The Executive Director of the Center for Career and Professional Development serves as the chief administrator for a comprehensive career service program that includes an academic component of internships and related applied learning experiences.

Major Objectives:

• The Executive Director reports to and acts as a strategic partner to the Vice President for Academic Affairs in all aspects of conceiving and offering high-impact career development, planning, and readiness programs and initiatives.
• Develops an innovative and holistic vision for career readiness and preparation that sets Austin College students apart from other institutions. The position oversees the Center for Career and Professional Development and provides external-facing partnership and relationship development with employers and alums.
• Leads the strategic direction and oversight for the Center, ensuring that it effectively provides Austin College students with opportunities for career exploration, internships, graduate school, and job opportunities.
• Engages, builds, and strengthens relationships with local, regional, national, and international employers to generate strategic and lasting opportunities and long-range programs, including jobs, internships, experiential learning opportunities, career explorations, alum connections, and on and off-campus networking.
• Develops and implements meaningful assessment of programs and continuously enhances the impact of programs designed to teach and encourage self-analysis and career planning.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develops and implements data-informed strategies designed to increase internship, employment, experiential, and networking opportunities for Austin College students and alums.
• Advises and counsels employers to recognize the high caliber of AC graduates and the value-add they bring to meet the employers’ specific needs. Establishes AC as a school of choice to recruit recent graduates. Provides consultation to employers seeking to maximize their recruitment efforts with AC students. Emphasizes the value of a Liberal Arts Education; ability to articulate this.
• Partners with academic programs and majors to cultivate career stories and successes and collaborates with faculty and the Director of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations to build industry connections and relationships for AC students, graduates, and alums.
• Coordinates the internship program to provide a compelling range of experiential learning opportunities and ensures quality, which makes the experience worthy of academic credit.
• With the Center for Career and Professional Development staff, facilitates relationships and coordinates outreach activities between employers and the College community. Identifies and cultivates relationships with organizations and business sectors that historically have yet to interact with the College and/or have no track records of employing AC students and graduates.
• Identifies employer prospects and cultivates relationships with employers and alums, virtually and in person, to develop lasting relationships and long-range programs and opportunities.
• Develops an understanding of student needs and interests and cultivates specific relationships with employers beneficial to our students and program objectives.

• Provides strategic planning and goal setting based on data and annual assessment of programmatic outcomes.
• Analyses student employment data and trends. Collaborates with Enrollment Management and Institutional Marketing to share the career placement and successes resulting from the Center’s programs and initiatives.
• Leads a vision for how on-campus student employment contributes to the development of real-world, transferable skills, career planning, and readiness.
• Leverages student employment data, trends, and employer feedback to enhance and innovate the career education programs and offerings
• Maintains a working knowledge of local, regional, and national employment market trends and their actual and potential impact on the hiring of college students and graduates.
• Supports and encourages the Center’s staff in continued learning and awareness development of inclusivity and equity concepts and frameworks to support their work and engagement with students and alums of various backgrounds, especially those with identities historically and currently excluded and minoritized, and the employers who serve these communities.
• Participates in departmental and campus-wide learning opportunities to further develop awareness, skills, and knowledge in supporting and fostering inclusion and belonging for students and colleagues.
• Appreciates the value of cultural, ethnic, gender, and other individual differences in people. Helps to create an environment of learning about, valuing, encouraging, and supporting differences.

Secondary Responsibilities:

• Participates in Admissions and Institutional Advancement alum engagement events.
• Serves on college committees.
• Other duties as assigned by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Positions Supervised:

• Assistant Director of Career Services and Internship Coordinator
• Program and Project Coordinator
• Dotted line to the Directors of Alumni Relations and Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations in Institutional Advancement

Major Contacts:

• Current undergraduate students
• Alumni
• Current and prospective employers and internship hosts
• Center For Career Services and Professional Development staff
• Faculty and staff of the College
• Institutional Advancement staff
• Families of students and prospective students and their families

Demonstrates Excellence:

• Actively listens and communicates effectively with strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Engages with students, alums, employers, and other constituents with high sensitivity and inclusivity.
• Facilitates innovations and changes through strategic visioning, leadership, creativity, collaboration, and partnerships.
• Cultivates deep knowledge of recruitment cycles, processes, timelines, employer needs, career competencies, and industry trends.
• Ability to provide strategic vision and direction in alignment with best practices and trends in student development, career planning, and readiness.
• Understands the impact of inequities in recruitment practices and policies that create systems of advantages and disadvantages for underrepresented, under-resourced, and marginalized communities and works to minimize and eliminate the adverse impact on students and alums in these communities.
• Acts as a versatile leader who thrives on student and alums interaction and excels in relationship-building.
• Possesses strong organizational skills with excellent follow-through ability.
• Develops solid relationships with prospective employers and internship sites.
• Has a rich understanding of the liberal arts and what such an education and institution embodies.
• Possesses polished and professional presentation skills and an enthusiastic approach to presenting.

Required Qualification Standards

• Minimum Qualifications: Master’s or professional degree in counseling, higher education administration, college personnel administration, or other appropriate fields preferred; 3 years of professional experience in career services or a closely related area in a higher education setting; 3 years of supervisory experience; demonstrated professional experience in career services-related programming, including experience with employer relations, providing career readiness support to students, and coordinating large-scale events; proven ability to clearly and effectively communicate information, data, and success stories to external partners and cultivate employer relationships; demonstrated ability to be innovative and entrepreneurial and conceive and implement strategic visions and programming in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders; demonstrated contemporary and comprehensive knowledge of career services, trends, career assessments, and student development.
  
  Preferred Qualifications: Master's degree or higher in Student Affairs/Higher Education, Human Resources, Counseling, or related field; experience with and an appreciation for the liberal arts; experience with data analysis and assessment methods to measure program effectiveness; evidence of engagement within national and/or regional professional communities related to career readiness and college student development, such as NACE; experience with effective budgeting and fiscal oversight.

Analytic Skills:

• The ability to recognize several likely causes of events, analyze relationships among several parts of a problem or situation, and formulate a multi-step response is required.
• Strategic planning and project management skills.

Language and Literacy Skills:

• Reads and interprets a wide range of information to small and large groups.
• Effectively manages meetings.
• Represents the institution to the audience, especially regarding public speaking.
• Communicates regularly and effectively with a wide range of groups.

Computer/Technology Skills:

• Familiarity with:
  • Microsoft Office products
  • Virtual meeting technology (Zoom, Teams)
  • Career services technology highly desirable (Handshake)
  • Database management highly desirable
  • Social media and digital marketing are desirable

Licenses, Certifications, and Other Requirements:

• Valid driver’s license and the ability to pass a driving record check

Behaviors:

To fully meet job expectations, the following must be demonstrated:

• Independence of Action/Initiative – Exercises good judgment in problem-solving and decision-making.
• Service Orientation – Exhibits a “customer friendly” demeanor with internal and external customers.
• Resourcefulness/Creativity – Presents various options to fulfill job responsibilities and meet workplace objectives.
• Communication Skills – Presents ideas effectively. Conveys thoughts clearly and concisely. Listens well and asks appropriate questions.
• Teamwork – Works effectively with other employees. Offers help when needed.

Physical Demands:

Work is often performed in a typical office environment requiring:

• Sitting in a normal seated position for extended periods.
• Reaching by extending hand(s) or arm(s) in any direction.
• Dexterity sufficient to manipulate objects with fingers, for example, operating a computer keyboard.
• No or minimal physical effort.
• No or minimal exposure to physical risk.

While performing the duties of the Executive Director, the employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds.

The physical demands described here represent those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

Additional Requirements for the Job:

• Some evening and weekend hours required.
• Travel required.

About Austin College

Connections working at Austin College