Career Center

The Operations Specialist for Employer & Alumni Engagement plays a key operational support role in helping the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Career Services team connect employers and alumni with undergraduate students in a variety of ways - through recruiting events, career fairs, online platforms, career management courses, communications channels, programs, and more. 

The Operations Specialist: 

Is a connector - helps the team leverage events, programming, and technology to connect employers, alumni and students, providing data and information to help the team infuse employer and alumni voices across all areas of CLA Career Services. 

Is a data and information enthusiast - enjoys managing and maintaining systems and data to help maximize our work and understand our impact with our external partners. 

Is a convener - plans and helps to execute recruiting programs and events which create opportunities for liberal arts students. 

Duties and Job Responsibilities: 

Employer and Alumni Engagement Programming and Relationship Management (30%):

• Manage the Employer and Alumni Engagement team’s general email. Respond to employer and alumni inquiries in ways that facilitate strong engagement with CLA Career Services.
• Serve as the event planning lead for the CLA Internship & Career Fair, an annual event that connects approximately 80 employers and 700 students. 
• Coordinate CLA’s on-campus interviewing program, including managing the recruiting calendar, room reservations, employer and student scheduling, and day-of logistics for interviews and other programming. 
• Provide event planning and operational support for employer and alumni programming including virtual, in-person, and hybrid. 
• Collect data for the Employer and Alumni Engagement team and contribute to office-wide assessment for CLA Career Services. 

Handshake Leadership and Strategy (30%): 

• Serve as the College’s expert and main point of contact for Handshake, the University job and internship posting site that includes significant event management components. 
• Oversee daily operational functions for this critical system and guide the use of Handshake across the College of Liberal Arts. 
• Develop and lead Handshake data collection and reporting and integrate these with other tools, such as Salesforce. 
• Develop training and Handshake education for CLA students, staff and employers.
• Represent CLA in system-wide Handshake Users Group meetings and partner with campus colleagues for best practices around student and employer use of Handshake. 

CLA Career Services Systems Integration (30%) 

• Manage databases and systems used to track engagement with alumni and employers and integrate new technology and efficiencies to improve insights over time.
• Support the transition to Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
• Effectively utilize technology and systems, including but not limited to: Handshake, Canvas, Google Suite including Google Data Studio and Google Sheets, Qualtrics, Tableau, and Salesforce.

Additional Responsibilities, Professional Development, and Service (10%) 

• Contribute to advancing the vision and implementation of all employer and alumni engagement activities, as well as, office-wide initiatives.
• Provide work direction and/or supervision to 1-2 student staff members. 
• Engage in professional development and scholarly activity in the field of student affairs and career development to maintain knowledge of trends and best practices.
• Other duties as assigned and as appropriate to the individual’s background and experience. 

Required Qualifications: 

• BA/BS degree and at least two years of relevant experience such as project management, event planning, systems implementation, or a combination of relevant education and work experience that equals six years.
• Experience managing projects and/or events with strong attention to detail, excellent time management and problem-solving skills. 
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly and succinctly to a diverse range of audiences.
• Experience using and managing technology, systems, and tracking tools (examples: Salesforce, Handshake, other customer relationship management tools and databases, complex tracking spreadsheets, reporting systems, etc). 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Customer service or relationship management experience.
• Experience in a higher education setting or HR or recruiting environment. 
• Supervisory or leadership experience. 
• Experience with Handshake and/or Salesforce.

About University of Minnesota Twin Cities

The University of Minnesota, founded in the belief that all people are enriched by understanding, is dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth; to the sharing of this knowledge through education for a diverse community; and to the application of this knowledge to benefit the people of the state, the nation, and the world.

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