Boston College IntroductionFounded in 1863, Boston College is a Jesuit, Catholic university located six miles from downtown Boston with an enrollment of 9,484 full-time undergraduates and 5,250 graduate and professional students. Ranked 35 among national universities, Boston College has 888 full-time and 1,281 FTE faculty, 2,711 non-faculty employees, an operating budget of $1.4 billion, and an endowment in excess of $3.5 billion.
Job DescriptionAdministrative & Programs Specialist
The Boston College Career Center's Administrative & Programs Specialist plays a vital role in office administration and program support, serving a diverse community of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students, as well as hundreds of employers and alumni annually. In this bustling environment, excellent customer service is a top priority, and the Administrative & Programs Specialist excels in providing exceptional support to meet these needs. The Administrative & Programs Specialist also provides administrative support to the entire Career Center team, composed of 17 other full-time staff members and 5 graduate assistants.
As the first point of contact for the Career Center, the Administrative & Programs Specialist manages a very active front desk greeting area, ensuring that all visitors, whether students, alumni, employers, or parents, are welcomed with warmth and professionalism. With a friendly demeanor, they promptly address concerns and inquiries through various channels, including telephone, email, and in-person interactions, consistently leaving a positive impression on everyone they assist.
OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
- Represent the Career Center and provide administrative and logistical support across a broad range of needs:
- Provide excellent customer service and manage a highly active front desk greeting area in a welcoming manner
- Direct frequent walk-in and scheduled visitor traffic to the appropriate places within the building. Visitors regularly include students, alums, employers, parents, faculty, and staff.
- Serve as the initial telephone, in-person and email contact person for the Boston College Career Center ensuring that issues are addressed in a timely, professional and pleasant manner
- Respond to concerns/questions from students, alumni, employer, and parents and, when appropriate, refer to appropriate Career Center staff. Manage the Career Center email accounts.
- Recruit, hire, train, and supervise 6 undergraduate student workers each semester to assist with office administration and other tasks. This includes meeting regularly with each student worker to ensure they understand what skills they are developing while providing leadership opportunities that will be important to their career development.
- Streamline student hiring process and administration for the Career Center through centralizing communication among 5
- Career Center staff supervisors and with Student Affairs Business Service Center (SABSC)
- Manage staff calendar(s) with limited consultation, setting meeting appointments, resolving calendaring conflicts, and confirming meetings as needed
- Serve as back up to Assistant Director in responding to questions from the peer career coaches
PROGRAM SUPPORT
Serve as the primary lead and program manager for several signature student services and programs such as the following:
Career Closet
- Support office initiative to provide professional clothing attire to over 350+ students per year. Duties in this role include: managing the budget for this program, ensuring inventory is stocked, and working with front desk ambassadors and peer career coaches to make sure that the operations of this program are successful.
Endeavor
- Oversee logistical support for this signature career exploration program, including budget tracking, room reservations, travel to employers, catering, and other support. The Administrative & Programs Specialist collaborates with multiple internal and external stakeholders such as Event Management, SABSC, Alumni Association, etc.
Career Center Photo Booth
- Oversees process to provide all students with access to professional photos to enhance their digital presence, including on LinkedIn profiles and Handshake profiles. Duties in this role include: liaising with the vendor, troubleshooting technical issues, and checking students into appointments.
Contribute to the organization and implementation of major Career Center events, such as annual career fairs and networking events, building renovations, etc.
OPERATIONS AND BUDGET SUPPORT
- Develop systems and processes for determining office supply and equipment needs and oversee the ordering of these items through established vendors (e.g. WB Mason, Amazon, etc.)
- Ensure travel processes for staff members are completed using BC policy
- Coordinate and support budgeting activities through planning, tracking, and reporting processes while working with the Student Affairs Business Service Center. Duties include, but are not limited to completing transfers, providing recommendations to Career Center leadership on budget inquiries, running reports, and processing reimbursements, reconciliations, purchase orders, contracts, and subscriptions.
- Track student staffing hours and payment to ensure we are remaining within budget
- Submit and approve hours of non-exempt employees, student workers, and internship stipend recipients weekly via the Kronos payroll system
- Coordinate the requests and scheduling of building maintenance and repair activities, including periodic work orders and seasonal maintenance
- Correspond with key vendors such as Handshake, Big Interview, Embark, Beyond Graduate School, Beyond the Professoriate, and Canva to coordinate payment and troubleshoot access issues
Each staff member in the Division of Student Affairs is expected to support division and university-wide initiatives, staff events, and serve on committees as needed.
The Staff member will primarily be in-person and on campus.
Please note, all interested candidates should upload a cover letter in addition to the resume when applying to this position.
Hiring Range: $27.47/hour to $34.34/hour. Pay rate commensurate with relevant experience.
Requirements- Minimum of two years of administrative experience with a customer-focused orientation, preferred
- Detail oriented - ability to consistently deliver error-free work and communications
- Demonstrated success in following through and completing projects
- Exceptional organizational skills and level of attention to detail
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills (phone, email, meetings and events)
- Excellent customer service and interpersonal skills, as well as discretion and diplomacy
- Experience with managing multiple budgets and budget and ability to learn personnel software such as PeopleSoft Financials and Kronos
- Ability to handle multiple projects and requests simultaneously, prioritizing, multi-tasking, and assigning work to others as needed
- Ability to take initiative and ownership of projects; willingness to proactively learn and manage new projects and/or duties
- Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment in making decisions
- Advanced computer skills and expert knowledge of MS Office, PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Google Docs; Ability to master Boston College-specific software programs
- Proven team player who wants to have an impact on students’ lives
- Demonstrate the awareness, knowledge, and skills required to engage and communicate with people from different cultures
Closing StatementBoston College offers a broad and competitive range of benefits depending on your job classification eligibility:
- Tuition remission for Employees
- Tuition remission for Spouses and Children who meet eligibility requirements
- Generous Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
- Low-Cost Life Insurance
- Eligibility for both University-Funded 401k and Employer-Sponsored 403b Retirement Plans
- Paid Holidays Annually
- Generous Sick and Vacation Pay
- Additional benefits can be found on https://www.bc.edu/employeehandbook
Boston College conducts pre-employment background checks as part of the hiring process.
Boston College is an equal opportunity employer. In concert with our Jesuit, Catholic mission, Boston College is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications for women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans. To learn more about how BC supports diversity and inclusion throughout the university please visit the Office for Institutional Diversity at https://www.bc.edu/diversity.
Boston College's Notice of Nondiscrimination can be viewed at https://www.bc.edu/nondiscrimination.
