Director Of Career Services 

(Female, Age 33) from Albany, NY

This is a REAL-LIFE job profile written by a Female aged 33 who works as a Director Of Career Services in Albany, NY. We have removed all names and personal information in order to protect privacy. This professional kindly spent a bit of their time to complete one of our job profile surveys so that prospective job seekers like you could read their insights. Please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors in this profile.

At a Glance

Current Job

Basic data on your current job

Job Title Director Of Career Services
Salary $39,000
Other Compensation None Set
Hours/Week
Company Size (not answered)
Location Albany, NY
Years Experience 4 years

Career Ratings

Opinions on your CAREER overall (i.e. not just your current job)

Years in Career 0
Education (not answered)
Income Rating 0 / 10
Interest Rating 0 / 10
Work-Life Rating 0 / 10
Fulfilment Rating 0 / 10

Current job Q&A

Describe the type of organization you work for.
The college that I work for is committed to the advancement of health care through its offering of nationally acclaimed undergraduate and graduate education, post-graduate training programs and research in pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences and health sciences.

Describe your job role and responsibilities.
As the Director of Career Services, provide individual career counseling and guidance for students, assist students in identifying and exploring their level of career certainty, and complete event programming, workshops and individualized counseling on resume writing, interviewing skills, self-assessments, strengths inventories, etiquette, and negotiation techniques.

Please list an additional benefits (beyond compensation) that you receive.

Do you feel you are under/over or well/fairly compensated at your current position?
under

Does your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this something you like/dislike about your job? Please explain.
Yes, which I generally enjoy. I love working with students.

Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes

Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes

Describe your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what you like/dislike about working in it.
Office

Please rate each of the following aspects of your current job on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest/best):
Income: 7
Benefits: 4
Hours: 3
Co-Workers: 1
Supervisors: 2
Job Title: 8
Level of Responsibility: 6
The Actual Work: 5

A day in the life of…

Please describe a typical workday for you in your current job:

5am to 6am
6am to 7am
7am to 8am Getting ready for work and leave for the 25 minute commute.
8am to 9am Emails and reviewing my calendar for the day’s activities. Socializing with co-workers for about 15 mintues or so.
9am to 10am Begin seeing students – generally by appointment and/or creating a list of accomplishments for the day/week. Always answering emails.
10am to 11am Meetings with students, committees, staff, employers, etc. Responding to emails. Work on “to do” list when not in meetings. Organize and prioritize responsibilities and assign deadlines for projects. Work on projects and research. Review resumes, CVs, cover letters, etc.
11am to 12pm Review accomplishments for the day. Start a running list for the week. Set appointments. Responding to emails, of course. Continue on project work. Continue meetings with students et al.
12pm to 1pm Lunch – need to take time for myself
1pm to 2pm Continue to meet with students. Review of checklist and prioritized list of projects and items to be completed. Answer emails. Continue research for upcoming meetings. Contnue work on projects.
2pm to 3pm Review of checklists. Deligation of activities that I do not feel I am going to be able to complete within my self-imposed time limit or would appreciate help from my suport staff with. Meeting with students, staff, etc. Preparation for the next day. Answer emails. Research for questions, meetings, proposals and committees.
3pm to 4pm Complete all of the activities and everything on the cheklist for the day. Reprioritize what needs to be completed and when. Add to the list what has come up throughout the day. Complete submissions for review. Return emails. Start a plan for the next day. Prepare for the meetings of the following day. Complete research for meetings within the next week.
4pm to 5pm Review checklist of the day and week. Reprioritize the list and make additions/corrections to actions that need to be taken. Make the decision of whether or not to take work home based upon calendar and schedule. Try to block time in the week to work on projects with hard deadlines.
5pm to 6pm Make it home during rush hour traffic. Feed the cat, change my clothes, figure out dinner, turn on the TV, colapse on the couch.
6pm to 7pm Start work if took any home. Start preparing dinner around 6:45ish. If did not bring work home, check personal email, clean around the house, give the cat attention, open mail, make phone calls, etc.
7pm to 8pm Cooking dinner and eating around 8pm.
8pm to 9pm Dishes and finishing any work that I brought home with me and/or taking some time to watch TV, for real. Get ready for the next day: get coffee prepared to brew, pack a lunch, pick clothes out, pack my briefcase and any additional “stuff” to bring into work the next day.
9pm to 10pm Put all work-realated items away for the night and devote my time and concentration to my “family”. Maybe watch a movie if it is not too late.
10pm to 11pm Go to bed
11pm to 12am Hopefully asleep at this point

Table of Contents

How you got your job

How did you get your current job?
Newspaper for first position (coordinator) and appointed by the Provost to Director

What was the application process?
Submitted cover letter, resume and references (required) electronically to contact person

Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
My first interview was in two shifts and each shift lasted for approximately an hour with a total of 14 participants. Behavioral and technical questions were asked. My second interview was a presentation that was given to 16 people that completed a written assessment and asked probing questions about the material presented.

If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
Give us an example of a time when… Describe your leadership style. How would you describe: yourself, your philosophy of… Why are you interested in this position? What skills do you feel you can bring to this position? Do you have experience with statistics? How do you handle criticism? Explain to us your comfort levels with technical applications. How do you feel your degrees match with this position? What are your career goals? Provide to the group and example of your creativity. Etc.

Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
Yes and no. It is difficult to find blame in the lack of preparation for either facet of my position on behalf of the college. I believe that the institution did not realize how desperate the students were to have a career professional, so I have been in very high demand. Also, accreditation standards for advising have changed and I do not believe that anyone could foresee my caseload quadrupling in one year. I am doing the best I can to manage the rigorous demands of both positions.

Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
Yes and no. I had a couple hours of training for the Academic Advising piece of my position, mostly reviewing the handbook and catalog along with commonly asked questions, referral sources, etc. There are opportunities to attend professional development trainings for advisement throughout the year. As for the Career Services piece, no. I am the first person in the 127 year history of the college to be in this position so I have had carte balance to develop my position and department. That has been a wonderful challenge and I hope to someday be able to focus 100% on developing a Career Services Department.

Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
Absolutely! I learned counseling skills in my undergraduate education (Psychology major), and budgeting and statistics in my minor (Business Administration). My masters degree taught be everything that I need to know about Career Counseling (MS HR Development) and so much more that I have not had an opportunity to implement at this point, but plan on doing so in the future.

If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
Yes, as I took on the duties of an HR Generalist and that was a good perspective to have.

If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Work in Human Resources as a recruiter.

What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
Very well developed social skills, analytical skills, organizational skills, astute communication skills (written and verbal), negotiation skills, diplomacy, adaptability, technical skills (fundamentals of career counseling and technological applications), problem solving skills, statistical analysis, counseling skills, presentation skills, listening skills, ability to teach according to various learning styles, etc.

Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
I have found and MS in HR Development to be very helpful

What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
I would suggest getting a perspective of a recruiter to better understand the process of hiring employees and what managers are looking for in potential employees.

Long-term career plans

Is your current employment part of your overall career plan? Why or why not?
No, I have decided to pursue a doctorate of education in leadership studies and anticipate starting next fall.

What are your current career goals?
I would like to take what I have learned in a PhD program and work with medical professionals (physicians and pharmacists) to help them develop enhanced leadership and managment skills and styles. I am also interested in starting an international company that focuses on pharmaceutical research and development of products that use natural substances. Additionally I am interseted in teaching at the college level and eventually I would like to gravitate towards becoming a dean of a college, though that is a very long term goal.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your career?

Prior work history

Please list your most recent jobs prior to this current job:

Title Length Salary Description
Prior Job 1 2 years
Prior Job 2 Private 4 Year College 3 years Develop and implement dynamic, educational, social and cultural programs and services to students. Supervise all operations with the Student Center. Advisor to the Commuter Board and the Recreation Association and additional student clubs/organizations as needed. Coordinator of the Leadership Selection process. Advisor to class officers for the planning and execution of all traditional events. Extremely active member of the Orientation Taskforce, Programming, and Relay for Life committees.

Educational background

Please list your educational background:

High School GPA:

GPA School Degree
College (Undergraduate)
or Technical/Vocational
3.2 Russell Sage College Psychology
Graduate or Professional
(Masters or Doctorate)
4 Rochester Institute of Technology Human Resources Development/HRM concentration

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