Associate Director, Employer Relations and Development

Department

ESA Employer Relations and Development

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 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

The Employer Relations and Development (ERD) team establishes and enhances employer relationships across industries and in multiple geographic locations to connect talented UChicago students with leading organizations for job outcomes and experiential education opportunities. Employer Relations and Development staff members focus on a sub-set of industries of interest to UChicago student and undergraduate alumni. The team provides superior customer service to all employer partners recruiting UChicago students, including the management of a robust on-campus recruiting program during peak hiring seasons.

The Associate Director will liaise closely with the Career Advancement’s suite of pre-professional programs to promote opportunities, inform on recruiting trends, and offer insight into employer demand for skills and talent. The Associate Director will also serve as a liaison to campus partners and represent the office in relevant meetings, such as Booth School of Business, Department of Economics, Harris School of Public Policy, Social Services Administration, the College, UChicagoGRAD, etc.. This role will foster positive relationships with internal stakeholders (admissions, corporate relations, and alumni relations and development) and organization contacts while promoting employer development initiatives.

The Associate Director will work within a collaborative, fast-paced, high-performing, dynamic Employer Relations team to foster the UChicago brand with employers. The Associate Director will utilize best practices, industry trend knowledge and work across teams to gain insight into student demand for internships and full-time opportunities within business fields. This role will support on-campus recruitment and provide guidance in cultivating employer partnerships across industries both functionally and geographically, contributing to the growth of full-time outcomes and the University’s premiere Jeff Metcalf Internship Program that places students into 4,500+ paid substantive opportunities in the academic year. The Associate Director will actively source leads and cultivate employer partnerships. This includes active engagement with alumni, parents, and friends of the University to promote new professional opportunities in target regions and industries.

Another key initiative of this role includes ensuring that first-year career cohorts and Odyssey Scholars have access to substantive internship opportunities the summer after their first year. The Associate Director will be instrumental in meeting this goal by developing new relationships with employers interested in hiring first-year students, and collaborating with student advisers in the creative promotion of opportunities in business.

Responsibilities

• Works independently to develop recruiting strategies in partnership with employers in business fields and maintains UChicago’s competitive advantage among a wide range of employment partners through high-touch relationship management.
• Oversees employer partnerships within business and administers recruiting programs including, but not limited to, the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program..
• Supports employer portfolio contacts with information sessions and coffee chats, company presentations, on-campus interviews, and other campus engagement activities.
• Collaborates closely with Careers in Business team to support career opportunities and experiential education development for students that includes treks, job shadowing, and industry programming provided by pre-professional programs that enhance employer branding and affinity on campus.
• Serves as adviser to employers on developing a successful recruitment strategy to help drive student outcomes.
• Assists with annual Employer Advisory Council meetings.
• Uses best practices and knowledge of industry to provide valuable insight into employer strategies and engagement to foster corporate sponsorship opportunities.
• Obtains job descriptions from employers and posts them in Handshake.
• Creates and revises employer-facing marketing materials such as website and stand-alone brochures and outcomes reports.
• Guides and contributes to the development of new relationships with employers across industries based on student demand, market trends, and priority regions due to student enrollment.
• Collaborates with Alumni Relations and Development to cultivate new contacts and engage further with alumni, parents, and friends of the University.
• Represents Career Advancement in strategic development meetings and supports larger efforts of parent and alumni engagement.
• Develops and implements strategic employer development plan for industry areas of growth, including outreach to new employers and employer visits as appropriate.
• Sets employer strategy of retention and acquisition in conjunction with staff, using data, feedback, analysis and relationship management.
• Supports the execution of Career Advancement’s flagship programs, industry-specific events, career fairs, and first-year career cohort programs, such as the Odyssey Scholars Program.
• Collaborates with teams to create and administer targeted programming to make undergraduate students successful in their job/internship searches. This includes sessions on career exploration, recruiting tools, interviewing techniques, and college/work transition.
• Supports on-campus and virtual programs for undergraduate students, assists with the planning and execution in the entirety of the event management cycle, such as event location, catering, AV/tech needs, transportation arrangements, speaker and leadership briefings, event memos, etc. Includes flagship events including career fairs, Night on Wall Street, Consulting Symposium, and Leadership Conference.
• Tracks student engagement data, develops targeted outreach to students, ensures event attendance and positive student and employer experience.
• Utilizes the undergraduate job platform, Handshake, builds reports on student and employer engagement, and implements them to capture cross-industry activities and identify trends.
• Manages budgets, logistics, and all administrative aspects involved in the event planning process.
• Creates and deploys weekly career newsletters within assigned portfolio.
• Advises an assigned cohort of students to provide support on career exploration and help attain meaningful internships, full-time roles, and graduate school opportunities.
• Uses industry and company knowledge to provide targeted, outcomes-driven guidance and support.
• Communicates frequently with students to share opportunities and help them stay on track for success.
• Conducts mock interviews, reviews resumes and cover letters, and coordinates other interview related programming in both individual and group settings.
• Identifies and sources job and internship opportunities that match student career interests.
• Supports experiential education opportunities for students including treks, job shadowing, and industry programming.
• Plays an active role in obtaining hiring data from employers.
• Responsible for weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reporting on employer relations and development efforts within assigned portfolios, as well as overall industry trends, employer engagement, and the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program.
• Proactively tracks placement data, including specific career cohort outcomes, as well as employer and stakeholder engagement.
• Helps direct office efforts to track and report contacts with prospective employers and business contacts via Salesforce.
• 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:

Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Master’s degree.

Experience:

• Background in building partnerships is highly relevant.
• Interest in career services, employer relations, and/or recruiting is strongly preferred.

Technical Skills or Knowledge:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook PowerPoint, Word).
• Proficiency with database and online systems is highly desirable, such as Salesforce, Handshake, Wufoo, MailChimp, etc.

Preferred Competencies

• Develop strong relationships with a wide variety of constituents, including employers and external partners like alumni and parents, students, faculty, staff, and senior leadership.
• Thrive in a dynamic environment and respond to change positively.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. Know when to make decisions without complete information, and when to ask questions and when to engage other stakeholders.
• Interpersonal skills; strong customer service focus and a high level of professionalism when interacting with internal and external clients.
• Comfortable proactively reaching out to contacts, calling company representatives and prospect employers, and establishing a relationship on behalf of UChicago.
• Self-starter with outcomes-driven and action-oriented attitude.
• Verbal and written communication.
• Problem-solving and reasoning.
• Critical thinking and decision-making skills.
• Exemplary organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Handle sensitive matters with tact and discretion and maintain confidentiality.
• Prioritize work and meet deadlines.
• Maintain composure and positive attitude during periods of high-volume, fast-pace work.
• Competent with technology and its application, have strong administrative and operational skills.

Working Conditions

• Work some evenings and weekends.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)
• References Contact Information (3)(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

$76,500.00 – $99,000.00

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 the Benefits 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.

The University of Chicago’s Annual Security & Fire Safety Report (Report) provides information about University offices and programs that provide safety support, crime and fire statistics, emergency response and communications plans, and other policies and information. The Report can be accessed online at: http://securityreport.uchicago.edu. Paper copies of the Report are available, upon request, from the University of Chicago Police Department, 850 E. 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

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