Associate Director, Graduate Student Career Development

Princeton University

$83K — $96K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Master's Degree
  • 3+ years in career counseling/advising and program development in higher education
  • Expertise in student-centered career advising
  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills
  • Proven ability to foster inclusion and collaboration
  • Experience in program planning and execution
  • Passion for creating innovative programs tailored to students' needs
  • Data analysis skills for informed decision-making

Responsibilities

  • Provide personalized career advising for graduate students through in-person and virtual sessions
  • Facilitate individual and group coaching to help students clarify career values and skills
  • Educate students on employment trends within and outside academia
  • Assist students in developing actionable career plans and follow-up strategies
  • Collaborate with the Employer Engagement team to connect students with job opportunities
  • Develop programs that link alumni with graduate students for networking and learning opportunities
  • Design engaging career education programs on topics such as job searching and interview prep
  • Partner with graduate departments to tailor career education to specific student needs

Benefits

  • Eligible for benefits
  • Work in a collaborative environment
  • Opportunity to develop and implement innovative programs
  • Access to professional development resources
  • Engage with a diverse graduate student population
Full Job Description
Overview

The Associate Director, Graduate Student Career Development position focuses on advising and programming for all aspects of graduate student career planning and development for careers inside and outside academia. Reporting to the Senior Associate Director for Graduate Student Career Development, the Associate Director serves as a key relationship builder with major stakeholders across campus. The person in this role has direct responsibility for creating and implementing engagement and outreach initiatives to capture and respond to evolving graduate student career interests and needs. This position also involves collaborating broadly within the Career Development team.

The Associate Director advises graduate students according to our student-centered career advising philosophy and our office's focus on self-exploration and lifelong career management. In addition to providing one-on-one advising for graduate students, the person in this role designs and facilitates career education and skill-building programs for graduate students and contributes to the development and maintenance of our office career resources. This role will be in-person in the Center for Career Development office.

Responsibilities

Graduate Student Career Advising & Programming
  • Provide personalized career advising for graduate students via one-on-one in-person and virtual (Zoom) advising appointments on career-related concerns inside and outside academia.
  • Meet individually or in groups with graduate students to provide coaching and advising that helps them clarify values, interests, skills, and strengths.
  • Educate graduate students on significant employment trends within and beyond academia.
  • Assist graduate students with developing action plans and follow-up strategies.
  • Collaborate with the Employer Engagement team to develop and implement programs and resources that connect grad students with employers, such as the Undercover Bosses networking program and the Beyond Academia Job Search Series.
  • Collaborate with the Alumni Engagement and Experiential Learning team to create programs and resources that connect alumni with graduate students, such as Grad Treks and the Academic Job Search Bootcamp series.
  • Create and implement a wide range of engaging, informative, and actionable programs on topics ranging from exploring careers to preparing for the academic job search to interviewing and negotiating job offers.
  • Actively collaborate with graduate academic departments and student organizations to identify graduate students' career needs and design and implement career education and skill-building programs tailored to specific graduate student groups or a requested department.

Campus Outreach & Collaborative Relationship Building
  • Serve as a primary liaison to a group of graduate academic departments and student organizations.
  • Develop, maintain, and enhance relationships with graduate faculty and departmental staff, primarily graduate program administrators, directors of graduate studies, job placement officers, and student department representatives.
  • Build and cultivate relationships across campus with graduate student groups and centers on campus serving graduate students.
  • Connect with underserved graduate student populations across campus through outreach initiatives.
  • Help develop a prioritized list of campus outreach targets and implement outreach strategies to ensure that all Princeton graduate students have access to meaningful career exploration and opportunities.

Data and Assessment
  • Use data to assess outreach/program impact and areas for continuous improvement.
  • Participate in assessment projects, such as conducting surveys or hosting focus groups to understand Princeton graduate students' career development experiences.


Qualifications

Required
  • Master's Degree
  • Minimum of three years of professional experience in career counseling/advising and program development in a higher education setting
  • Ability to implement a developmental, goal-oriented, and student-centered approach to advising graduate students
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to deliver effective career presentations, and build internal and external relationships
  • A proven record of building and sustaining a culture of inclusion, belonging, collaboration, and mutual respect
  • Proven track record and experience in cultivating connections, program planning and execution, and group facilitation and engagement with a strategic mindset to create value and impact
  • Demonstrated passion or/and experience in creating innovative programming reflecting the changing needs of graduate students and the world of work inside and outside academia
  • Experience gathering and analyzing data to inform decisions
  • Ability to solve problems and make decisions in a timely and effective manner

Preferred
  • Doctoral Degree
  • Two or more years of experience in graduate student advising
  • Broader familiarity with career assessments (e.g., CliftonStrengths)

Standard Weekly Hours

36.25

Eligible for Overtime

No

Benefits Eligible

Yes

Probationary Period

180 days

Essential Services Personnel (see policy for detail)

No

Physical Capacity Exam Required

No

Valid Driver's License Required

No

Experience Level

Mid-Senior Level

#LI-CN1

Salary Range

$83,000 to $96,000

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