watch it pass by.
Full account? You can say yes.
I didn’t plan to be the Executive Director of Hospital Operations at one of the country’s top veterinary teaching hospitals. It wasn’t on my vision board. I didn’t even know the job was open.
But when Iowa State needed someone who could handle clinical operations, business management, academic bureaucracy, and multi-operational chaos—all at once—apparently I’d been training for that job for 23 years.
The Interview Where Everything Clicked
Picture this: I’m sitting across from a search committee at Iowa State. Very smart people, very different priorities.
They ask about managing complex hospital operations with competing demands and tight margins.
And I start talking about my Amazon selling business.
I can see the moment they’re thinking, “Well, this was a mistake.”
Then I explain:
“For 15 years, I ran a six-figure reselling business while practicing full-time. I managed inventory, tracked margins, forecasted demand, dealt with supply chain issues, and pivoted when markets shifted. Oh—and I did it all nights and weekends while seeing patients during the day. Hospital operations? Same principles. Different scale.”
Their faces changed.
From “Why is he talking about reselling shoes?”
to “That actually tracks.”
to “This might be exactly what we need.”
That’s when luck and preparation collided.
The job opening? Luck.
The timing? Luck.
The funding surviving three budget cycles? A miracle.
But spending 15 years accidentally building a skill set that perfectly matched what they needed?
That wasn’t luck.
That was deposits I didn’t know I was making.
What You Can Control (and What You Definitely Cannot)
After years on both sides of the hiring table, here’s what I know:
You cannot control:
- Whether the opportunity exists
- Whether the timing works
- Whether the committee reaches consensus
- Whether the budget survives
- Whether someone’s preferred candidate suddenly becomes available
But you can control:
- Whether you’re making deposits
- Whether you’re learning weird things
- Whether you say yes to opportunities that confuse people
- Whether you solve problems that aren’t technically your job
- Whether your account has a balance when opportunity knocks
I’ve watched perfect candidates lose out because the timing was off by two months. I’ve seen positions vanish mid-search because budgets shifted.
You can’t control any of that.
But you can control whether you’re ready when the stars do align.
The Deposits That Made Me “Lucky”
Every 2 A.M. farm call or hospital emergency? Deposit. Crisis management under pressure.
Every inventory decision in my reselling or veterinary business? Deposit. Learning to read margins, manage cash flow, and cut losses fast.
Every time I started something from scratch—mobile large animal practice, reselling business, vet tech programs? Deposit. Building systems when none existed.
Every budget meeting at Mountwest Community College? Deposit. Resourcefulness under constraint.
Every committee meeting at Purdue? Deposit. Navigating bureaucracy and still getting things done.
When Iowa State needed someone who could handle operations, financial management, systems thinking, and entrepreneurial problem-solving—all at once—I had an account full of deposits that somehow added up to exactly what they needed.
Not because I planned it.
Because I’d been saying yes to things for 23 years.
The Real Question Nobody’s Asking
The question isn’t, “How do I get lucky?”
The question is, “Am I making deposits Future Me might need?”
Because you won’t know what deposits matter until opportunity shows up.
The bookkeeping certificate you’re tempted to skip? It could teach you the financial management that gets you into leadership.
The side business you started just to earn extra income? Might teach you operational efficiency that transforms how you lead teams.
The problem you solved that wasn’t your job? Deposit.
The weird opportunity that makes people question your focus? Deposit.
You won’t see the value until years later when someone asks a question—and you realize, “Oh, I actually know this. From that thing I built.”
Stop Chasing Luck. Start Building Deposits.
If your career looks messy—good.
It probably means you’re building something interesting.
If people question why you’re stepping outside your “lane”—that’s not a flaw.
That’s a feature.
If your résumé includes roles or ventures no one expected—those aren’t random choices.
They’re deposits.
The magic isn’t in having a flawless plan.
The magic is in being ready when opportunity shows up.
And readiness comes from making deposits—
Skill by skill, project by project, risk by risk.
Even the weird ones.
Especially the entrepreneurial ones nobody sees coming.
Start the side venture.
Say yes to the stretch assignment.
Learn how real budgets work, how real people think, how real results happen.
Solve the problem that isn’t technically your job.
You’re not off track—you’re compounding value.
You’re building equity in yourself.
Because when the stars finally align—
When the timing is right, when the committee says yes, when the door finally opens—
You’ll have something far more powerful than luck.
You’ll have career capital.
Your Turn
So—what weird deposit are you making right now?
The side hustle, the late-night project, the thing that makes people ask, “Shouldn’t you just focus on your real job?”
Drop it below.
Because in ten years, that might be exactly what makes you “lucky.”
This is Part 2 in the 3-part Career Capital series. Read Part 1