Associate Director, Professional Development

Duties and Responsibilities

• Career Support (50%):
   • Advise and coach students on all aspects of the job search process and placement activities, including resume writing, interviewing skills, networking, and time management. Develop and oversee specialized programming for candidates requiring work sponsorship.
   • Supervise career workshops for students on topics including job search tactics and strategies.
   • Serve as an administrator of the online system for job postings and on-campus recruiting; attend campus wide meetings about the shared system as necessary.
   • Maintain and update training modules for online recruiting platform.
   • Coordinate on-site visits, including on-campus interviews, information sessions and classroom visits and engagements for LER corporate partners. 
  • Support the Senior Associate Dean and serve as a backup in their absence.
   • Partner with career services support staff to ensure that all company needs are met, and logistics are executed smoothly.
   • Meet with corporate recruiters in partnership with the Senior Associate Dean to collect feedback on student interviews. Conduct end-of-day debriefs to ensure LER candidates meet organizational expectations, especially with new employer partners.
   • Identify and cultivate new employer relationships, including potential corporations, non-profit organizations and government entities, to expand on-campus recruiting and job opportunities for students.
   • Share relevant external job and internship and postings with students to broaden access to opportunities.
   • Collect, analyze, and report confidential internship and full-time placement data, identifying year-over-year trends, and developing innovative ways to communicate employer activity and student outcomes annually.
   • Run, analyze and interpret recruitment reports in Handshake to track engagement across campus, and within LER; prepare data for presentations, benchmarking, and strategic decision-making.
   • Serves as main point-of-contact for recruiters, students, and alumni in Handshake. Presents and explains policies and procedures for the Handshake system to 175 student and staff users annually and resolves any problems that may arise with the system.
   • Represent LER Career Services Office at the quarterly campus-wide Handshake user meeting.
   • Represent the Senior Associate Dean at CSC/Steering meetings as needed.
   • Develop professional development content for LER web site and social media in collaboration with the Senior Associate Dean and communications staff.
   • Support the Senior Associate Dean in planning and execution of employer site visits including "TraveLER" long distance trips.
   • Train and serve as the primary contact for the LER Online Career Consultant.

• International Student Support (35%):
   • Recruit, hire, and supervise the International Peer Advisor to develop programming designed to provide enhanced support for international students at LER; provide coaching on student interactions, assist with problem solving, oversee the creation of the IPA newsletter, and supervise related programming and events.
   • Serve as the LER Advisor for Curricular Practical Training (CPT) by reviewing and approving initial CPT requests to ISSS and ensuring that students are enrolled in the LER internship course following ISSS approval and their updated I-20.
   • Serve as the primary point of contact for University of Illinois Shanghai Office, sharing information about student job candidates and master’s programs with employers and prospective students.
   • Serve as primary point of contact for LER's international student body, including coordinating and developing workshops and webinars focused on the international academic and job search experience, job search strategies, and employment pathways. Facilitate connections with home-country employers, particularly in China, and engage both new and existing partners for international placements.
   • Engage international alumni and organize networking events when traveling overseas.
   • Develop, build and maintain relationships with new and existing partners to plan and execute meetings and site visits with international employers when overseas.
   • Serve as a campus leader in international career service efforts, collaborating with campus partners to strengthen centralized support for international employers.
   • Coordinate with Assistant Director for Student Recruitment and Strategic Outreach and international student volunteers to plan and carry out overseas student recruitment efforts, including outreach through social media platforms where feasible.

• Student Support (10%):
   • Support student services to the LER master's program, including designing/managing appropriate workshops and developing electronic learning materials to provide key information for student success in the program.
   • Assist Assistant Dean for Student Affairs with onboarding new graduate students by delivering presentations on professional development, including the use of Handshake.
   • Serve as an advisor to student organizations with LER for activities and RSO funding/policies; provide overall leadership and supervision of coordinated LER community service efforts and initiatives.
   • Use knowledge from student coaching and development to create the new student buddy list each semester.
   • Ensure excellence in LER programs by conducting online and in-person research with companies to track new and emerging developments in employment relations; suggest workshops and curriculum updates in response to market changes.

• Other Duties (5%):
   • Create engaging and timely programming for academic professionals to advance their knowledge of career development and support their professional growth.
   • Perform additional responsibilities as assigned, in alignment with evolving program needs and priorities.