CAREER ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST

Provide career coaching for students and alumni and creatively design and facilitate workshops on a variety of career-related topics. Coach students and alumni from diverse backgrounds, interest-areas and abilities on career goal setting, internship and job search techniques, graduate school search and application techniques, professional branding and networking, and interviewing and salary negotiations. Provide feedback on career-related documents, conduct practice interviews and administer career assessment instruments. Implement strategies to advance the professional image, expand the outreach, and increase the visibility of students to alumni and employers by identifying, cultivating, and soliciting alumni and employer involvement. Design and implement professional development, experiential learning, and internship programs to include developing opportunities and administering programs to enhance student professional development and learning and coordinating industry guest presenters for career development programs. Provide guidance to students and faculty in developing strategies for successfully engaging in experiential learning, including internships, undergraduate research, and other learning opportunities. Develop partnerships and opportunities to support and guide student professional development.

SUPERVISION

The Career Engagement Specialist reports to the Director of Career Services and takes day to day direction from the respective Dean of the school for which they are supporting.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Provide career coaching for students and alumni through individual appointments, group sessions and drop-in hours. Creatively design and facilitate workshops on a variety of career-related topics, coordinate industry guest presenters for career development programs and collaborate with stakeholders on programming needs. Coach students and alumni from diverse backgrounds, interest-areas and abilities on career goal setting, internship and job search techniques, graduate school search and application techniques, professional branding and networking, interviewing and salary negotiations. Provide feedback on career-related documents, conduct practice interviews and administer career assessment instruments. Refer students to other campus resources as appropriate.

Implement strategies to advance the professional image, expand the outreach, and increase the visibility of the students to alumni and employers. Collaborate with faculty and alumni to identify potential partnerships. Establish partnerships and strengthen existing relationships with employers and alumni to assist students.

Work collaboratively to develop and administer comprehensive professional development and experiential learning programs that offer students expanded opportunities to enhance their education. Support and guide students as they identify academic goals and post-college goals connected to their career, profession, or educational interests. Assist students with personal growth, critical reflection, and development.

Manage, and establish expectations and standards, for internships and service-learning opportunities. Prepare students for internships and service-learning activities, organize, and lead workshops and develop relevant materials. Monitor and assess quality of student experiences. Monitor the relationships between student interns, faculty sponsors, and site supervisors and community partners. Support faculty sponsors to ensure understanding of sponsorship responsibilities and internship policy. Monitor and stay current with liability/legal issues surrounding internships, and make recommendations, as appropriate. Stay current with items related to experiential learning off campus opportunities to ensure compliance with related state and/or federal guidelines, mandates, and/or laws.

Identify, solicit, and maintain a list of internship, experiential learning, and employment opportunities for students from alumni, area organizations, and other employers. Review and approve student requests for internship credit (if applicable) per appropriate learning objectives. Submit evaluations to internship hosts to review employer satisfaction with IC interns.

Craft and coordinate opportunities for in-person meetings, informational interviews, and career exploration meetings to increase student engagement with alumni and employers. Travel with student groups as needed.

Establish and implement programs that involve students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Coordinate career-related panel discussions, speaker events, and other programming in consultation with student groups, faculty, and other campus organizations.

Conduct program evaluation and assessment related to experiential learning student learning outcomes, collect data, and perform benchmarking to improve goals and objectives. Monitor satisfaction of students, site supervisors/community partners, and faculty sponsors and mentors. Collect and disseminate statistical data; track experiential learning activities; solicit input and provide feedback on methods to serve students, faculty, alumni, and site supervisors or community partners more effectively.

Support the school's admission, student, and alumni programs and events. Participate in events such as Ithaca Today, open houses, Family Weekend, and Network Nights.

Collect and disseminate statistical data including but not limited to student, alumni and employer engagement activities as well as graduate internship, experiential learning, and placement data. Solicit input and provide feedback on methods to more effectively serve students, alumni and employers.

Promote a flexible, collaborative and inclusive work and living environment. Develop and demonstrate a multicultural awareness and contribute to cultivating an inclusive, diverse and respectful College community. Demonstrate civil and inclusive behavior when interacting with staff, faculty, students and visitors to the College.

Expand professional competence with respect to current literature and employment trends through research, professional conferences, and discussion. Observe and remain current with ethical guidelines and legal precedents for client-counselor relationships, student records, and employment procedures.

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of five years’ experience working effectively with employers and/or alumni in either a corporate/industry setting (which could include media, human resources/recruiting, sales and marketing, public relations, or business development) or college setting (which may include development, career counseling or employer, alumni, and volunteer relations); demonstrated understanding of internship and job market trends for students and graduates; and the flexibility to travel and work nights and weekends in support of events are required. Exceptional interpersonal, organizational, oral and written communication skills; well-developed relationship management skills; experience with heavy public contact in situations requiring keen judgment and innovation, the ability to effectively work and interact respectfully within a diverse and inclusive environment and relate and understand the needs of a diverse student and alumni population; and demonstrated ability to work effectively with a broad range of internal and external constituents are highly desired.

HIRING RANGE: $55,000 - $60,000

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Most of the work of the incumbent is carried out within a generally accessible, safe, indoor environment. The incumbent will be required to operate a personal computer and associated equipment such as printers and networking equipment used in day-to-day operations. The incumbent will be required to visit offices or work sites off campus and must be able to drive or make alternative arrangements for transportation. Evening and/or weekend hours will be required. Travel will be necessary. Flexible work schedule dictated by program scheduling and deadlines should be anticipated.

ABOUT ITHACA COLLEGE

As an employee at Ithaca College, you’ll get much more than a competitive salary and the traditional advantages. We pride ourselves on providing our benefit-eligible employees with the most comprehensive benefits possible, including work/life balance, generous paid time off policies, career-enhancing trainings, employee and dependent tuition assistance, and opportunities to give back to the community. Beyond benefits, you’ll enjoy the kind of uniquely rewarding work environment that can only be found in a vibrant college community.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

To apply, please submit cover letter, resume and list of three professional references.

Visa sponsorship is not provided for this position.

Ithaca College is committed to building a diverse academic community and encourages members of underrepresented groups to apply. Experience that contributes to the diversity of the college is appreciated.