Department
ESA Deputy Director - Direct Reports
About the Department
Career Advancement serves a student population of approximately 7,000 arts and sciences undergraduate students, in addition to alumni who have graduated within the last five years. Career Advancement plays a vital role in ensuring our students’ success after graduation. Career Advancement offers innovative and comprehensive career development services with a focus on pre-professional preparation, experiential education, and access to internship and full-time opportunities. Through career advising, programs, and comprehensive resources, Career Advancement supports undergraduate students and alumni as they develop the skills necessary to manage their career development, while working with alumni and employers to provide students with meaningful opportunities. For more information, please visit the Career Advancement website at careeradvancement.uchicago.edu.
Job Summary
UChicago Career Advancement builds on the world-class UChicago liberal arts foundation to give students a competitive edge in their professional development. The Employer Relations and Development (ERD) team establishes and enhances relationships across industries and in multiple geographic regions to connect UChicago undergraduates with leading organizations and support their career success.
The Assistant Director will respond to student demand for industry- and region-relevant internships and contribute to a collaborative, dynamic, and high-performing Employer Relations team. The Assistant Director will contribute to the growth of employer partnerships, fostering the UChicago brand with employers. This includes but is not limited to scaling up the number and diversity of internship opportunities in the APAC region, engaging with the UChicago parent and alumni community, facilitating on-campus and/or virtual career programs and employer engagements, and promoting new professional and experiential programs in target regions and industries.
The Assistant Director will enhance students’ understanding of working abroad and highlight the benefits of these experiences to student success. The position requires a passion for building relationships, serving as a strategic thought partner, and representing the University with a commitment to excellence, customer service, and creative, problem-solving mindset. The ideal candidate will be an energetic, adaptable, and talented individual contributor with a record of success in complex, fast-paced environments where collaboration is critical to success. The Assistant Director will be a critical contributor to the growth of the University’s premiere Jeff Metcalf Internship Program that places students into 4,500+ substantive, paid internships each year. This role will support the management of outcomes reporting, analyze data, and proactively identify and respond to trends. The Assistant Director will collaborate with student organizations as well as campus and external partners to fulfill University’s commitment to students’ success during and beyond College. The Assistant Director will support employer relationship building and management, creating incremental internship and full-time opportunities for students, and helping employers make early connections to talent.
Employer Relations staff provide superior customer service to all employer partners recruiting UChicago students, including managing robust on-campus recruiting, supporting employers with navigating the entirety of the recruiting process, and ensuring a positive campus experience. This staff member will also work collaboratively with the team to support the launch and execution of special projects and initiatives, experiential education programs, industry and flagship events.
The Assistant Director will also be responsible for the success of assigned student’s cohorts and their summer internship placement. This includes ensuring first-year career cohorts and Odyssey Scholars have access to substantive internship opportunities the summer after their first year. The Assistant Director will be instrumental in meeting this goal by developing new relationships with organizations, collaborating with student advisers in the creative promotion of opportunities to meet employer commitment and align with student interests, and support strategic career programming.
Responsibilities
- Leads identification of and conducts outreach to employers, both domestic and international, in both the public, private, and non-profit sectors for internships and full-time opportunities.
- Builds affinity with the University community domestically and abroad.
- Collaborates with Alumni Relations and Development (ARD) to cultivate new contacts and engage further with alumni, parents, donors, and friends of the University.
- Creates and implements strategic employer development plan in areas of opportunity; sets employer strategy of retention using data, feedback, research and analysis, and relationship management.
- Supports the promotion of Career Advancement’s international programming to students including international treks, competitions, internships, etc.
- Counsels and advises students interested in pursuing a career in a variety of fields. Assists students with professional resumes/cover letters, career guidance and industry exploration discussions, summer internship placement, and post-graduate plans and graduate school applications.
- Plans, designs and supports the execution of student workshops in both technical and soft skills and other relevant career programming, including demystifying the Curriculum Practical Training (CPT) process in partnership with the Office of International Affairs (OIA).
- Maintains efficient methods to track student data, quantify student engagement, and identify trends.
- Manages budgets, logistics, and all administrative aspects of the recruiting workflows.
- Collaborates with UChicago’s international centers and Career Advancement councils on various engagements, including summer intern activities, professional development networking events and social activities with the local UChicago community, etc.
- Assists in developing resources for international students and students who are participating in programs abroad, such as city guides and international visa guideline documents
- Familiar with the nuances of interning abroad, including international travel petitions to the Study Abroad Risk and Security Assessment Committee (SARSAC) for approval to study or work in higher-risk international locations, countries’ visa guidelines, and internship regulations, etc.
- Maintains efficient methods to track student progress and data, quantify student engagement, and report on student outcomes, such as outcomes for students in an internship immediately following their first year to outcomes for students through graduation.
- Makes student recommendations to specific organizations, tracks student progress in the recruiting cycle, and maintains timely correspondence with employers and students.
- Prepares career newsletters, audit Career Advancement’s website content, and develops original marketing content for career-related publications.
- Supports project management for employer relations team.
- Conducts job search and career management related large lectures, hands-on workshops, special events, training programs, and one-on-one career coaching sessions. Acts as a resource for and directs students to other career resources as needed.
- Analyzes markets and trends as they relate to job searches. Assesses student feedback and evaluations and collaborates with other career services staff members, student organizations, or other staff to determine program offerings and innovations.
- Researches organizations that are hiring and partners with a wide variety of employers to ensure recruitment strategies meet their needs. Maintains contact with a portfolio of employers to serve as their dedicated Career Advancement liaison.
- Performs other related work as needed.
Minimum Qualifications
Education:
Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.
Work Experience:
Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.
Certifications:
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Preferred Qualifications
Education:
Experience:
- Demonstrated success in maintaining collaborative relationships with stakeholders.
- Client-facing experience strongly preferred.
- Background working with senior-level professionals.
Technical Skills or Knowledge:
- Foreign language proficiency is a plus.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Proficiency utilizing Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other digital platform for meetings and events.
- Familiarity with Salesforce.
Preferred Competencies
- Thrive in a dynamic environment and respond to change positively.
- Strong interpersonal skills, strong customer service, and a high level of professionalism when interacting with internal and external constituents.
- High degree of professionalism when interacting with internal and external clients.
- Deep commitment to customer service, prioritize and balance different work streams, meet deadlines, and work successfully in a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
- Exemplary organizational skills and attention to detail required.
- Communicate to large groups as well as one-on-one with students, senior management, faculty, donors, and alumni.
- Comfortable with varying degrees of ambiguity and make informed decisions.
- Develop creative solutions to unique problems.
- Outcomes-driven and action-oriented attitude with an ability to maintain composure and positivity during periods of high-volume, fast-paced work.
- Problem-solving and reasoning, critical thinking and decision-making skills.
- Exemplary project management skills.
- Handle sensitive matters with tact and discretion and maintain confidentiality.
- Patient and tolerant attitude toward demanding clients and work required.
Working Conditions
- Work evening hours and weekends on an occasional basis.
- Travel domestically and abroad, generally two or three times per year.
Application Documents
- Resume/CV (required)
- Cover Letter/Statement of Interest (required)
- Three Professional References Contact Information (required)
When applying, the document(s) MUST be uploaded via the My Experience page, in the section titled Application Documents of the application.
Job Family
Student Affairs & Services
Role Impact
Individual Contributor
Scheduled Weekly Hours
37.5
Drug Test Required
No
Health Screen Required
No
Motor Vehicle Record Inquiry Required
No
Pay Rate Type
Salary
FLSA Status
Exempt
Pay Range
$72,250.00 - $93,500.00
The included pay rate or range represents the University’s good faith estimate of the possible compensation offer for this role at the time of posting.
Benefits Eligible
Yes
The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in theBenefits Guidebook.
Posting Statement
The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination.
Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form.
All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history.A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment.Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case-by-case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position.
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